Services Oppose Sex Separation During Training
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WASHINGTON — The Army, Navy and Air Force all oppose a recommendation by an influential panel to separate men and women during basic training, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.
Defense Secretary William S. Cohen will make the final decision on the issue, but the views of the three services could be sent to him by the end of this week, said several senior Pentagon officials.
“We want to train as we fight. We are not going to gender segregate,” said one senior official. All spoke on condition they not be identified by name.
An advisory panel headed by former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker of Kansas recommended in December that men and women be separated in the first six weeks of basic training--as the Marine Corps does--and housed separately throughout both basic and advanced training programs.
Kassebaum Baker’s panel of academics and retired military officers concluded that integrated training programs were failing to instill recruits with proper military values.
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