We finally have a Navy with no more 'firsts' for women

It was a proud day for the U.S. Navy and all women who serve and have served when the last place women were not assigned was cracked open: A sailor qualified for duty on a special warfare (SEAL) boat unit for the first time.

Women have served in supporting roles in Navy special warfare units before, even dying during service — like Information Warfare Senior Chief Petty Officer and Cryptologist Shannon Kent — who was killed in combat in 2019 in Syria, but never as part of a Navy SEALS special warfare combatant-craft crew. With the last glass ceiling shattered, so fell the last gender barrier in the Navy. We never have to see another Navy headline of “first woman to” — and that is welcome news.

The Navy has enjoyed a long history of integrating women into its force, from the “sacred twenty” first female nurses to serve, appointed after Congress established the Navy Nurse Corps on May 13, 1908, followed by a number of women who served in the Chaplain corps and other clerical positions during World War I. Then President Franklin D. Roosevelt started the women’s reserve program in July 1942 which allowed thousands of women to serve during WWII.