tammy duckworth will make history this spring by becoming the first u.s. senator to give birth while in office. that is true. indeed the senator s daughter, abigail, will be getting either a little sister or brother in just a few months. and in terms of senate history, it will be a first, but where this particular senator is concerned, she made history a long time ago. she was born in thailand to an american family that traces its military service back to the revolutionary war. timmy duckworth joined rotc while in graduate school. she went to flight school and became a blackhawk helicopter pilot because it was one of the few combat jobs open to women. she was studying toward a ph.d when her illinois national guard unit was called up and she went to war in iraq. she made history, not by choice, when her blackhawk was hit in
birth while in office. that is true. indeed, the senator s daughter abigail will be getting either a little sister or brother in a few months. in terms of senate history, it will be a first. but where this particular senator is concerned, she made history a long time ago. she was born in thailand to an american family that traces its military service back to the revolutionary war. tammy duckworth joined rotc while in graduate school, went to flight school and became a black hawk helicopter pilot because it was one of the few combat jobs open to women. she was studying toward a p.h.d. when her illinois national guard unit was called up and shy went off to war in iraq. she made history and not by choice. on november 12th of 2004, when her black hawk was hit, she lost both legs. her right arm had to be rebuilt and she thus became the first female double amputee of the
the commandante requested exemptions to keep women out of some specific combat jobs. we now know those request for women has been denied. one standard, all services, all jobs. all services will now open all jobs to all service members depending on merit alone and not gender. that includes special operations, that includes artille artillery, infantry, armor and all other frontline combat positions. the services have a very short time frame. they have until january 1 which is the end of this month, right? january 1 to submit their plans of how they are going to do this in terms of opening all jobs to where i am. they have to have these changes implemented, the start of implementation has to be april 1. so this is going to happen fast now. this has been debated for years. this has been debated now for decades. but as of today, it s done, decision made and as of april 1 it s going to be implemented. now next question the draft.
had not happened, or frankly if it had just been better explained by now, if we had fewer unanswered really important big questions about it, if either of those things were true, the ore major news story that the country would be riveted by right now is the historic decision made by the pentagon, the decision that all combat jobs in the united states military will now be open to women. the armed forces have been studying that prospect for three years now. it became a very high-profile prospect when women graduated from army ranger school for the first time in history earlier this year. a lot of people said that could physically never happen. it happened. but even with that, nobody had been sure if all combat jobs would be open to women or just some. now we know as of today it s all of them. the chiefs of the army, the navy, the air fort and the special operations command had all agreed already that all of their combat jobs could be open to women. there was a hold-up, though. the marine
story that the country would be riveted by right now is the historic decision made by the pentagon, the decision that all combat jobs in the united states military will now be open to women. the armed forces have been studying that prospect for three years now. it became a very high-profile prospect when women graduated from army ranger school for the first time in history earlier this year. a lot of people said that could physically never happen. it happened. but even with that, nobody had been sure if all combat jobs would be open to women or just some. now we know as of today it s all of them. the chiefs of the army, the navy, the air fort and the special operations command had all agreed already that all of their combat jobs could be open to women. there was a hold-up, though. the marine corps did not agree. the commandante requested exemptions to keep women out of some specific combat jobs. we now know those request for women has been denied.