Female Marine recruits fire on the rifle range during boot camp in 2013. Carter opens all military combat jobs to women 
 
 Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday said he’s ordering the military to open all combat jobs to women, overruling Marine Corps commanders who requested exceptions for a small number of front-line combat jobs and furthering President Barack Obama’s legacy of making the military more inclusive. 
 
 “We cannot afford to cut ourselves off from half the country's talents and skills,” Carter told reporters at the Pentagon. 
 
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 The decision is a milestone for Obama, who inherited a military that banned gays from serving openly, banned transgender troops and didn’t allow women in units that were primarily involved in ground combat. All three of those exclusions have been or are in the process of being overturned. 
 
 The announcement also shows how much the climate has changed on Capitol Hill, where the move is expected to face only modest resistance. 
 
 Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) issued a cautious statement Thursday, saying he planned to review the implications of the decision carefully — but he did not voice outright opposition to it. 
 
 “We expect the department to send over its implementation plans as quickly as possible to ensure our committees have all the information necessary to conduct proper and rigorous oversight,” said the Arizona Republican. “By law, the Congress has a 30-day period to review the implications of today's decision.” 
 
 Meanwhile, Republican presidential hopeful Lindsey Graham — also one of the Senate’s leading defense hawks — said he has “no reason to object.” 
 
 “I’ve sort of, I guess, evolved on this issue, quite frankly,” the South Carolina Republican told reporters. “If the military community feels that women are capable of doing this, then I will not stand in the way.” 
 
 The announcement caps a process that began in 2013, when then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted the ban on women serving in ground combat roles but gave the military services branches until 2016 to evaluate the implications and request any exemptions for specific jobs to remain male-only. 
 
 Carter said Thursday the Marine Corps asked for partial exceptions for certain jobs, based on studies that commanders said showed all-male combat units were more effective. 
 
 Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, who was Marine Corps commandant when the studies were being conducted, was not present during Carter’s announcement on Thursday — leading reporters to ask about his absence. 
 
 Dunford “understands what my decision is, and my decision is my decision,” Carter responded. “He will be at my side as we do the implementation.” 
 
 Carter noted that about 220,000 military jobs were currently closed to women and would be opened up because of his decision, allowing women to serve in such roles as driving tanks, firing mortars and leading infantry soldiers into combat. 
 
 He said the military would maintain high standards for all combat assignments but explained that some standards were being modified after studies demonstrated they were "outdated" or not reflective of the skills necessary for the jobs. 
 
 “Our force of the future must continue to benefit from the best people America has to offer,” Carter said. “In the 21st century, that includes drawing strength from the broadest possible pool of people.” 
 
 Jeremy Herb contributed to this report. ||||| WASHINGTON --The top Army and Marine Corps generals told senators Tuesday that it will take up to three years to fully integrate women into all combat jobs, which are now all open to them, and that women should also have to register for the draft. 
 
 The military service leaders say they will not lower standards to bring women into the more grueling jobs. But they warned that inherent physical differences and different injury rates between men and women will have an impact on how the integration moves ahead. 
 
 The sometimes contentious hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee laid bare the deep reluctance of Marine Corps leaders to bring women into certain demanding infantry, armor and special operations jobs. 
 
 After the Pentagon ordered all branches of the military to integrate their ground combat units by the end of last year, or explain why women can't do the job, the Marine Corps conducted an experiment to help determine whether women should fight on the front lines. 
 
 The results showed that in almost every area, the all-male units performed significantly better than those with both men and women Marines. 
 
 Still, three years after then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta directed that all positions become open to women by January 1, 2016, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the opening of all combat roles to women. But he also vowed that no standards would be lowered. 
 
 Carter has said that he made the decision to fully integrate the military just before the deadline, after receiving recommendations from the secretaries of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Special Operations Command. 
 
 The Marine Corps initially sought to keep certain infantry and combat jobs closed to women, citing studies, and arguing that allowing women to compete for ground combat jobs would make the Marine Corps a less-efficient fighting machine. 
 
 But both Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Carter rejected that argument. In response, Marine leaders, including Marine Gen. Robert Neller, immediately began to lay out implementation plans, but they continue to make clear their reservations. 
 
 "We have a decision and we're in the process of moving out," Neller told the senators. "We will see where the chips fall. And, again, our hope is that everyone will be successful. But hope is not a course of action on the battlefield." 
 
 Neller said that Marine Corps testing revealed two significant differences between all-male units and those with men and women. He said all-male units were able to better march long distances carrying heavy loads and also were able to fire their weapons more accurately after marching over distance. 
 
 Being big and strong and having a "certain body mass give you an advantage," said Neller. He added that as women do more conditioning and weight training to meet combat standards, they have been more likely to be outside the required weight and size requirements for women. The Marine Corps, he said, is looking at that issue. 
 
 Mabus and Neller have deep differences on how the Marine Corps should proceed, and provided their views in starkly different ways. Mabus presented a lengthy opening statement, which laid out why he disagreed with the Marine's recommendation, and had to be warned by Sen. John McCain to finish up quickly. 
 
 Neller, meanwhile, made no opening statement, provided short, clipped answers to questions, and avoided most direct disagreements with Mabus. Asked to list his concerns, Neller said he's worried about retention, injury rates and unit effectiveness. 
 
 Lawmakers, including McCain, criticized Mabus for deciding to allow women to compete for Marine combat jobs - and telling the media - before fully reading and taking into account the massive Marine study. 
 
 "You're handling of this issue has really complicated this issue for those of us who support integration," McCain snapped at Mabus at the end of the hearing. 
 
 Milley said he fully supported allowing women to seek combat jobs, but cautioned that it should be done slowly and methodically so that, "we must not rush to failure." The military leaders said that for the first time the services are developing standards that are specific to each job, based on the requirements and tasks that must be accomplished. 
 
 Those standards, they said, will be applied equally for men and women. He added that at this point he does not expect that women will be forced into infantry jobs. The Army, he said, doesn't involuntarily send men to the combat post right now and the service is meeting all its needs. But, he said, things could change in the future depending on the military's needs. 
 
 Carter's order to allow women to compete for combat posts opens the final 10 percent of military positions to women - a total of about 220,000 jobs. And it allows them to serve in the most demanding and difficult jobs, including as special operations forces, such as the Army Delta units and Navy SEALs. 
 
 While Milley and Neller told the Senate Armed Services Committee that women should be included in the requirement to register for the selective service at age 18, Mabus and Army Acting Secretary Patrick Murphy would only say that the issue should be discussed. ||||| In a historic transformation of the American military, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said on Thursday that the Pentagon would open all combat jobs to women. 
 
 “There will be no exceptions,” Mr. Carter said at a news conference. He added, “They’ll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars and lead infantry soldiers into combat. They’ll be able to serve as Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps infantry, Air Force parajumpers and everything else that was previously open only to men.” 
 
 The groundbreaking decision overturns a longstanding rule that had restricted women from combat roles, even though women have often found themselves in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 14 years. 
 
 It is the latest in a long march of inclusive steps by the military, including racial integration in 1948 and the lifting of the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military in 2011. The decision this week will open about 220,000 military jobs to women.
– Repealing a 21-year-old rule, defense secretary Ash Carter announced Thursday that all military combat positions will now be open to women, the New York Times reports. According to CNN, that includes about 220,000 jobs in reconnaissance, infantry, and more that had previously been open only to men. "Women will now be able to contribute to our mission in ways they could not before," Carter says. "They'll be able to drive tanks, give orders, lead infantry soldiers into combat." While the previous restrictions kept women from moving up the ranks as quickly as male counterparts, they often found themselves in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq anyway, the Times reports. “It’s a thrilling day for women serving in the military—and for women across the country,” the co-president of the National Women's Law Center says. Politico reports the Marine Corps was against the move, pointing to an internal study that "suggested" combat units that included women weren't as effective as entirely male units. But a Marine Corps study also found morale in integrated units was equal to all-male units, and sexual assault levels were no higher than in the Marines as a whole, according to the Times. Carter says a 50-50 gender split in combat roles is unlikely, as only a small number of women so far have met the "high physical standards" for certain units, CNN reports. He also says integration will not come at the "cost of combat effectiveness." "The military has long prided itself on being a meritocracy," Carter says.