News Aggregation

Shortly after she graduated from Princeton University, Mikayla Blaska was selected by a unit commander to attend Ranger School, one of the toughest training courses in the Army. For two months, she endured sleep deprivation, extreme calorie restriction and high-intensity patrolling while carrying over 100 pounds in both mountainous and swamp terrains. As she led an exercise in her final phase of the course, Blaska noticed a man on her team was refusing to listen to her directives. When she confronted him, he responded that he could not respect a woman. He saw her only as a sexual object, he said.  “I think that might be the worst thing that was said to me through the course of my career,” Blaska said. “And this is somebody who I’m sharing a foxhole with, someone I’m sleeping next to at night.”  Blaska, now 28, knew she shouldn’t angrily tell him off. So she pointed to why his lack of respect would hurt the other men they were with.  “I told him that I respected his honesty and that whether he liked it or not, I was going to be there with him,” Blaska said. “And at the end of the day, if he wants to screw me over, that’s fine, but it was about our other team members. I think that argument persuaded him to finally start listening.” By the end of the 61-day training course, he admitted he was impressed that she could carry so much “as a woman” and even ranked her the top performer of their team.  The requirements for both Blaska and the man to graduate were exactly the same. He failed. She didn’t. Blaska never saw him again. Mikayla Blaska during Ranger School, one of the Army’s most demanding training programs. She was the 56th woman to complete the course. (Mikayla Blaska) Recently, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called for a six-month review of women in combat, according to a memo that Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel Anthony Tata wrote in December 2025 — first reported by NPR in January. The goal is to assess the “operational effectiveness of ground combat units 10 years after the Department lifted all remaining restrictions on women serving in combat roles.”  Defense Department press secretary Kingsley Wilson responded to requests for more information by saying the ultimate goal is to “ensure the United States maintains the most lethal military.” “Our standards for combat arms positions will be elite, uniform and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man or a woman. Under Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War will not compromise standards to satisfy quotas or an ideological agenda — this is common sense,” Wilson said in a statement. Quotas and different standards are already illegal, and past reviews have actually shown benefits to women being fully integrated into combat roles. But Hegseth continues to imply that the military has valued inclusion over efficacy — even though the requirements for women and men in combat roles are identical.  Hegseth, a former Fox News host who served in the Army National Guard, has made disparaging comments about women. In a podcast interview in 2024, he said, “I’m straight up just saying we shouldn’t have women in combat roles.” In his book, “The War on Warriors,” he argued that women have made the military less effective, less lethal and “fighting more complicated.” And in August 2025, Hegseth reposted a video of an evangelical Christian pastor questioning women’s right to vote. Women currently make up more than 21 percent of the active-duty force and have held combat roles in the military for decades, though it’s been a gradual progression. The last roles were finally opened to women in 2015 after Congress repealed the combat exclusion policy two years prior. In the last decade, more than 5,000 women have served in combat arms, and 174 women have earned Ranger tabs alongside almost 15,000 men with the same standards.  According to an assessment from the Women in the Service Coalition, Army data showed that brigade combat teams with women performed at the same level of training proficiencies as teams without women. In fact, crime trends were higher in teams without women. And several studies have shown that men who serve alongside women are more likely to support a fully gender-integrated military.   Kris Fuhr, the author of the assessment and the first woman to command a ground-based intelligence company in Europe, said the Pentagon’s review is yet another “search for a problem that does not exist.”  “They’re doing this now because it is no secret that Secretary Hegseth has a strong desire to marginalize women in the military,” said Fuhr, who worked for two years at the United States Army Forces Command as an expert on gender integration. “He carries his religious views into his professional duties, and his religious views are that women do not lead and men do not submit to women.” Hegseth served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, but did not complete Ranger School, Airborne School or Air Assault School.  The 19th spoke to four women Army veterans who completed at least one of those elite trainings and were commissioned in an era when qualified women soldiers could serve in any capacity. They talked about their experiences on the front line and their thoughts on the future of the military’s effectiveness under Hegseth’s leadership.  Mikayla Blaska, 28 Graduated from Airborne School and was the 56th woman to complete Ranger School Mikayla Blaska participates in a Ranger School training exercise alongside other soldiers. The standards for graduating were identical for everyone in her class. (Mikayla Blaska) In September 2021, Blaska was deployed to Syria, the only woman in infantry there at the time. As an officer, she led 43 soldiers — all men — and  partner force service members, a linguist and a few other personnel. Over the next nine months, Blaska said she led her platoon on over 120 combat

Shortly after she graduated from Princeton University, Mikayla Blaska was selected by a unit commander to attend Ranger School, one of the toughest training courses in the Army. For two months, she endured sleep deprivation, extreme calorie restriction and high-intensity patrolling while carrying over 100 pounds in both mountainous and swamp terrains. As she led an exercise in her final phase of the course, Blaska noticed a man on her team was refusing to listen to her directives. When she confronted him, he responded that he could not respect a woman. He saw her only as a sexual object, he said.  “I think that might be the worst thing that was said to me through the course of my career,” Blaska said. “And this is somebody who I’m sharing a foxhole with, someone I’m sleeping next to at night.”  Blaska, now 28, knew she shouldn’t angrily tell him off. So she pointed to why his lack of respect would hurt the other men they were with.  “I told him that I respected his honesty and that whether he liked it or not, I was going to be there with him,” Blaska said. “And at the end of the day, if he wants to screw me over, that’s fine, but it was about our other team members. I think that argument persuaded him to finally start listening.” By the end of the 61-day training course, he admitted he was impressed that she could carry so much “as a woman” and even ranked her the top performer of their team.  The requirements for both Blaska and the man to graduate were exactly the same. He failed. She didn’t. Blaska never saw him again. Mikayla Blaska during Ranger School, one of the Army’s most demanding training programs. She was the 56th woman to complete the course. (Mikayla Blaska) Recently, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called for a six-month review of women in combat, according to a memo that Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel Anthony Tata wrote in December 2025 — first reported by NPR in January. The goal is to assess the “operational effectiveness of ground combat units 10 years after the Department lifted all remaining restrictions on women serving in combat roles.”  Defense Department press secretary Kingsley Wilson responded to requests for more information by saying the ultimate goal is to “ensure the United States maintains the most lethal military.” “Our standards for combat arms positions will be elite, uniform and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man or a woman. Under Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War will not compromise standards to satisfy quotas or an ideological agenda — this is common sense,” Wilson said in a statement. Quotas and different standards are already illegal, and past reviews have actually shown benefits to women being fully integrated into combat roles. But Hegseth continues to imply that the military has valued inclusion over efficacy — even though the requirements for women and men in combat roles are identical.  Hegseth, a former Fox News host who served in the Army National Guard, has made disparaging comments about women. In a podcast interview in 2024, he said, “I’m straight up just saying we shouldn’t have women in combat roles.” In his book, “The War on Warriors,” he argued that women have made the military less effective, less lethal and “fighting more complicated.” And in August 2025, Hegseth reposted a video of an evangelical Christian pastor questioning women’s right to vote. Women currently make up more than 21 percent of the active-duty force and have held combat roles in the military for decades, though it’s been a gradual progression. The last roles were finally opened to women in 2015 after Congress repealed the combat exclusion policy two years prior. In the last decade, more than 5,000 women have served in combat arms, and 174 women have earned Ranger tabs alongside almost 15,000 men with the same standards.  According to an assessment from the Women in the Service Coalition, Army data showed that brigade combat teams with women performed at the same level of training proficiencies as teams without women. In fact, crime trends were higher in teams without women. And several studies have shown that men who serve alongside women are more likely to support a fully gender-integrated military.   Kris Fuhr, the author of the assessment and the first woman to command a ground-based intelligence company in Europe, said the Pentagon’s review is yet another “search for a problem that does not exist.”  “They’re doing this now because it is no secret that Secretary Hegseth has a strong desire to marginalize women in the military,” said Fuhr, who worked for two years at the United States Army Forces Command as an expert on gender integration. “He carries his religious views into his professional duties, and his religious views are that women do not lead and men do not submit to women.” Hegseth served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, but did not complete Ranger School, Airborne School or Air Assault School.  The 19th spoke to four women Army veterans who completed at least one of those elite trainings and were commissioned in an era when qualified women soldiers could serve in any capacity. They talked about their experiences on the front line and their thoughts on the future of the military’s effectiveness under Hegseth’s leadership.  Mikayla Blaska, 28 Graduated from Airborne School and was the 56th woman to complete Ranger School Mikayla Blaska participates in a Ranger School training exercise alongside other soldiers. The standards for graduating were identical for everyone in her class. (Mikayla Blaska) In September 2021, Blaska was deployed to Syria, the only woman in infantry there at the time. As an officer, she led 43 soldiers — all men — and  partner force service members, a linguist and a few other personnel. Over the next nine months, Blaska said she led her platoon on over 120 combat

Shortly after she graduated from Princeton University, Mikayla Blaska was selected by a unit commander to attend Ranger School, one of the toughest training courses in the Army. For two months, she endured sleep deprivation, extreme calorie restriction and high-intensity patrolling while carrying over 100 pounds in both mountainous and swamp terrains. As she led an exercise in her final phase of the course, Blaska noticed a man on her team was refusing to listen to her directives. When she confronted him, he responded that he could not respect a woman. He saw her only as a sexual object, he said.  “I think that might be the worst thing that was said to me through the course of my career,” Blaska said. “And this is somebody who I’m sharing a foxhole with, someone I’m sleeping next to at night.”  Blaska, now 28, knew she shouldn’t angrily tell him off. So she pointed to why his lack of respect would hurt the other men they were with.  “I told him that I respected his honesty and that whether he liked it or not, I was going to be there with him,” Blaska said. “And at the end of the day, if he wants to screw me over, that’s fine, but it was about our other team members. I think that argument persuaded him to finally start listening.” By the end of the 61-day training course, he admitted he was impressed that she could carry so much “as a woman” and even ranked her the top performer of their team.  The requirements for both Blaska and the man to graduate were exactly the same. He failed. She didn’t. Blaska never saw him again. Mikayla Blaska during Ranger School, one of the Army’s most demanding training programs. She was the 56th woman to complete the course. (Mikayla Blaska) Recently, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called for a six-month review of women in combat, according to a memo that Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel Anthony Tata wrote in December 2025 — first reported by NPR in January. The goal is to assess the “operational effectiveness of ground combat units 10 years after the Department lifted all remaining restrictions on women serving in combat roles.”  Defense Department press secretary Kingsley Wilson responded to requests for more information by saying the ultimate goal is to “ensure the United States maintains the most lethal military.” “Our standards for combat arms positions will be elite, uniform and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man or a woman. Under Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War will not compromise standards to satisfy quotas or an ideological agenda — this is common sense,” Wilson said in a statement. Quotas and different standards are already illegal, and past reviews have actually shown benefits to women being fully integrated into combat roles. But Hegseth continues to imply that the military has valued inclusion over efficacy — even though the requirements for women and men in combat roles are identical.  Hegseth, a former Fox News host who served in the Army National Guard, has made disparaging comments about women. In a podcast interview in 2024, he said, “I’m straight up just saying we shouldn’t have women in combat roles.” In his book, “The War on Warriors,” he argued that women have made the military less effective, less lethal and “fighting more complicated.” And in August 2025, Hegseth reposted a video of an evangelical Christian pastor questioning women’s right to vote. Women currently make up more than 21 percent of the active-duty force and have held combat roles in the military for decades, though it’s been a gradual progression. The last roles were finally opened to women in 2015 after Congress repealed the combat exclusion policy two years prior. In the last decade, more than 5,000 women have served in combat arms, and 174 women have earned Ranger tabs alongside almost 15,000 men with the same standards.  According to an assessment from the Women in the Service Coalition, Army data showed that brigade combat teams with women performed at the same level of training proficiencies as teams without women. In fact, crime trends were higher in teams without women. And several studies have shown that men who serve alongside women are more likely to support a fully gender-integrated military.   Kris Fuhr, the author of the assessment and the first woman to command a ground-based intelligence company in Europe, said the Pentagon’s review is yet another “search for a problem that does not exist.”  “They’re doing this now because it is no secret that Secretary Hegseth has a strong desire to marginalize women in the military,” said Fuhr, who worked for two years at the United States Army Forces Command as an expert on gender integration. “He carries his religious views into his professional duties, and his religious views are that women do not lead and men do not submit to women.” Hegseth served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, but did not complete Ranger School, Airborne School or Air Assault School.  The 19th spoke to four women Army veterans who completed at least one of those elite trainings and were commissioned in an era when qualified women soldiers could serve in any capacity. They talked about their experiences on the front line and their thoughts on the future of the military’s effectiveness under Hegseth’s leadership.  Mikayla Blaska, 28 Graduated from Airborne School and was the 56th woman to complete Ranger School Mikayla Blaska participates in a Ranger School training exercise alongside other soldiers. The standards for graduating were identical for everyone in her class. (Mikayla Blaska) In September 2021, Blaska was deployed to Syria, the only woman in infantry there at the time. As an officer, she led 43 soldiers — all men — and  partner force service members, a linguist and a few other personnel. Over the next nine months, Blaska said she led her platoon on over 120 combat

Shortly after she graduated from Princeton University, Mikayla Blaska was selected by a unit commander to attend Ranger School, one of the toughest training courses in the Army. For two months, she endured sleep deprivation, extreme calorie restriction and high-intensity patrolling while carrying over 100 pounds in both mountainous and swamp terrains. As she led an exercise in her final phase of the course, Blaska noticed a man on her team was refusing to listen to her directives. When she confronted him, he responded that he could not respect a woman. He saw her only as a sexual object, he said.  “I think that might be the worst thing that was said to me through the course of my career,” Blaska said. “And this is somebody who I’m sharing a foxhole with, someone I’m sleeping next to at night.”  Blaska, now 28, knew she shouldn’t angrily tell him off. So she pointed to why his lack of respect would hurt the other men they were with.  “I told him that I respected his honesty and that whether he liked it or not, I was going to be there with him,” Blaska said. “And at the end of the day, if he wants to screw me over, that’s fine, but it was about our other team members. I think that argument persuaded him to finally start listening.” By the end of the 61-day training course, he admitted he was impressed that she could carry so much “as a woman” and even ranked her the top performer of their team.  The requirements for both Blaska and the man to graduate were exactly the same. He failed. She didn’t. Blaska never saw him again. Mikayla Blaska during Ranger School, one of the Army’s most demanding training programs. She was the 56th woman to complete the course. (Mikayla Blaska) Recently, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called for a six-month review of women in combat, according to a memo that Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel Anthony Tata wrote in December 2025 — first reported by NPR in January. The goal is to assess the “operational effectiveness of ground combat units 10 years after the Department lifted all remaining restrictions on women serving in combat roles.”  Defense Department press secretary Kingsley Wilson responded to requests for more information by saying the ultimate goal is to “ensure the United States maintains the most lethal military.” “Our standards for combat arms positions will be elite, uniform and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man or a woman. Under Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War will not compromise standards to satisfy quotas or an ideological agenda — this is common sense,” Wilson said in a statement. Quotas and different standards are already illegal, and past reviews have actually shown benefits to women being fully integrated into combat roles. But Hegseth continues to imply that the military has valued inclusion over efficacy — even though the requirements for women and men in combat roles are identical.  Hegseth, a former Fox News host who served in the Army National Guard, has made disparaging comments about women. In a podcast interview in 2024, he said, “I’m straight up just saying we shouldn’t have women in combat roles.” In his book, “The War on Warriors,” he argued that women have made the military less effective, less lethal and “fighting more complicated.” And in August 2025, Hegseth reposted a video of an evangelical Christian pastor questioning women’s right to vote. Women currently make up more than 21 percent of the active-duty force and have held combat roles in the military for decades, though it’s been a gradual progression. The last roles were finally opened to women in 2015 after Congress repealed the combat exclusion policy two years prior. In the last decade, more than 5,000 women have served in combat arms, and 174 women have earned Ranger tabs alongside almost 15,000 men with the same standards.  According to an assessment from the Women in the Service Coalition, Army data showed that brigade combat teams with women performed at the same level of training proficiencies as teams without women. In fact, crime trends were higher in teams without women. And several studies have shown that men who serve alongside women are more likely to support a fully gender-integrated military.   Kris Fuhr, the author of the assessment and the first woman to command a ground-based intelligence company in Europe, said the Pentagon’s review is yet another “search for a problem that does not exist.”  “They’re doing this now because it is no secret that Secretary Hegseth has a strong desire to marginalize women in the military,” said Fuhr, who worked for two years at the United States Army Forces Command as an expert on gender integration. “He carries his religious views into his professional duties, and his religious views are that women do not lead and men do not submit to women.” Hegseth served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, but did not complete Ranger School, Airborne School or Air Assault School.  The 19th spoke to four women Army veterans who completed at least one of those elite trainings and were commissioned in an era when qualified women soldiers could serve in any capacity. They talked about their experiences on the front line and their thoughts on the future of the military’s effectiveness under Hegseth’s leadership.  Mikayla Blaska, 28 Graduated from Airborne School and was the 56th woman to complete Ranger School Mikayla Blaska participates in a Ranger School training exercise alongside other soldiers. The standards for graduating were identical for everyone in her class. (Mikayla Blaska) In September 2021, Blaska was deployed to Syria, the only woman in infantry there at the time. As an officer, she led 43 soldiers — all men — and  partner force service members, a linguist and a few other personnel. Over the next nine months, Blaska said she led her platoon on over 120 combat

Shortly after she graduated from Princeton University, Mikayla Blaska was selected by a unit commander to attend Ranger School, one of the toughest training courses in the Army. For two months, she endured sleep deprivation, extreme calorie restriction and high-intensity patrolling while carrying over 100 pounds in both mountainous and swamp terrains. As she led an exercise in her final phase of the course, Blaska noticed a man on her team was refusing to listen to her directives. When she confronted him, he responded that he could not respect a woman. He saw her only as a sexual object, he said.  “I think that might be the worst thing that was said to me through the course of my career,” Blaska said. “And this is somebody who I’m sharing a foxhole with, someone I’m sleeping next to at night.”  Blaska, now 28, knew she shouldn’t angrily tell him off. So she pointed to why his lack of respect would hurt the other men they were with.  “I told him that I respected his honesty and that whether he liked it or not, I was going to be there with him,” Blaska said. “And at the end of the day, if he wants to screw me over, that’s fine, but it was about our other team members. I think that argument persuaded him to finally start listening.” By the end of the 61-day training course, he admitted he was impressed that she could carry so much “as a woman” and even ranked her the top performer of their team.  The requirements for both Blaska and the man to graduate were exactly the same. He failed. She didn’t. Blaska never saw him again. Mikayla Blaska during Ranger School, one of the Army’s most demanding training programs. She was the 56th woman to complete the course. (Mikayla Blaska) Recently, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called for a six-month review of women in combat, according to a memo that Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel Anthony Tata wrote in December 2025 — first reported by NPR in January. The goal is to assess the “operational effectiveness of ground combat units 10 years after the Department lifted all remaining restrictions on women serving in combat roles.”  Defense Department press secretary Kingsley Wilson responded to requests for more information by saying the ultimate goal is to “ensure the United States maintains the most lethal military.” “Our standards for combat arms positions will be elite, uniform and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man or a woman. Under Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War will not compromise standards to satisfy quotas or an ideological agenda — this is common sense,” Wilson said in a statement. Quotas and different standards are already illegal, and past reviews have actually shown benefits to women being fully integrated into combat roles. But Hegseth continues to imply that the military has valued inclusion over efficacy — even though the requirements for women and men in combat roles are identical.  Hegseth, a former Fox News host who served in the Army National Guard, has made disparaging comments about women. In a podcast interview in 2024, he said, “I’m straight up just saying we shouldn’t have women in combat roles.” In his book, “The War on Warriors,” he argued that women have made the military less effective, less lethal and “fighting more complicated.” And in August 2025, Hegseth reposted a video of an evangelical Christian pastor questioning women’s right to vote. Women currently make up more than 21 percent of the active-duty force and have held combat roles in the military for decades, though it’s been a gradual progression. The last roles were finally opened to women in 2015 after Congress repealed the combat exclusion policy two years prior. In the last decade, more than 5,000 women have served in combat arms, and 174 women have earned Ranger tabs alongside almost 15,000 men with the same standards.  According to an assessment from the Women in the Service Coalition, Army data showed that brigade combat teams with women performed at the same level of training proficiencies as teams without women. In fact, crime trends were higher in teams without women. And several studies have shown that men who serve alongside women are more likely to support a fully gender-integrated military.   Kris Fuhr, the author of the assessment and the first woman to command a ground-based intelligence company in Europe, said the Pentagon’s review is yet another “search for a problem that does not exist.”  “They’re doing this now because it is no secret that Secretary Hegseth has a strong desire to marginalize women in the military,” said Fuhr, who worked for two years at the United States Army Forces Command as an expert on gender integration. “He carries his religious views into his professional duties, and his religious views are that women do not lead and men do not submit to women.” Hegseth served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, but did not complete Ranger School, Airborne School or Air Assault School.  The 19th spoke to four women Army veterans who completed at least one of those elite trainings and were commissioned in an era when qualified women soldiers could serve in any capacity. They talked about their experiences on the front line and their thoughts on the future of the military’s effectiveness under Hegseth’s leadership.  Mikayla Blaska, 28 Graduated from Airborne School and was the 56th woman to complete Ranger School Mikayla Blaska participates in a Ranger School training exercise alongside other soldiers. The standards for graduating were identical for everyone in her class. (Mikayla Blaska) In September 2021, Blaska was deployed to Syria, the only woman in infantry there at the time. As an officer, she led 43 soldiers — all men — and  partner force service members, a linguist and a few other personnel. Over the next nine months, Blaska said she led her platoon on over 120 combat

Shortly after she graduated from Princeton University, Mikayla Blaska was selected by a unit commander to attend Ranger School, one of the toughest training courses in the Army. For two months, she endured sleep deprivation, extreme calorie restriction and high-intensity patrolling while carrying over 100 pounds in both mountainous and swamp terrains. As she led an exercise in her final phase of the course, Blaska noticed a man on her team was refusing to listen to her directives. When she confronted him, he responded that he could not respect a woman. He saw her only as a sexual object, he said.  “I think that might be the worst thing that was said to me through the course of my career,” Blaska said. “And this is somebody who I’m sharing a foxhole with, someone I’m sleeping next to at night.”  Blaska, now 28, knew she shouldn’t angrily tell him off. So she pointed to why his lack of respect would hurt the other men they were with.  “I told him that I respected his honesty and that whether he liked it or not, I was going to be there with him,” Blaska said. “And at the end of the day, if he wants to screw me over, that’s fine, but it was about our other team members. I think that argument persuaded him to finally start listening.” By the end of the 61-day training course, he admitted he was impressed that she could carry so much “as a woman” and even ranked her the top performer of their team.  The requirements for both Blaska and the man to graduate were exactly the same. He failed. She didn’t. Blaska never saw him again. Mikayla Blaska during Ranger School, one of the Army’s most demanding training programs. She was the 56th woman to complete the course. (Mikayla Blaska) Recently, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called for a six-month review of women in combat, according to a memo that Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel Anthony Tata wrote in December 2025 — first reported by NPR in January. The goal is to assess the “operational effectiveness of ground combat units 10 years after the Department lifted all remaining restrictions on women serving in combat roles.”  Defense Department press secretary Kingsley Wilson responded to requests for more information by saying the ultimate goal is to “ensure the United States maintains the most lethal military.” “Our standards for combat arms positions will be elite, uniform and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man or a woman. Under Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War will not compromise standards to satisfy quotas or an ideological agenda — this is common sense,” Wilson said in a statement. Quotas and different standards are already illegal, and past reviews have actually shown benefits to women being fully integrated into combat roles. But Hegseth continues to imply that the military has valued inclusion over efficacy — even though the requirements for women and men in combat roles are identical.  Hegseth, a former Fox News host who served in the Army National Guard, has made disparaging comments about women. In a podcast interview in 2024, he said, “I’m straight up just saying we shouldn’t have women in combat roles.” In his book, “The War on Warriors,” he argued that women have made the military less effective, less lethal and “fighting more complicated.” And in August 2025, Hegseth reposted a video of an evangelical Christian pastor questioning women’s right to vote. Women currently make up more than 21 percent of the active-duty force and have held combat roles in the military for decades, though it’s been a gradual progression. The last roles were finally opened to women in 2015 after Congress repealed the combat exclusion policy two years prior. In the last decade, more than 5,000 women have served in combat arms, and 174 women have earned Ranger tabs alongside almost 15,000 men with the same standards.  According to an assessment from the Women in the Service Coalition, Army data showed that brigade combat teams with women performed at the same level of training proficiencies as teams without women. In fact, crime trends were higher in teams without women. And several studies have shown that men who serve alongside women are more likely to support a fully gender-integrated military.   Kris Fuhr, the author of the assessment and the first woman to command a ground-based intelligence company in Europe, said the Pentagon’s review is yet another “search for a problem that does not exist.”  “They’re doing this now because it is no secret that Secretary Hegseth has a strong desire to marginalize women in the military,” said Fuhr, who worked for two years at the United States Army Forces Command as an expert on gender integration. “He carries his religious views into his professional duties, and his religious views are that women do not lead and men do not submit to women.” Hegseth served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, but did not complete Ranger School, Airborne School or Air Assault School.  The 19th spoke to four women Army veterans who completed at least one of those elite trainings and were commissioned in an era when qualified women soldiers could serve in any capacity. They talked about their experiences on the front line and their thoughts on the future of the military’s effectiveness under Hegseth’s leadership.  Mikayla Blaska, 28 Graduated from Airborne School and was the 56th woman to complete Ranger School In September 2021, Blaska was deployed to Syria, the only woman in infantry there at the time. As an officer, she led 43 soldiers — all men — and  partner force service members, a linguist and a few other personnel. Over the next nine months, Blaska said she led her platoon on over 120 combat patrols with zero casualties.  “People think of combat deployments as something from World War I or World War II, which can absolutely still happen and

Shortly after she graduated from Princeton University, Mikayla Blaska was selected by a unit commander to attend Ranger School, one of the toughest training courses in the Army. For two months, she endured sleep deprivation, extreme calorie restriction and high-intensity patrolling while carrying over 100 pounds in both mountainous and swamp terrains. As she led an exercise in her final phase of the course, Blaska noticed a man on her team was refusing to listen to her directives. When she confronted him, he responded that he could not respect a woman. He saw her only as a sexual object, he said.  “I think that might be the worst thing that was said to me through the course of my career,” Blaska said. “And this is somebody who I’m sharing a foxhole with, someone I’m sleeping next to at night.”  Blaska, now 28, knew she shouldn’t angrily tell him off. So she pointed to why his lack of respect would hurt the other men they were with.  “I told him that I respected his honesty and that whether he liked it or not, I was going to be there with him,” Blaska said. “And at the end of the day, if he wants to screw me over, that’s fine, but it was about our other team members. I think that argument persuaded him to finally start listening.” By the end of the 61-day training course, he admitted he was impressed that she could carry so much “as a woman” and even ranked her the top performer of their team.  The requirements for both Blaska and the man to graduate were exactly the same. He failed. She didn’t. Blaska never saw him again. Mikayla Blaska during Ranger School, one of the Army’s most demanding training programs. She was the 56th woman to complete the course. (Mikayla Blaska) Recently, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called for a six-month review of women in combat, according to a memo that Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel Anthony Tata wrote in December 2025 — first reported by NPR in January. The goal is to assess the “operational effectiveness of ground combat units 10 years after the Department lifted all remaining restrictions on women serving in combat roles.”  Defense Department press secretary Kingsley Wilson responded to requests for more information by saying the ultimate goal is to “ensure the United States maintains the most lethal military.” “Our standards for combat arms positions will be elite, uniform and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man or a woman. Under Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War will not compromise standards to satisfy quotas or an ideological agenda — this is common sense,” Wilson said in a statement. Quotas and different standards are already illegal, and past reviews have actually shown benefits to women being fully integrated into combat roles. But Hegseth continues to imply that the military has valued inclusion over efficacy — even though the requirements for women and men in combat roles are identical.  Hegseth, a former Fox News host who served in the Army National Guard, has made disparaging comments about women. In a podcast interview in 2024, he said, “I’m straight up just saying we shouldn’t have women in combat roles.” In his book, “The War on Warriors,” he argued that women have made the military less effective, less lethal and “fighting more complicated.” And in August 2025, Hegseth reposted a video of an evangelical Christian pastor questioning women’s right to vote. Women currently make up more than 21 percent of the active-duty force and have held combat roles in the military for decades, though it’s been a gradual progression. The last roles were finally opened to women in 2015 after Congress repealed the combat exclusion policy two years prior. In the last decade, more than 5,000 women have served in combat arms, and 174 women have earned Ranger tabs alongside almost 15,000 men with the same standards.  According to an assessment from the Women in the Service Coalition, Army data showed that brigade combat teams with women performed at the same level of training proficiencies as teams without women. In fact, crime trends were higher in teams without women. And several studies have shown that men who serve alongside women are more likely to support a fully gender-integrated military.   Kris Fuhr, the author of the assessment and the first woman to command a ground-based intelligence company in Europe, said the Pentagon’s review is yet another “search for a problem that does not exist.”  “They’re doing this now because it is no secret that Secretary Hegseth has a strong desire to marginalize women in the military,” said Fuhr, who worked for two years at the United States Army Forces Command as an expert on gender integration. “He carries his religious views into his professional duties, and his religious views are that women do not lead and men do not submit to women.” Hegseth served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, but did not complete Ranger School, Airborne School or Air Assault School.  The 19th spoke to four women Army veterans who completed at least one of those elite trainings and were commissioned in an era when qualified women soldiers could serve in any capacity. They talked about their experiences on the front line and their thoughts on the future of the military’s effectiveness under Hegseth’s leadership.  Mikayla Blaska, 28 Graduated from Airborne School and was the 56th woman to complete Ranger School In September 2021, Blaska was deployed to Syria, the only woman in infantry there at the time. As an officer, she led 43 soldiers — all men — and  partner force service members, a linguist and a few other personnel. Over the next nine months, Blaska said she led her platoon on over 120 combat patrols with zero casualties.  “People think of combat deployments as something from World War I or World War II, which can absolutely still happen and

Shortly after she graduated from Princeton University, Mikayla Blaska was selected by a unit commander to attend Ranger School, one of the toughest training courses in the Army. For two months, she endured sleep deprivation, extreme calorie restriction and high-intensity patrolling while carrying over 100 pounds in both mountainous and swamp terrains. As she led an exercise in her final phase of the course, Blaska noticed a man on her team was refusing to listen to her directives. When she confronted him, he responded that he could not respect a woman. He saw her only as a sexual object, he said.  “I think that might be the worst thing that was said to me through the course of my career,” Blaska said. “And this is somebody who I’m sharing a foxhole with, someone I’m sleeping next to at night.”  Blaska, now 28, knew she shouldn’t angrily tell him off. So she pointed to why his lack of respect would hurt the other men they were with.  “I told him that I respected his honesty and that whether he liked it or not, I was going to be there with him,” Blaska said. “And at the end of the day, if he wants to screw me over, that’s fine, but it was about our other team members. I think that argument persuaded him to finally start listening.” By the end of the 61-day training course, he admitted he was impressed that she could carry so much “as a woman” and even ranked her the top performer of their team.  The requirements for both Blaska and the man to graduate were exactly the same. He failed. She didn’t. Blaska never saw him again. Mikayla Blaska during Ranger School, one of the Army’s most demanding training programs. She was the 56th woman to complete the course. (Mikayla Blaska) Recently, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called for a six-month review of women in combat, according to a memo that Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel Anthony Tata wrote in December 2025 — first reported by NPR in January. The goal is to assess the “operational effectiveness of ground combat units 10 years after the Department lifted all remaining restrictions on women serving in combat roles.”  Defense Department press secretary Kingsley Wilson responded to requests for more information by saying the ultimate goal is to “ensure the United States maintains the most lethal military.” “Our standards for combat arms positions will be elite, uniform and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man or a woman. Under Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War will not compromise standards to satisfy quotas or an ideological agenda — this is common sense,” Wilson said in a statement. Quotas and different standards are already illegal, and past reviews have actually shown benefits to women being fully integrated into combat roles. But Hegseth continues to imply that the military has valued inclusion over efficacy — even though the requirements for women and men in combat roles are identical.  Hegseth, a former Fox News host who served in the Army National Guard, has made disparaging comments about women. In a podcast interview in 2024, he said, “I’m straight up just saying we shouldn’t have women in combat roles.” In his book, “The War on Warriors,” he argued that women have made the military less effective, less lethal and “fighting more complicated.” And in August 2025, Hegseth reposted a video of an evangelical Christian pastor questioning women’s right to vote. Women currently make up more than 21 percent of the active-duty force and have held combat roles in the military for decades, though it’s been a gradual progression. The last roles were finally opened to women in 2015 after Congress repealed the combat exclusion policy two years prior. In the last decade, more than 5,000 women have served in combat arms, and 174 women have earned Ranger tabs alongside almost 15,000 men with the same standards.  According to an assessment from the Women in the Service Coalition, Army data showed that brigade combat teams with women performed at the same level of training proficiencies as teams without women. In fact, crime trends were higher in teams without women. And several studies have shown that men who serve alongside women are more likely to support a fully gender-integrated military.   Kris Fuhr, the author of the assessment and the first woman to command a ground-based intelligence company in Europe, said the Pentagon’s review is yet another “search for a problem that does not exist.”  “They’re doing this now because it is no secret that Secretary Hegseth has a strong desire to marginalize women in the military,” said Fuhr, who worked for two years at the United States Army Forces Command as an expert on gender integration. “He carries his religious views into his professional duties, and his religious views are that women do not lead and men do not submit to women.” Hegseth served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, but did not complete Ranger School, Airborne School or Air Assault School.  The 19th spoke to four women Army veterans who completed at least one of those elite trainings and were commissioned in an era when qualified women soldiers could serve in any capacity. They talked about their experiences on the front line and their thoughts on the future of the military’s effectiveness under Hegseth’s leadership.  Mikayla Blaska, 28 Graduated from Airborne School and was the 56th woman to complete Ranger School In September 2021, Blaska was deployed to Syria, the only woman in infantry there at the time. As an officer, she led 43 soldiers — all men — and  partner force service members, a linguist and a few other personnel. Over the next nine months, Blaska said she led her platoon on over 120 combat patrols with zero casualties.  “People think of combat deployments as something from World War I or World War II, which can absolutely still happen and

Shortly after she graduated from Princeton University, Mikayla Blaska was selected by a unit commander to attend Ranger School, one of the toughest training courses in the Army. For two months, she endured sleep deprivation, extreme calorie restriction and high-intensity patrolling while carrying over 100 pounds in both mountainous and swamp terrains. As she led an exercise in her final phase of the course, Blaska noticed a man on her team was refusing to listen to her directives. When she confronted him, he responded that he could not respect a woman. He saw her only as a sexual object, he said.  “I think that might be the worst thing that was said to me through the course of my career,” Blaska said. “And this is somebody who I’m sharing a foxhole with, someone I’m sleeping next to at night.”  Blaska, now 28, knew she shouldn’t angrily tell him off. So she pointed to why his lack of respect would hurt the other men they were with.  “I told him that I respected his honesty and that whether he liked it or not, I was going to be there with him,” Blaska said. “And at the end of the day, if he wants to screw me over, that’s fine, but it was about our other team members. I think that argument persuaded him to finally start listening.” By the end of the 61-day training course, he admitted he was impressed that she could carry so much “as a woman” and even ranked her the top performer of their team.  The requirements for both Blaska and the man to graduate were exactly the same. He failed. She didn’t. Blaska never saw him again. Mikayla Blaska during Ranger School, one of the Army’s most demanding training programs. She was the 56th woman to complete the course. (Mikayla Blaska) Recently, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called for a six-month review of women in combat, according to a memo that Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel Anthony Tata wrote in December 2025 — first reported by NPR in January. The goal is to assess the “operational effectiveness of ground combat units 10 years after the Department lifted all remaining restrictions on women serving in combat roles.”  Defense Department press secretary Kingsley Wilson responded to requests for more information by saying the ultimate goal is to “ensure the United States maintains the most lethal military.” “Our standards for combat arms positions will be elite, uniform and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man or a woman. Under Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War will not compromise standards to satisfy quotas or an ideological agenda — this is common sense,” Wilson said in a statement. Quotas and different standards are already illegal, and past reviews have actually shown benefits to women being fully integrated into combat roles. But Hegseth continues to imply that the military has valued inclusion over efficacy — even though the requirements for women and men in combat roles are identical.  Hegseth, a former Fox News host who served in the Army National Guard, has made disparaging comments about women. In a podcast interview in 2024, he said, “I’m straight up just saying we shouldn’t have women in combat roles.” In his book, “The War on Warriors,” he argued that women have made the military less effective, less lethal and “fighting more complicated.” And in August 2025, Hegseth reposted a video of an evangelical Christian pastor questioning women’s right to vote. Women currently make up more than 21 percent of the active-duty force and have held combat roles in the military for decades, though it’s been a gradual progression. The last roles were finally opened to women in 2015 after Congress repealed the combat exclusion policy two years prior. In the last decade, more than 5,000 women have served in combat arms, and 174 women have earned Ranger tabs alongside almost 15,000 men with the same standards.  According to an assessment from the Women in the Service Coalition, Army data showed that brigade combat teams with women performed at the same level of training proficiencies as teams without women. In fact, crime trends were higher in teams without women. And several studies have shown that men who serve alongside women are more likely to support a fully gender-integrated military.   Kris Fuhr, the author of the assessment and the first woman to command a ground-based intelligence company in Europe, said the Pentagon’s review is yet another “search for a problem that does not exist.”  “They’re doing this now because it is no secret that Secretary Hegseth has a strong desire to marginalize women in the military,” said Fuhr, who worked for two years at the United States Army Forces Command as an expert on gender integration. “He carries his religious views into his professional duties, and his religious views are that women do not lead and men do not submit to women.” Hegseth served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, but did not complete Ranger School, Airborne School or Air Assault School.  The 19th spoke to four women Army veterans who completed at least one of those elite trainings and were commissioned in an era when qualified women soldiers could serve in any capacity. They talked about their experiences on the front line and their thoughts on the future of the military’s effectiveness under Hegseth’s leadership.  Mikayla Blaska, 28 Graduated from Airborne School and was the 56th woman to complete Ranger School In September 2021, Blaska was deployed to Syria, the only woman in infantry there at the time. As an officer, she led 43 soldiers — all men — and  partner force service members, a linguist and a few other personnel. Over the next nine months, Blaska said she led her platoon on over 120 combat patrols with zero casualties.  “People think of combat deployments as something from World War I or World War II, which can absolutely still happen and

Shortly after she graduated from Princeton University, Mikayla Blaska was selected by a unit commander to attend Ranger School, one of the toughest training courses in the Army. For two months, she endured sleep deprivation, extreme calorie restriction and high-intensity patrolling while carrying over 100 pounds in both mountainous and swamp terrains. As she led an exercise in her final phase of the course, Blaska noticed a man on her team was refusing to listen to her directives. When she confronted him, he responded that he could not respect a woman. He saw her only as a sexual object, he said.  “I think that might be the worst thing that was said to me through the course of my career,” Blaska said. “And this is somebody who I’m sharing a foxhole with, someone I’m sleeping next to at night.”  Blaska, now 28, knew she shouldn’t angrily tell him off. So she pointed to why his lack of respect would hurt the other men they were with.  “I told him that I respected his honesty and that whether he liked it or not, I was going to be there with him,” Blaska said. “And at the end of the day, if he wants to screw me over, that’s fine, but it was about our other team members. I think that argument persuaded him to finally start listening.” By the end of the 61-day training course, he admitted he was impressed that she could carry so much “as a woman” and even ranked her the top performer of their team.  The requirements for both Blaska and the man to graduate were exactly the same. He failed. She didn’t. Blaska never saw him again. Mikayla Blaska during Ranger School, one of the Army’s most demanding training programs. She was the 56th woman to complete the course. (Mikayla Blaska) Recently, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called for a six-month review of women in combat, according to a memo that Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel Anthony Tata wrote in December 2025 — first reported by NPR in January. The goal is to assess the “operational effectiveness of ground combat units 10 years after the Department lifted all remaining restrictions on women serving in combat roles.”  Defense Department press secretary Kingsley Wilson responded to requests for more information by saying the ultimate goal is to “ensure the United States maintains the most lethal military.” “Our standards for combat arms positions will be elite, uniform and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man or a woman. Under Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War will not compromise standards to satisfy quotas or an ideological agenda — this is common sense,” Wilson said in a statement. Quotas and different standards are already illegal, and past reviews have actually shown benefits to women being fully integrated into combat roles. But Hegseth continues to imply that the military has valued inclusion over efficacy — even though the requirements for women and men in combat roles are identical.  Hegseth, a former Fox News host who served in the Army National Guard, has made disparaging comments about women. In a podcast interview in 2024, he said, “I’m straight up just saying we shouldn’t have women in combat roles.” In his book, “The War on Warriors,” he argued that women have made the military less effective, less lethal and “fighting more complicated.” And in August 2025, Hegseth reposted a video of an evangelical Christian pastor questioning women’s right to vote. Women currently make up more than 21 percent of the active-duty force and have held combat roles in the military for decades, though it’s been a gradual progression. The last roles were finally opened to women in 2015 after Congress repealed the combat exclusion policy two years prior. In the last decade, more than 5,000 women have served in combat arms, and 174 women have earned Ranger tabs alongside almost 15,000 men with the same standards.  According to an assessment from the Women in the Service Coalition, Army data showed that brigade combat teams with women performed at the same level of training proficiencies as teams without women. In fact, crime trends were higher in teams without women. And several studies have shown that men who serve alongside women are more likely to support a fully gender-integrated military.   Kris Fuhr, the author of the assessment and the first woman to command a ground-based intelligence company in Europe, said the Pentagon’s review is yet another “search for a problem that does not exist.”  “They’re doing this now because it is no secret that Secretary Hegseth has a strong desire to marginalize women in the military,” said Fuhr, who worked for two years at the United States Army Forces Command as an expert on gender integration. “He carries his religious views into his professional duties, and his religious views are that women do not lead and men do not submit to women.” Hegseth served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, but did not complete Ranger School, Airborne School or Air Assault School.  The 19th spoke to four women Army veterans who completed at least one of those elite trainings and were commissioned in an era when qualified women soldiers could serve in any capacity. They talked about their experiences on the front line and their thoughts on the future of the military’s effectiveness under Hegseth’s leadership.  Mikayla Blaska, 28 Graduated from Airborne School and was the 56th woman to complete Ranger School In September 2021, Blaska was deployed to Syria, the only woman in infantry there at the time. As an officer, she led 43 soldiers — all men — and  partner force service members, a linguist and a few other personnel. Over the next nine months, Blaska said she led her platoon on over 120 combat patrols with zero casualties.  “People think of combat deployments as something from World War I or World War II, which can absolutely still happen and