The Navy on Thursday announced its first woman had joined its special operations community after she completed training to become a Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewman (SWCC).
The woman, who is not identified, graduated from the Crewman Qualification Training Class 115 on Thursday and received her pin, becoming a Special Warfare Combatant Crewman.
She graduated along with 16 men, according to Naval Special Warfare Command (NSW or NSWC), the Navy’s component of United States Special Operations Command. The woman will now head to a Special Boat Team, NSW told Breitbart News on Friday.
NSW said in a statement:
Graduates of any NSW assessment and selection pipeline have met the rigorous standards to enter their chosen profession, demonstrating they possess the character, cognitive and leadership attributes required to join the force. Historically, about 35 percent of SWCC candidates make it to graduation.
It added that the training “challenges candidates through adversity, always upholding validated, gender-neutral and operationally-relevant standards.” SWCC are experts in covert insertion and extraction, utilizing a unique combination of capabilities with weapons, navigation, radio communication, first aid, engineering, parachuting, and special operations tactics, the statement said.
According to the Associated Press, she is the first of 18 women to have tried out for a job as a SWCC or a SEAL to succeed. Three of the 18 women are still in the pipeline — one for SWCC and two attempting to become SEALs.
The training was 37 weeks, which includes the initial recruit boot camp, a two-month preparatory course, a three-week orientation at the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado, and seven weeks where they learn basic navigation and water skill, as well as physical conditioning and safety. At the end of the seven weeks is a 72-hour crucible called “The Tour,” which is where most candidates fail.
Those who pass “The Tour” go on to seven weeks of basic crewman training, followed by a seven-week intermediate-level seamanship course, and finally survival, evasion, resistance and escape (SERE) training, and a cultural course. About 300 sailors attempt the SWCC course every year and about 70 complete it. There are between 760 and 800 in the force at any one time.
The commander of NSWC, Navy Rear Ad. H.Wyman Howard III, said in a statement, “Becoming the first woman to graduate from a Naval Special Warfare training pipeline is an extraordinary accomplishment, and we are incredibly proud of our teammate.”
He added: “Like her fellow operators, she demonstrated the character, cognitive and leadership attributes required to join our force.”
Howard last month told the Associated Press that NSWC is trying to expand diversity within the Navy special operations community and build a more inclusive force.
He said one of his first moves when he took command last September was to eliminate separate training for SEAL and special warfare recruits from other sailor-trainees in boot camp. “It made sense at the time. Doesn’t make sense now,” he said.
Howard also told the AP that after the January 6 Capitol riot, he brought 10,000 copies of the Constitution and have been giving them out to troops, with a card inside that says that serving the nation “requires we remain strictly apolitical and non-partisan to maintain the trust and confidence of all our fellow citizens.”
He said it reminds troops of their oath, and that “we have an obligation to be inclusive, it’s how we solve problems. And that’s what we’re doing.”
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