From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Women in Combat Description: Audio Interview by GAO staff with Brenda Farrell, Director, Defense Capabilities and Management Related GAO Work: GAO-15-589: Military Personnel: DOD is Expanding Combat Service Opportunities for Women, but Should Monitor Long-Term Integration Progress Released: July 2015 [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It's July 2015. More than 300,000 women have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan since September 2001. Two years ago, the Department of Defense rescinded previous bans on women in direct combat roles and began studying how to implement this change throughout the armed services. A team led by Brenda Farrell, a director in GAO's Defense Capabilities and Management team, recently reviewed the military services’ progress in opening closed positions to women. GAO's Jacques Arsenault sat down with Brenda to talk about what they found. [ Jacques Arsenault: ] Can you talk a little bit about the evolution of DOD's position on women in military service, and now in combat roles? [ Brenda Farrell: ] Certainly. The role of women in the military has been evolving since the passage of an act in 1948--which afforded women the opportunity to serve in the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marine Corps--up until January 2013, when the Secretary of Defense along with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff directed the services to open positions and units to women that had previously been closed. Now, between those two landmark periods, a lot happened in terms of clarifying the restrictions or lifting the restrictions. For example, in the early 1990s, Congress omitted provisions that prohibited women from flying combat aircraft. In the following year, they lifted provisions that limited women from serving on ships that were conducting combat missions. And in 1994, DOD prohibited women from serving in most direct combat positions. [ Jacques Arsenault: ] So then what roles are still left to be opened? [ Brenda Farrell: ] It's that last category. Those direct ground combat positions. And you're probably going to ask, what are those? Think of Navy Seals. Think about Special Forces. Think about the Marine Corps infantrymen. They are individuals that are in the forward position of the battlefield. They're usually directly engaged in combat with the enemy. They go in first. They close the operation at the end. Very high probability of direct combat with the enemy. [ Jacques Arsenault: ] So then what did you find in this report about the progress being made? [ Brenda Farrell: ] We found that DOD has a deliberate process in place. Many of the positions are not going to be decided upon until this fall. They've actually postponed the decisions about these positions, to open them or not. But if we took a snapshot, what's still left, and if you look at the percentages of positions still closed to women, it may not seem significant because it's single digits. You know, four percent for this service, three percent for that service. But if you look at the numbers of positions still closed, I think you get a better understanding of the work that's involved. For the Army, there's over 175,000 positions that they have to make a determination whether or not to open them up. For the Air Force and the Navy, it's around 4,000, give or take. For the Marine Corps, and I mentioned the Marine Corps infantrymen, so you have a lot of ground combat related positions, it's around 38,000 positions that are still closed that they're trying to make that decision whether or not to open it up. [ Jacques Arsenault: ] And so, what are some of the challenges that the services face in making that determination? [ Brenda Farrell: ] There are a host of challenges from, are there issues related to women's health and how they should be cared for, especially on the battlefield in these ground combat positions? To how well does the equipment, the uniforms, fit? The last thing you want is ill-fitting equipment that can limit someone's productivity and them carrying out their mission. To what's the propinquity [phonetic] for women to serve? Do they even want to serve in these types of positions? And officials did voice to us their concern about getting large numbers of females into these positions, and at the same time, acknowledge that this is an asset that could increase the pool of people to fill these positions. Americans are not all qualified to join the military. There have been studies where three out of ten men and women are actually qualified in terms of their physique, you know, the physical capability and the aptitude to join the military. So this actually increases the pool, to make sure that you get the right person into that position. [ Jacques Arsenault: ] And so finally, what would you say is the bottom line of this report? [ Brenda Farrell: ] The bottom line is there is a deliberate process, as I've noted, to make the determination. Many decisions still have to be made, but importantly, DOD does not have a process in place for what happens after January 2016. How are they going to track and monitor the integration of women into the military? And that's the essence of our recommendation. [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] To learn more, visit GAO.gov and be sure to tune in to the next episode of GAO's Watchdog Report for more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office.