A former science director at the Office of Naval Research has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison following his conviction for child sexual exploitation.

Daniel Marc Lofaro, 42, of Fairfax, Virginia, previously worked as a research scientist at the naval research laboratory and as an assistant professor at George Mason University, according to a prosecutor’s release.

The office conducts research for science and technology programs for the Navy and Marine Corps.

According to his personal website, Lofaro worked primarily in robotics, heading Lofaro Labs Robotics, which worked in conjunction with an international laboratory group — known as the DASL Group — and George Mason University beginning in 2014.

Lofaro pleaded guilty in May to charges of coercing and enticing at least two minor children. A federal judge sentenced him on Wednesday.

As early as 2019, Lofaro communicated with a 14-year-old victim through an online dating application. The two then talked using messaging and social media apps, video calls and voice calls.

Lofaro asked the 14-year-old to create and send him sexually explicit photos and videos, which the victim did.

In 2021, Lofaro contacted another minor victim, then age 12, through a social media app. Lofaro, who was 40 at the time, told the victim he was 22 years old.

Lofaro “told the victim in graphic detail how he would have sex with the victim,” even when the child didn’t respond. Lofaro continued to request nude images of the victim, asking the victim to join him in video chats.

A grand jury indicted Lofaro in October 2023 on multiple charges related to child pornography, according to court documents.

Investigators discovered more than 600 items of child sexual abuse material collected over nearly a decade on devices owned by Lofaro. Some images depicted “the sexual abuse of children, including the rape of a toddler and prepubescent children,” according to court documents.

From at least August 2021 to February 2022, he distributed and received such files through social media groups in which he discussed sexual abuse of children with other users.

On Feb. 5, 2022, Lofaro chatted with another site user about how he had sexually abused a minor relative while the child slept and that he was “looking for someone who has a daughter they are willing to share.”

Lofaro could have faced a life sentence for the exploitation charges if he had been convicted at a trial, according to court documents.

Since at least Sept. 22, the Department of Defense Medical Examination Review Board web portal for scheduling, tracking and approving medical exams has been down.

A maintenance message on the website says the agency “is working through the backlog of exams…as quickly as possible,” and Defense Health Agency spokesperson Peter Graves confirmed the “IT outage” when reached by Military Times.

The review board is responsible for medically screening applicants for admission to any of the military service academies, ROTC units of all branches and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, among other programs.

Combined, these commissioning programs produce the majority of new officers across the military.

Because most prospective officers can’t sign their contracts and begin receiving scholarship or stipend funds unless their medical fitness has been confirmed, review board officials have “employed a number of manual work arounds and has authorized civilian overtime pay to process applicant screening examinations and minimize impacts to the applicants and their respective commissioning programs,” Graves explained.

He said the agency has, “all hands on deck.”

But the outage has left prospective officers and recruiting officials responsible for shepherding their medical qualifications scrambling to comply with changing processes and requirements. One Army ROTC recruiting officer, who asked that Military Times withhold his name due to fears of retaliation, described the outage as “catastrophic.”

Graves, the DHA spokesperson, told Military Times that “there is no firm estimate as to when automation will be restored.” That’s led the agency to prioritize its manual processing efforts and place “emphasis on specific commissioning programs approaching critical [medical qualification] deadlines,” he explained.

When the outage first began, review board officials established a “here and how” manual workaround where they focused on qualifying applicants who wouldn’t need any more visits to doctors, according to an internal email from longtime deputy director Larry Mullen obtained by Military Times.

That move essentially halted the external specialist consultations necessary for prospective officers who found potentially disqualifying medical conditions in their initial physical exams — meaning that it couldn’t be the permanent workaround.

But then the outage endured. Graves said the board has been “improving manual processes” in order to restore those services. But that’s required “a number of manual work arounds and authoriz[ing] civilian overtime pay.”

The ROTC recruiter expressed fear that the review board may be “putting off so much to do the emergency ones right now that it’s going to cause a Veterans Administration-like backup” for 2023 national ROTC scholarship and service academy applicants who typically undergo medical screening during the spring and summer months before enrolling in college.

“Commissioning programs have expressed concern for interruptions to accessions, should the outage continue, but have thus far been patient and highly cooperative with respect to the manual workarounds underway,” conceded Graves. He added that the agency is “regularly” briefing senior officials from the commissioning programs on the status of “efforts underway in the DHA to restore automation.”

Cadets and midshipmen who are already on campus but not yet signed due to medical qualification delays are having to go without their monthly stipends and tuition payments, too, the recruiting officer said. They can receive retroactive benefits once cleared, though.

The outage and potential delays in officer medical qualifications also come during one of the most challenging recruiting environments the military has faced since the draft ended in 1973. Only the Marine Corps met its recruiting goals in fiscal 2022, according to a Pentagon official, and the Army fell short by around 15,000 troops.

The crisis has been less severe for officer recruiting, but a shrinking applicant pool for service academies and national ROTC scholarships has raised alarm for some observers. The Army even launched a dedicated advertising campaign, “Decide to Lead,” designed to woo high school students considering applying for ROTC scholarships.

The recruiting officer said he’s worried that new cadets encountering a broken medical system before even signing their contracts may get cold feet about joining.

“They’re going to say, ‘Well, this doesn’t seem like an organization that has their [expletive] together,’” the recruiter said. “And that’s because we’re not an organization that has our [expletive] together right now.”

That astronaut isn’t just any astronaut.

It’s recognizing famed naval aviator and Navy astronaut, the late Bruce McCandless II. The NASA-themed helmet honors all Navy astronauts, but the astronaut on the spacewalk is specifically a nod to McCandless.

But if there’s such a thing as Navy royalty, McCandless’ family can likely be put in that category.

McCandless, who died in 2017 at age 80, was the grandson of Willis W. Bradley and the son of Bruce McCandless, sr., both recipients of the Medal of Honor. All three attended the U.S. Naval Academy.

Bruce McCandless III lived grew up in this Navy family, where the service, it’s traditions and legacies, and especially the Army-Navy football game, took center stage.

Though his father, McCandless II, didn’t really watch football otherwise.

“He was not a big football fan at all,” McCandless III told Navy Times. “But every year he’d be sure to tune in for that (game).”

McCandless III, 61, wrote a book about his father, “Wonders All Around: The Incredible True Story of Astronaut Bruce McCandless II and the First Untethered Flight in Space,” which was published in 2021.

Though the author chose not to serve in the military, his appreciation and understanding of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather’s service has grown over his lifetime.

The author noted that some of the core principles he saw exhibited in his father’s life and service.

“I think over the years, I became more and more impressed with his dedication to the job and sort of maintaining the standards of a naval officer,” McCandless III said.

His great-grandfather Bradley served 40 years, reaching the rank of captain and serving with distinction in both world wars.

It was in World War I where Bradley’s actions resulted in his Medal of Honor award. In July 1917 during a shipboard weapon reloading on the USS Pittsburgh, rounds exploded, throwing the young Lt. Bradley back and knocking him unconscious. He recovered quickly, crawled into the fire and put out the flames, likely saving the entire ship and crew.

The senior McCandless was only six years old at the time. He would go on to join the Navy, attend the academy and, in November 1942 aboard the USS San Francisco while battling Japanese forces off Savo Island enemy fire wounded him and resulted in the death or wounding of the captain of the ship, the admiral in charge of the engagement and his staff.

Nearly singlehandedly, a wounded McCandless commandeered the ship, continued beating back Japanese military assaults and lead other ships in the fleet to victory, which led to his Medal of Honor award.

McCandless II gradated from the academy in 1958, second in his class only to future National Security Advisor John Poindexter and in a class that included future naval aviator, U.S. senator and Republican Presidential nominee John McCain.

The younger McCandless went on to fly the Douglas F4D-1 Skyray, the F-4B Phantom II and served aboard the USS Enterprise during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

After those tours the 28-year-old naval officer was selected for NASA Astronaut Group 5 in 1966.

From that point until his retirement from NASA in 1990, McCandless would work on multiple, major NASA projects, serving as a mission control capsule communicator for Apollo 11, part of the support crew for Apollo 14 and helping develop the Manned Maneuvering Unit, which is the self-propulsion unit used for astronaut spacewalks featured in this year’s Naval Academy uniform tribute.

McCandless II’s intersections with history, from serving as an aviator during the Cuban Missile Crisis to the historic birth and growth of NASA, were impressive. And his son sees one historic event as having possibly setting his father on the course that would lead.

It was Oct. 4, 1957, and the Soviet Union had launched the Sputnik 1 satellite, stoking fears of Soviet technology advances and sparking a space race that the United States would ultimately win.

Back then, McCandless was still a midshipman at the academy and a budding science and technology enthusiast. The Naval Academy Radio Club member ran a wire antenna to his personal radio so he and his classmates could hear the frequency beeps of the passing Sputnik satellite.

Decades later, he would float freely in space, the first astronaut to hover untethered in the vastness of space as he peered down at planet Earth.

So, when the Naval Academy officials reached out to McCandless III earlier this year to ask if he approved of them using his father’s spacewalk on the team’s helmet, he had a quick answer – yes.

“We’re real pleased with the way it turned out and excited to hopefully motivate (the team),” he said.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include information recognizing all Navy astronauts.

In an official statement released Tuesday, the Naval Academy confirmed that on Monday midshipmen took to the skies and bombarded their cadet rivals at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point with “Beat Army” and “Fly Navy” leaflets…along with some ping pong balls.

The stealthy midshipmen peppered “The Apron” at West Point, causing Army cadets to break formation and run for cover, at least according to the official Navy account.

Five midshipmen led three flight crews for the Piper PA028 Cherokee Warriors. The route took them down the Hudson River Corridor, a pass around the Statute of Liberty and then home to the “better service academy” along the Severn River to Annapolis, Maryland.

And as the swabbies were quick to note in their official communique, Navy currently leads Army 62-53-7 and holds a 45-40-4 record against Army when playing against the Black Knights in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the site of this year’s matchup on December 10.

A few extra numbers that the sailors included to rub at little extra salt, Navy holds an 11-2 record against the Black Knights when they’ve played on Lincoln Financial Field and has won 18 of the past 23 games against Army.

Note: This article has been updated to include additional images shared by the U.S. Naval Academy and a corrected date for the 2022 Army-Navy Game.

The 11-day Exercise Cartwheel in Fiji began Sept. 12 and ends Friday, the U.S. Embassy in the Fijian capital, Suva, said Wednesday in an email.

U.S. Navy Cmdr. Victor Lange said the name of the exercise originated from Operation Cartwheel during World War II, in which the U.S. fought alongside the militaries of Australia, New Zealand and Fiji — then a British colony — to neutralize the Japanese base at Rabaul in Papua New Guinea.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said China had “no objection to normal defense cooperation among the countries concerned.”

“But the cooperation should not be directed at third parties,” Wang told reporters in Beijing.

The United States has promised greater engagement with the South Pacific after China and the Solomon Islands signed a bilateral security treaty in May that has raised concerns of a Chinese naval base being established in the region.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told a South Pacific leaders’ summit in Suva in July that the United States will open new embassies in Tonga and Kiribati. She also flagged a tripling of U.S. funding for fisheries assistance to $60 million.

Australia’s new government, elected in May, is also taking steps to increase its engagement with its island neighbors.

The government plans to establish an Australia-Pacific Defense School to train neighboring armies in response to China’s potential military presence on the Solomon Islands.

Australians were reminded Wednesday of World War II coming to their shores when divers found what appeared to be an unexploded bomb off the coast of the northern city of Darwin. Darwin became the first target of Japanese bombers on the Australian mainland in a devastating air raid on Feb. 19, 1942.

A 250-meter (820-foot) exclusion zone has been established in Darwin Harbor until the Defense Department removes the suspected bomb.

It’s the first call-up in Russia since World War II and is sure to further fuel tensions with the Western backers of Ukraine, who derided the move as an act of weakness. The move also sent Russians scrambling to buy plane tickets out of the country.

It comes after Russian authorities tried to recruit more fighters into volunteer battalions and amid reports of widespread recruitment in prisons, as the Kremlin has struggled to replenish its troops.

The Russian leader, in a seven-minute televised address to the nation aired Wednesday morning, also warned the West that he isn’t bluffing over using all the means at his disposal to protect Russia’s territory, in what appeared to be a veiled reference to Russia’s nuclear capability. Putin has previously warned the West not to back Russia against the wall and has rebuked NATO countries for supplying weapons to help Ukraine.

The total number of reservists to be called up could be as high as 300,000, officials said.

Even a partial mobilization is likely to increase dismay, or sow doubt, among Russians about the war in Ukraine. Shortly after Putin’s address, Russian media reported a sharp spike in demand for plane tickets abroad amid an apparent scramble to leave despite exorbitant prices for flights.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who was asked what had changed since he and others previously said no mobilization was planned, argued that Russia is effectively fighting against NATO because the alliance’s members have been supplying weapons to Kyiv.

The partial mobilization order came a day after Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine announced plans to hold votes on becoming integral parts of Russia — a move that could set the stage for Moscow to escalate the war. The referendums will start Friday in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.

The ballots are all but certain to go Moscow’s way. Foreign leaders have described the ballots as illegitimate and nonbinding. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said they were a “sham” and “noise” to distract public attention.

Putin’s speech is “definitely a sign that he’s struggling, and we know that,” U.S. national security council spokesperson John Kirby said.

Putin has suffered tens of thousands of casualties, has command and control issues, terrible troop morale, desertion problems and is “forcing the wounded back (into) the fight,” Kirby said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Only those with relevant combat and service experience will be mobilized, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said. He added about 25 million people fit this criteria but only around 1% of them will be mobilized.

Another key clause in the decree prevents most professional soldiers from terminating their contracts and leaving service until the partial mobilization is no longer in place.

Putin’s announcement came as the U.N. General Assembly was taking place in New York. Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 has been the target of broad international criticism at the assembly that has kept up intense diplomatic pressure on Moscow.

Zelenskky is due to address the gathering in a prerecorded address on Wednesday. Putin didn’t travel to New York.

Putin’s gambit has a strong element of risk — it could backfire by making the Ukraine war unpopular at home and hurting his own standing. It also concedes that Russia has underlying military shortcomings.

A Ukraine counteroffensive launched this month has snatched the military initiative away from Russia, as well as capturing large areas in Ukraine that the Russians once held. The swiftness of the counteroffensive saw Russian forces abandon armored vehicles and other weapons as they beat hasty retreats.

A spokesman for Zelenskyy called the mobilization a “big tragedy” for the Russian people.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Sergii Nikiforov said conscripts sent to the front line in Ukraine would face a similar fate as ill-prepared Russian forces who were repelled in an attack on Kyiv in the first days of the war.

“This is a recognition of the incapacity of the Russian professional army, which has failed in all its tasks,” Nikiforov said.

The Russian mobilization is unlikely to produce any consequences on the battlefield for months because of a lack of training facilities and equipment.

The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, tweeted that the mobilization is a sign “of weakness, of Russian failure.” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace echoed that assessment, describing Putin’s move as “an admission that his invasion is failing.”

Russian political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin said Putin’s announcement smacked of “an act of desperation.” He predicted that Russians will resist the mobilization through “passive sabotage.”

“People will evade this mobilization in every possible way, bribe their way out of this mobilization, leave the country,” Oreshkin told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The announcement won’t go down well with the general public, Oreshkin said, describing it as “a huge personal blow to Russian citizens, who until recently (took part in the hostilities) with pleasure, sitting on their couches, (watching) TV. And now the war has come into their home.”

The war in Ukraine, which has killed thousands of people, has driven up food prices worldwide and caused energy costs to soar. It has also brought fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe at Europe’s largest nuclear plant in Ukraine’s now Russia-occupied southeast. Investigations are also underway into possible war crimes atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.

In his address, which was far shorter than previous speeches about the Ukraine war, Putin accused the West of engaging in “nuclear blackmail” and noted “statements of some high-ranking representatives of the leading NATO states about the possibility of using nuclear weapons of mass destruction against Russia.”

He didn’t identify who had made such comments.

“To those who allow themselves such statements regarding Russia, I want to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction … and when the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, to protect Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal,” Putin said.

He added: “It’s not a bluff.”

Putin said he has already signed the decree for partial mobilization, which starts immediately, and stressed its limited scale.

“We are talking about partial mobilization, that is, only citizens who are currently in the reserve will be subject to conscription, and above all, those who served in the armed forces who have a certain military specialty and relevant experience,” Putin said.

Shoigu also said Wednesday that 5,937 Russian soldiers have died in the Ukraine conflict, far lower than Western estimates that Russia has lost tens of thousands.

The Vesna opposition movement called for nationwide protests on Wednesday.

“Thousands of Russian men — our fathers, brothers and husbands — will be thrown into the meat grinder of the war. What will they be dying for? What will mothers and children be crying for?” the group said.

Yet it was unclear how many would protest given Russia’s harsh laws against criticizing the military.

Alongside those colorful stories are lessons the two men ― one Marine sniper who received the Medal of Honor, the other a multi-high profile combat tour Navy SEAL veteran who served on missions later made into feature films.

Dakota Meyer, 34, enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2006 and deployed first to Iraq in 2007 and then to Afghanistan in 2009.

On his second tour Meyer braved enemy fire to find three missing Marines and a Navy corpsman after an ambush. The four men had been killed by insurgents, stripped of their weapons and gear.

Meyer fought an insurgent trying to take their bodies, killing him with a rock during a kill-or-be-killed struggle. The Marine then helped recover the bodies, evacuated a dozen other fellow fighters and provided cover for two dozen other Marines and soldiers under fire.

For those actions, Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Robert O’Neill, 46, enlisted in the Navy in 1996 and graduated the Basic Underwater Demolition School, or BUD/S class 208.

O’Neill would serve on many combat deployments, receiving two Silver Star Medals and four Bronze Star Medals.

Though he participated in numerous missions, some of which were later retold in books and film, it was his mission with Naval Special Warfare Development Group on the May 2, 2011, Operation Neptune Spear, which killed al-Qaida founder and leader Osama bin Laden.

The two combat veterans co-authored “The Way Forward: Master Life’s Toughest Battles and Create Your Lasting Legacy” to share with readers their own origin stories, military experiences and life lessons learned along the way.

Military Times interviewed O’Neill shortly before the book’s release earlier in 2022.

*Editor’s Note: The following Q&A interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: Both you and Dakota Meyer have written books before about some of your combat experiences. What was the motivation for this collaboration?

A: It’s some military, some drinking stories, hunting stories, all three.

We tried to throw in a few stories that no one had heard before. And we want people to know we can be relatable. If Dakota can be a football player and male cheerleader raising chickens in Kentucky and I can be a pasty white guy from Montana who’s not in really good shape and can’t swim we’re kind of proving that we all come from somewhere that we all have that in common and we can all do anything we want.

The point of the book is you don’t need to have been to war to have had traumatic experiences.

Q: You two take turns in the book telling stories from your past but also offering lessons with those stories. Why did you decide to write the book this way?

A: It was seriously writing them on a napkin. I think we broke the lessons down into parts and then kind of just did an outline and say okay, maybe we start with a story. For example, one of the lessons was how to keep a tight circle, either of friends or in a unit. If you keep a tight circle the adventures you have, the stuff that happens, it’s almost ridiculous. My experience is that if you can keep morale high it helps keep a tight unit. Your team is going to be better and want to work together. We didn’t know if this was a memoir, self

help or some kind of nonfiction biography. But the perfect plan only exists in the planning room. So, we didn’t say ‘we’re going from point A to point B to point C.

Q: What’s a lesson you could pass on to Military Times readers, soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines?

A: Well, the first thing, obviously, is don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Don’t take shortcuts because shortcuts and boredom can get you hurt or killed. That’s where complacency kills. The rules are in place for a reason. It’s always the time when you take a shortcut that you get hurt, whether it’s on the flight line or doing electrical work as a Seabee, whether it’s on the firing range as a Marine. A shortcut may have worked before, but it’s the one time that it doesn’t work that gets you hurt.

Q: Any concluding thoughts, saved rounds?

A: Keep it simple and master the basics. Don’t worry about the end stage. Worry about the guy in front of you, how to protect his or her back. It’s everything from close quarters battle to shooting free throws. Always master the basics. Don’t get too complex. Complexity and complacency will kill you.

In early May 2011, the war in Afghanistan approached its tenth year, marking the anniversary with the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Although women weren’t yet allowed to serve in combat specialties, Sedam and her Female Engagement Team partner would learn of the terrorist leader’s death as they returned from a combat mission they weren’t supposed to be on because of their gender.

Over the 20-year war, thousands of women walked the same dusty footprints on the same bomb-riddled roads, flew combat missions and provided support the same as their male counterparts.

Their actions on those draining deployments, top officials said, led to the 2013 decision to open all combat roles to women, permanently intertwining the legacy of female service members’ performance while forward deployed with the ‘forever war’.

On the ground in Afghanistan

Sedam enlisted in 2008 and later volunteered to deploy on a FET, the Afghanistan-focused version of the Lioness program, which sent female Marines to Iraq to search and interact with local women. Local customs forbade contact between foreign men and local women.

Her brother, a Marine who served in combat in Marjah, Afghanistan in 2010, knew that although women were not yet allowed in the infantry, she would still be in the thick of it, Sedam said.

He told her to write an “If I die” letter to him, their brother and parents, and to tell only her teammate where she kept it. The act linked Sedam to a tradition among men headed to combat.

In early 2011, she deployed to Afghanistan with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. She and nearly four dozen other FET members spread across Afghanistan, accompanying infantry Marines on patrols, interacting with local women and children, and at times, quietly filling in when casualties rose.

A routine intelligence notice that a would-be suicide bomber was in a nearby village arrived that spring. The plan, she said, was that a few female team members would go with their 1/5 brothers in case women were in the compound.

While they searched the area, the suicide bomber detonated the explosive device, she said, minorly injuring a handful of Marines. Sedam and her team partner Cpl. Marquilla Vaughn, cleared the women’s quarters as other Marines gathered the bomber’s remains.

Even as Sedam and her team members faced the same dangers of combat as male Marines, their experiences often felt overshadowed by an ever-present stigma.

“The biggest issue that we came in contact with was the whole ‘women can’t be in combat bullsh*t’,” Sedam said. A good friend of hers now was an infantry sergeant at the time. When he first met Sedam and Vaughn while walking with a combat camera Marine, the sergeant looked annoyed and told the combat camera Marine, “I don’t like the company you keep.”

In addition to small incidents such as this, women were often denied the respect and honors they’d earned.

Even though Sedam said both she and Vaughn braved multiple fire fights, neither received the Combat Action Ribbon while in uniform. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs database, Sedam was awarded the ribbon years later, but Vaughn never did.

That outcome mirrored rumors the women heard on deployment that commanders were threatened with relief if any of the FET members were given the ribbon.

Despite insults Sedam faced overseas and later while stateside struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder—a diagnosis she claims was ignored because Marines in her command didn’t believe she could have done the things she did—Sedam said she wouldn’t have done anything differently.

“At the time, I wasn’t supposed to be doing things like pulling rooftop security but guess who was doing it? These are your Marines, your family, and so at what point are you supposed to be like, ‘we’ve had so many casualties, but sorry about that, I can’t carry anything extra or stand post because I’m not allowed to,” she said.

Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told Military Times that mindset, displayed by Sedam and other women serving in the Middle East, opened leaders’ eyes to their potential.

But Sedam’s simply proud of the roles that women played at the time, regardless of the future outcomes.

“It gave us an advantage, we were able to reach the other half of the population that the men couldn’t and even sometimes we got more out of the men than our guys did,” she said. “I’m thankful I got to be a part of it.”

She’s also grateful she can tell her 9-year-old daughter, who wants to join the Marines, “Look at what we did. There’s no limit on what you can do.”

Already there

While women such as Sedam trailblazed new roles by serving on FETs, soldiers such as Nicole Alexander, now a lieutenant colonel, deployed in special operations units with jobs already open to women.

When Alexander—the current commander of 92nd Civil Affairs Battalion, U.S. Army Special Operations Command—joined the Army in 2004, however, she wanted to be a combat engineer.

“I wanted to blow things up and get after some of the IEDs,” she said laughing in an interview with Military Times.

At that time, women were not allowed to serve as combat engineers. She could only serve at a combat engineer battalion in non-combat positions, such as her job as support platoon leader.

Driven to do more, Alexander moved to civil affairs, part of special operations that interacts with locals to help build stable communities and relationships with U.S. forces. She has since deployed to Iraq, Turkey, Europe, Syria and Afghanistan.

Sometimes the only woman serving with Special Forces units, Alexander wanted to prove she belonged.

“I’ve had a really great experience in special operations in that men in the community, the SEALs, the Air Force, have all absolutely included and not discounted me because I was a woman,” she said. “Because of that, I’ve been able to lead other men and sorts of teams.”

Because an effective police force could better deter Taliban efforts to block Afghan government reform, Alexander was tasked with recruited Afghans to join the Afghan National Police.

And although the Afghan view on women in positions of authority was not as progressive as those in the United States, she said she did her job well enough that, she received the same respect as her male comrades.

“I wasn’t only having to work women and women’s issues,” Alexander said. “The men on my team and the Afghans on my team absolutely trusted me with what I was supposed to do as a civil affairs officer and support the governance of Afghanistan at a local level.”

On her second deployment to Afghanistan, she worked with combat medics treating local women and children, offering care and medicine. She was the only American woman present.

The experience showed the ways male and female troops worked together in combat zones, she said, even before the end of the gender ban.

“It’s important to note that we were already in these fields, like civil affairs, that pushed us forward and into the thick of it,” Alexander said. She’s happy though to see that her niece is now serving as a combat engineer, as Alexander wanted for herself.

No guarantee of success or failure

While serving as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and later as defense secretary between 2011 and 2013, Panetta routinely saw women serve in the most dangerous of roles in the War on Terror.

“I was going to a bunch of different combat areas in Afghanistan, particularly in the north and south, and in the course of doing that I had a chance to see a lot of women who were involved in one way or another in various operations there,” Panetta said.

A female helicopter pilot flew him across Afghanistan, and at bases were women serving as proficiently as their male counterparts, he said.

Between 2001 and 2021, more than 800 women were wounded and 152 died serving in the Middle East, two of them killed alongside 11 other servicemembers in the final days of the withdrawal.

“I was writing notes to the families of those who had been killed in action and I was finding myself writing notes to the families of women who were getting killed and it raised the question in my mind, ‘you know, these women are putting their lives on the line, why is it that they’re restricted from actual combat?” Panetta said.

Panetta told then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey of his new-found goal. Dempsey shared his faith in female service members, Panetta said, and began the mission to open the 10% of military jobs still not available to women.

The most pressing concern among each of the branches was maintaining standards.

Standards didn’t have to be weakened, Panetta said. They would be, and already were, being met and maintained.

“We didn’t guarantee success, we didn’t guarantee failure, but what we should do is guarantee that they have a chance to be able to serve in combat roles,” he said.

In early 2013, Panetta ordered the services to open all combat fields to women across the branches. In 2015, the defense department lifted the gender ban.

Legacy

Since 2001, women have met the countless challenges set before them.

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester was the first woman awarded the Silver Star Medal for combat actions after her unit was in a 2005 fire fight in Iraq where she killed three insurgents and cleared a trench line along with her squad leader.

Spc. Monica Brown received the Silver Star for her deeds in Afghanistan serving as a combat medic, when, in 2007, she threw herself over casualties while taking mortar fire and continued treating fellow soldiers while under small arms fire.

Army Gen. Ann Dunwoody became the first woman in the U.S. military to reach the rank of four-star general in 2008.

“I’ve heard from moms and dads that see this promotion as a beacon of hope for their own daughters, and an affirmation that anything is possible through hard work and commitment,” Dunwoody said.

In 2015, U.S. Military Academy alumni 1st Lt. Shaye Haver and Capt. Kristen Griest became the first women to graduate from the Army’s challenging Ranger school. By March of 2020, more than 50 women had completed the elite course.

“I think if females continue to come to this course, they can be encouraged by what we have accomplished, but hopefully they’re encouraged by the legacy that the Ranger community has left,” Haver said in an Army press release.

The Air Force’s Gen. Lori Robinson became the first woman to lead a combatant command in 2016 after being tapped to lead U.S. Northern Command.

The Marine Corps, the last branch to fully open up all combat roles with the approval of its gender integration plan in 2016, had 60% more women in 2019 holding roles in all-male units than they had one year prior.

Marine 1st Lt. Marina A. Hierl was the first woman to pass the arduous Infantry Officer’s Course in 2017. A year later she became the first female infantry platoon leader as Lt. Col. Michelle Macander took command as the Corps’ first female commander of a ground combat battalion.

Last year, the Navy saw its first woman pass the grueling 37-week course for Naval Special Warfare combatant-craft crewman. Seventeen women sailors had attempted the feat previously. The maritime branch also assigned Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt in 2021 as its first female commander of an aircraft carrier.

Before gender integration, special tactics jobs were the only Air Force positions closed to women. On June 23, an Air Force captain became the service’s first female special tactics officer.

The successes of women filling combat roles have begun to mount despite the journey to fully opening all positions being neither quick or easy.

Women still face opposition and ongoing challenges such as fair integration in all areas, from de-segregating Marine Corps boot camp platoons to providing women’s health care at previously all-male units.

Leaders such as Panetta noted how female service members met the demands of what was called ‘a forever war’ and the challenges that arose in its aftermath.

“I couldn’t be prouder of what [women] have done in really stepping up and accepting the challenge that was provided and what they will continue to do in the future,” Panetta said.

And for the women who were there, the roles they played from support to specialized missions feel like only the beginning.

“Twenty years of combat matters,” Alexander said. “Women had to go overseas, had to do it. And women that got to be a part of all of it, living in small villages, being a part of small teams, of the Green Berets’ Operational Detachment Alpha’s, proved that it’s possible that a woman and a man can live next to each other and be okay.

“I’m excited to see what comes next,” she said.

Narrow down your skills and interests

The first part of the job search is, of course, figuring out what it is that you want to do. You may not have the ability to start your dream job right away, but think about what experiences could help get you there. You don’t want to look at jobs too broadly, so understand where your education and skills currently fall and begin your job search from there.

The good news is you can start this process before you transition out of the military. The U.S. Department of Labor has self-assessments for you to learn about jobs where you would be a good fit and an occupation profile to search for jobs near you. If you don’t already have the experience you need, consider taking a class or getting licensed in a new skill, which can be very cost-effective or even free on a military base.

Get all of your materials in order

To successfully find a job, you will need to have an updated resume and cover letter. These are the first items your potential employer will see, so you want to effectively showcase your talents and clearly outline what you can bring to the position. Be sure to keep it brief and make it personal to you. The Department of Defense’s Military OneScource has a guide for making your civilian resume and cover letter.

In addition to your resume and cover letter, a job recruiter might look you up on social media to get a better sense of your personality. Consider your posts and privacy settings, and look at your social media from the perspective of a job recruiter who has never met you — what impression does it make? You may also want to create a LinkedIn account, where you can easily display your skills and connect with professionals in your field of choice.

Apply, apply, apply

Often, it can take a lot of job applications and interviews to find the right fit. It might be discouraging, but the earlier you start, the better chance you have of securing a job before you transition. You can utilize your local Transition Assistance Program (TAP) office and job fairs to help you with your searches and networking. Putting yourself out there is not the easiest thing to do, but it is necessary to find the right job. Have confidence in yourself and your abilities, and remember that everyone has to start somewhere.