SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The Trump administration nominee for secretary of defense has called roles for women in combat a mistake. Advocates worry that the changing political climate could roll back decades of work to try to make the services more inclusive. Steve Walsh with WHRO in Norfolk has the story.
STEVE WALSH, BYLINE: In 2012, Rebekah Edmonson was one of the first women to deploy with Army Special Forces in Afghanistan. She's been listening to comments from Trump's nominee for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, who has been quoted as saying that women should not be in direct combat roles.
REBEKAH EDMONSON: You take that personally. You know, we don't want to be looked at differently. We want to be treated with the same amount of respect that any man receives for their service.
WALSH: Edmondson deployed four times with the 75th Ranger Regiment between 2012 and 2016. At the time, it was an experiment. Special Forces were having difficulty gathering information from women in the Afghan tribalist society until they added a select number of women to the teams.
EDMONSON: When I went in, I had to carry the same equipment, keep up with the guys, just take a knee, you know, when getting shot at the same time.
WALSH: She left the army in 2017. By then, the first two women had graduated from Ranger School. More than 150 women have since completed the grueling two-month endurance test to earn their Ranger tab. Edmondson says she's disheartened that their value is still being questioned.
EDMONSON: We've lost colleagues, female colleagues. To that effect, it's kind of insulting to say, you know, what do you mean is it worth it?
WALSH: Opening up all ground combat roles to women in 2013 came at a time when the military was already grappling with the country's changing demographics. In 2011, the Army was 61% white, but by 2022, it was 53% white. About 18% are women. By 2027, the majority of recruitment-age adults is expected to be people of color. Leaders have no choice but to adapt to the constant churn of troops entering the service, says Kyleanne Hunter, a senior political scientist with RAND.
KYLEANNE HUNTER: DOD spans four generations in their workforce. We have, you know, young Gen Z up through boomers that are there, right? There needs to be a way to really understand how does everybody work together.
WALSH: The Pentagon is slowly redesigning equipment to adapt to women's bodies. Built at Newport News in Virginia, the USS New Jersey recently became the first submarine designed to accommodate women. But standards haven't been lowered, Hunter says.
HUNTER: The removal of the women in ground combat exclusion actually forced all of the different occupational specialties that had previously been closed to develop occupational-relevant, completely gender-neutral standards.
WALSH: The Department of Defense created a travel-and-leave policy in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, to make it easier for women to travel to states with greater access to abortion. There is a concern that policy will be rolled back, along with other initiatives aimed at lowering sexual assault, says Sharon Messina, who is in the Air Force Reserve and works with these issues.
SHARON MESSINA: The greatest threat to our adversaries will be a force with comprehensive health care, with our families cared for, where members are not assaulted at work and where we're free of these internal struggles.
WALSH: Some changes can be accomplished by a shift in policy. An executive order in the Biden administration allowed transgender troops to serve openly, which overturned a Trump administration policy which barred them from serving. There have already been efforts to strike diversity, equity and inclusion programs from the defense budget.
For NPR News, I'm Steve Walsh. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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