FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Female soldiers this week are moving into new jobs in once all-male units as the Army breaks down formal barriers in recognition of what has already happened in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The policy change announced earlier this year is being tested at nine brigades, including one at Fort Campbell, before going Army-wide. It opens about 14,000 jobs to female soldiers by loosening restrictions meant to keep them away from the battlefield. Experience on the ground in the past decade showed women were fighting and dying alongside male soldiers anyway.

Col. Val Keaveny Jr., commander of the 4th Brigade Combat Team that is among units piloting the change, said that for the last decade it has been common to have women temporarily attached to the combat units and serve alongside them.

Under the new policy, female officers and noncommissioned officers will be assigned to combat units below the brigade level.

The new jobs within combat battalions are in personnel, intelligence, logistics, signal corps, medical and chaplaincy.

More than 250,000 jobs will still remain closed to women.

 


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