Academy Women to Become First Female Submariners: "Female sailors will begin serving on submarines by the end of 2011, with Naval Academy graduates leading the way, Navy leaders told a Senate committee Feb. 25.
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Navy is in a good position to move forward with integrating women onto submarines.
'We think we learned a lot about integrating women in the services years ago, and those lessons are relevant today,' Mabus said. Those lessons, he said, include having a 'critical mass' of female candidates, having senior women to serve as mentors and having submarines that don't require modifications: the SSBN ballistic missile and SSGN guided-missile subs."
