FAITH LAPIDUS: Women make up about fifteen percent of the Navy’s more than three hundred thirty thousand service members. They have been serving on naval ships since nineteen ninety-four. But until now they were barred from submarines.
The Navy says about twenty women will be chosen as the first group to serve on submarines. All will be officers. Non-officers will be considered later. The women will attend a submarine training program. They are expected to begin serving on crews next year or early two thousand twelve. They will serve on two guided-missile and two ballistic-missile subs based in the states of Washington and Georgia.
Critics of the idea say the living areas in submarines are too small and narrow for men and women to serve together. They say close physical contact is impossible to avoid.
But the commander of naval submarine forces, Vice Admiral John Donnelly, disagrees. He says the Navy has to choose submariners from the widest possible group of skilled service members. He says that is how the Navy will continue to have what he calls the “best submarine force in the world.”
Women already serve on submarines in the national navies of Australia, Canada, Norway and a few other countries.
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DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question comes from a student in China. Han Linyuan wants to know about the famous writer Jack London.
Jack London is considered to be one of America’s finest writers. He was born in San Francisco, California in eighteen seventy-six. He left school at the age of fourteen. But he loved to read and spent many days at public libraries. At an early age, Jack London knew he wanted to become a writer. But he had many other interests as well. He loved to sail, and he traveled many times across the Pacific Ocean.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25