Roger That: Federal government pondering whether to make women eligible for the draft

The government is deliberating whether to propose Selective Service changes that would make women eligible for the military draft, the White House announced a day after the Pentagon said it would no longer bar women from combat jobs, according to Military Times.

The Defense Department has prepared an analysis of how the Pentagon change could affect the U.S. Military Selective Service Act, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Naval Academy is preparing to open its screening process for Navy SEAL training next year to women who are juniors at the academy, according to a report from ABC News.

Vice Adm. Walter “Ted” Carter told the academy's Board of Visitors at its quarterly meeting that the school is waiting for specific guidance from the Navy before definitely opening next spring's screening. He noted it could take longer before female midshipmen will take part in the rigorous 24-hour marathon screening process.

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Military.com is reporting that U.S. Army dog tags will no longer include soldiers’ Social Security numbers, ending a more than 40-year identification system.

The tags will instead display the 10-digit Defense Department identification number currently included on Pentagon ID cards, and will be issued to solders on an as-needed basis, with those deploying getting priority, service officials said.

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Opening infantry jobs to female Marines could cost the Marine Corps nearly $2 million per year in additional recruiting and retention expenditures, according to a new study published by the Rand Corp.

The study, commissioned by Marine Corps Combat Development Command, examines all the implications of opening all-male Marine combat jobs to women. Like the other services, the Corps is now preparing to do just that in accordance with a mandate from Defense Secretary Ashton Carter that takes effect at the start of next year.

The 215-page report examined the practices of foreign militaries; the experiences of women in male-dominated fields like law enforcement and firefighting; the history of gender integration within the U.S. military; and a variety of literature on the topic.

The Marines could be successful at integration, the report finds, as long as the service manages expectations, takes appropriate proactive steps, and monitors the effectiveness of its approach. But the transition will involve one-time and recurring costs.

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Here’s a story about an inspiring man whose life reminds us of the true meaning of the word “hero.”

Tibor Rubin, a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor who joined the U.S. Army out of gratitude for his liberation from the Nazis, then earned the Medal of Honor for heroism in the Korean War, died of natural causes Saturday in Garden Grove, California. He was 86.

As a boy, Rubin survived the murder of his family in Auschwitz and endured 14 months in the Mauthausen concentration camp until it was liberated by U.S. forces in May 1945. He went to a camp for displaced persons, then to the United States, according to the Los Angeles Times.

By then, Rubin had “promised myself if the Lord helped me go to America, I’d join the Army,” he told The Times in 2006. He tried twice to join the Army. He twice flunked entry tests because of his poor English.

He finally succeeded in enlisting in 1948 and was sent to Korea as a rifleman with Company I, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. In interviews, Rubin described difficulties with a sergeant who used slurs and sent him on dangerous missions

In July 1950, he was ordered to stay behind on a hill to keep open the Taegu-Pusan Road link as his company withdrew, according to his citation. North Korean regulars attacked at dawn. Rubin repelled them alone. “I didn't have too much time to get scared, so I went crazy,” he later said.

Wounded that November, Rubin was captured and sent to a Chinese-run prison camp along the Yalu River on the border of North Korea and Manchuria. Rubin is credited with saving the lives of as many as 40 of his fellow POWs in the camp, which he later described as “a cakewalk” compared with Mauthausen.

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 10:43 AM with the headline "Roger That: Federal government pondering whether to make women eligible for the draft."