They lost limbs in battle, led security convoys and survived several combat tours.
Now, some female veterans and service members are railing against remarks Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, has made about women’s ability to fight on the front lines.
“I don’t even know how to express the disgust,” said a current U.S. Army colonel, who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.
In a podcast released last week, Hegseth, a former Fox News host, said the military “should not have women in combat roles” and that “men in those positions are more capable.”
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“It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated,” Hegseth said on “The Shawn Ryan Show.”
He doubled down on another podcast in June, saying women are “life-givers, not life-takers.”
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“They could be medics or helicopter pilots or whatever,” Hegseth said on “The Ben Shapiro Show.” “But they create all sorts of variables and complications that have nothing to do with being anti-women and everything to do with having the most effective military.”
During more than 20 years of service and three deployments, the Army colonel who spoke with anonymity said her gender would not stop her from taking a life if she had to.
“I’m trained the same way. I take the same oath. I execute the same orders that are given to me as my male counterparts,” she said.
The combat arms officer said it would be “shameful” as well as harmful to recruitment and retention efforts if the U.S. changed its policy.
“We already have enough issues,” she said, pointing to sexual harassment and assault as major examples. “I could see how it could hurt a lot of potential on who serves and who stays serving, if policies like that change. It would be like taking back our ability to vote.”
The Pentagon first opened all combat roles to women in 2016 to reflect the changing attitudes of gender-based barriers within the military.
“Our force of the future must continue to benefit from the best America has to offer,” then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter said. “This includes women.”
The historic policy shift opened up some of the 220,000 roles that were only available to men, including some special operations units and infantry positions.
It allowed women who qualify and meet standards to drive tanks, give orders, lead infantry soldiers into combat and serve as Army Rangers, Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps infantry and Air Force parajumpers.
It’s unclear what changes Hegseth would make. He pointedly told Shapiro that female soldiers “shouldn’t be in my infantry battalion.”
Today, women make up more than 17% of the military’s active duty force, according to the Defense Department. In 2022, while the number of service members dropped 2.7% over the previous year, the percentage of women in the military inched upward, agency data shows.
Hundreds have proven their competence and heroism during the nation’s longest war, said Lory Manning, who works with the nonprofit Service Women’s Action Network.
“They did it for 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Manning, a retired Navy captain who served for more than 25 years. “We know they can do it.”
More than 300,000 women served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Manning said. At least 179 of them died and more than 1,000 were wounded during various operations, according to federal data on casualties.
More than 9,000 women received Army Combat Action Badges for “actively engaging or being engaged by the enemy,” according to a 2015 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Two were given a Silver Star, the third-highest military combat decoration, for “gallantry in action,” the report said.
Manning said another 383 women were awarded a Purple Heart — the nation’s oldest military award, which recognizes sacrifice and heroism.
Iraq War veteran Allison Jaslow, who leads the nonprofit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said women have not only been in combat for some time, but “many are tougher than many of their male counterparts.”
In Iraq, Jaslow led a convoy security element that regularly came under small arms fire. The convoys, she said, also got hit by roadside bombs. But she pointed to the strength of the women who completed the Army’s Ranger School, one of the toughest combat training courses in the world.
“Those women deserve a secretary of defense who is aware of that reality,” Jaslow said.
In a statement Tuesday announcing his selection, Trump described Hegseth as “tough, smart and a true believer in America First.”
Days later, it emerged that Hegseth was investigated in 2017 over “an alleged sexual assault” at a California hotel that was hosting a gathering of Republican women, though he was not charged with a crime, police said Friday.
In a statement, Trump communications director Steven Cheung said Hegseth has “vigorously denied any and all accusations” and that Trump is “nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his Administration.”
Trump’s transition team did not immediately comment on the backlash from the female veterans and service members.
Hegseth, 44, is a former Army National Guard infantry officer, who served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He would become sixth in line to the presidency should he be confirmed to join Trump’s second Cabinet.
In a statement, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a Purple Heart recipient, said the pick was “dangerous, plain and simple.”
Duckworth, a former Army National Guard member, was one of the first women in the Army to fly combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom. She lost both of her legs and partial use of her right arm in 2004 after a rocket-propelled grenade struck her helicopter.
“Where do you think I lost my legs? In a bar fight? I’m pretty sure I was in combat when that happened,” she told CNN. “It just shows how out of touch he is with the nature of modern warfare if he thinks that we can keep women behind some sort of imaginary line, which is not the way warfare is today.”
Retired Army Lt. Col. Raquel Durden, a former Army paratrooper, condemned a blanket ban on women having combat jobs and said the military should instead have and enforce a high standard for any man and woman in those roles.
“To cast this wide net and say women shouldn’t serve in combat — well, guess what? We’re already there,” she said.
Corky Siemaszko contributed.
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