Operation Petticoat - for real

[Osmium Steele]

Please let this be a hoax.

The White House announced today that First Lady Michelle Obama will sponsor the USS Illinois, the first all female submarine force. The newest submarine "is expected to join the fleet in late 2015," according to the White House.

I'm not averse to women serving on submarines. If they can do the job, and everyone around them can be adults, more power to them. I'm secretly hoping my youngest will follow in her daddy's footsteps, in fact.
But THIS is a bad idea, which I doubt will survive the Obama administration.

At this point, no US submarine is off-limits to female officers once they complete the requisite training, so no argument can be made for an all female crew based on exclusion.

There is a gender bias issue which will be brought to the Pentagon's attention.

Most importantly, there is no submarine qualified female who can currently meet submarine command criteria. Sub skippers usually serve from 4 to 6 tours on various boats with a few shore tours thrown in and command school previous to assuming an XO berth.

Once an acceptional female has worked her way up the ranks the right way, fine. Just do not cut corners in the name of political correctness.
In a very real sense, people could be killed.