Women in warfare and the military (2000–present)

This article is about women in warfare and the military (2000–present) throughout the world.

2000

• Caracal Battalion, Israel's first mixed female and male combat unit, was created in 2000.
• Regina Mills became the U.S. Navy's first female Aviation Deck LDO on 1 July 2000.
• The U.S. Air Force promotes the first female pilot to brigadier general.
• U.S. Navy women are among the victims and heroes when the USS Cole is attacked by a suicide bomber in Yemen.
• The first woman commands a U.S. Navy warship at sea (Kathleen McGrath.) The vessel is assigned to the Persian Gulf.
• Women at Sea (WAS) Distribution and Assignment Working Group established in the U.S. Navy.
• The Army National Guard promotes the first woman to major general.
• First woman in the U.S. Coast Guard promoted to RADM: Mary P O'Donnell, 2000.
• First woman in the U.S. Coast Guard promoted to Reserve RADM: Mary P. O'Donnell, USCGR.
• First African-American woman in the U.S. Coast Guard promoted to Master Chief Petty Officer: Angela McShan.
• First woman in the U.S. Coast Guard promoted to CWO (AVI), Deborah Walsh, 1 June 2000.
• Lucille "Pam" Thompson became the first African-American woman to serve as a U.S. Coast Guard Special Agent: July 2000 to July 2004.
• 27 March: Elza Kungayeva, an 18 year old Chechen woman, is abducted and murdered by a Russian Army Colonel during the Second Chechen War. Her murder was one of the first cases in which Russian authorities promptly and publicly acknowledged a war crime perpetrated by Russian federal forces against civilians in Chechnya.
• September: West Side Boys, an armed group in Sierra Leone, are destroyed during Operation Barras, and subsequent operations by the Sierra Leone Army and the British Army's Royal Irish Rangers, the Parachute Regiment and the Special Air Service. The group had female fighters as well as male ones.

2001

• An Air National Guard security force woman becomes the first woman to complete the U.S. counter-sniper course, the only U.S. military sniper program open to women at the time.
• The US Army Women's Museum opens at Ft. Lee, Virginia.
• The first female jet fighter pilot for the Israeli Air Force, Roni Zuckerman, received her wings in 2001.
• Susan Woo becomes the first female West Point cadet to win an East/West Center Scholarship.
• Kimberly Pienkowski becomes the first female West Point cadet to win a first team all-America in air rifle.
• COL Ann Horner becomes the first female Garrison Commander at West Point.
• Capt. Maryse Carmichael became the first female Snowbird pilot in Canada.
• CDR Sharon Donald-Baynes became the first African-American woman to command an operations ashore unit in the U.S. Coast Guard when she took command of Group Lower Mississippi River based in Memphis, Tennessee.
• ENS Andrea Parker became the first African-American woman to graduate with an engineering degree from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
• Spring: Coral Wong Pietch became the first woman Army Judge Advocates General (JAG), and the first Asian-American woman to reach the rank of General in the United States Army.
• 11 September: During the 9/11 terror attacks, U.S combat pilots Lt. Col. Marc H. Sasseville and Lt. Heather "Lucky" Penney are ordered to bring down the hijacked airliner United Airlines Flight 93 by ramming their F-16s into it. The plane crashes in Pennsylvania before they can do so, however. Furthermore, in the attack at the Pentagon ten active duty, reserve, and retired servicewomen were among the casualties. Servicewomen were activated and deployed in support of the war on terrorism.
• November: Chechen woman Aiza Gazuyeva assassinates a Russian general by suicide bombing. She is the first Chechen shahidka, or "black widow", a term for female suicide bombers. More women begin to copy her example.
• December: Julie Hammer becomes the first woman Commandant of the Australian Defence Force Academy.
• CAPT Norma Hackney became the first woman in the U.S. Navy to have a major combatant command afloat, USS SAIPAN (LHA 2).
• CMDCM Evelyn Banks became the first female Command Master Chief of a Airwing in the U.S. Navy, CVW-14.

2002

• An enlisted female U.S. Marine (Sergeant Jeannette L. Winters) is killed in an aircraft crash in Pakistan, the first woman to die in the Global War on Terror (specifically Operation Enduring Freedom).
• The U.S. Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) is issued a new charter narrowing its focus to issues pertaining to military families, recruitment, readiness and retention. A retired Marine three-star general is appointed chairman of the new, downsized advisory committee.
• For the first time in its history, the U.S. Army National Guard promotes an African-American woman to the rank of brigadier general.
• For the first time in US history, a woman becomes the top enlisted advisor in one of the military components. She is sworn in as the Command Sergeant Major of the US Army Reserve.
• Chief Warrant Officer Camille Tkacz is the first woman appointed to a Command Chief position as assistant deputy minister (Human Resources – Military) Chief Warrant Officer in Canada.
• In June 2002, CAPT Jane M. Hartley, USCGR, was designated as the Commanding Officer of Marine Safety Office Wilmington, North Carolina and as such became the first woman in the U.S. Coast Guard to become Captain of the Port.
• Jeannie Huh becomes the first female West Point cadet to win a Mitchell Scholarship.
• Lauren Rowe becomes the first West Point cadet to win Patriot League "Defensive Player of the Year" award in women's soccer and only the second to win regional first-team all-America recognition.
• Then-CDR Gail Kulisch took command of the Atlantic Strike Team, becoming the first female commanding officer of a Strike Team in the U.S. Coast Guard.
• Cadet 1/c Sarah Salazar became the first Hispanic female Regimental Commander at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
• January: Yang Seung Sook becomes the first female general in the history of the South Korean military.
• March: Vernice Armour becomes the first African-American female combat pilot in the United States military. She flew the AH-1W SuperCobra attack helicopter in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and eventually served two tours in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
• May: Captain Philippa Tattersall becomes the first woman to earn the Royal Marines green beret. She is not allowed to serve in combat, however.
• 26 September: Three female airforce officers are appointed as airforce fighter pilots in South Korea, making them the first women to become fighter pilots in the history of the country.
• CAPT Deborah Loewer became the first female SWO (1110) to be selected for flag officer in the U.S. Navy.
• MIDN 1/C Emelia Spencer became the first woman from the U.S. Naval Academy to be selected as a Rhodes Scholar.
• CMDCM Jacqueline DiRosa became the first female Force Master Chief in the U.S. Navy (Bureau of Medicine and Surgery – BUMED).

2003

PFC Jessica Lynch, USA

• Maj. Anne Reiffenstein became the first female in Canada to command a combat arms sub-unit.
• The U.S Marine Corps Logistics Base's first female brown belt instructor was certified (Cpl. Theresa Barnes).
• Lt.-Cmdr. Marta Mulkins is the first woman to serve as a captain of a Canadian warship.
• Maj. Jennie Carignan of 5 Combat Engineer Regiment (5 CER) becomes the first female Deputy Commanding Officer of a combat arms unit in Canada.
• Leading Seaman Hayley John and Leading Seaman Marketa Semik are the first female clearance divers in Canada.
• Master Seaman Colleen Beattie is the first woman in Canada qualified as a submariner, followed shortly by Master Seaman Carey Ann Stewart.
• The first and only all female Canadian military team to complete the Nijmegan March in Holland carrying the same weight as male teams do so in 2003. The team members are: team leader Lieut. Debbie Scott, second-in-command Capt. Lucie Mauger, Lieut. Jody Weathered, Cpl. Elizabeth Mutch, Warrant Officer Nathalie Mercer, Warrant Officer Jackie Revell, Master Corporal Denise Robert, Cpl. Melissa Cedilot, Cpl. Danette Frasz, Lt.-Col. Teresa McNutt, Lieut. Donna Rogers and Cpl. Anne MacDonald.
• Julie Hammer, RAAF, is promoted to Air Vice-Marshal. She is the first woman to achieve two-star rank in the history of Australian Defence Force
• First active-duty women in the U.S. Coast Guard to serve in a combat zone: when CGC Boutwell served in the Persian Gulf in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom from January 2003 to June 2003.
• LT Holly Harrison became the first U.S. Coast Guard woman to command a cutter in a combat zone. She was also the first Coast Guard woman to be awarded the Bronze Star Medal.
• January: 2003 US Air Force Academy sexual assault scandal emerges.
• 27 February: Serbian politician Biljana Plavšić is sentenced to 11 years in prison for war crimes.
• March: PFC Jessica Lynch, USA, is embroiled in a controversy over differing accounts of her capture and rescue in Iraq.
• March: Shoshana Johnson becomes the first black female prisoner of war in United States history.
• 23 March: SPC Lori Piestewa, USA, is killed in action. She is the first woman soldier to be killed in action in the 2003 Iraq Conflict, and the first Native American woman to be killed in action while serving in the United States Military.
• 7 April: Capt Kim Campbell, USAF, gains favorable notice when she successfully pilots her aircraft back to base despite extensive damage in a combat mission.
• July: Lt.-Cdr. Marta Mulkins takes command of a Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel, HMCS Kingston. She is the first woman commanding officer of a Canadian Navy ship.
• In December 2003 U.S. Coast Guard helicopter pilot LCDR Sidonie Bosin was recognized by the First Flight Centennial Commission's 100 Heroes Committee (formed for the commemoration of the Wright Brothers first powered flight) as being one of the "top 100 aviators of all time." She was also the first female aviation officer in charge of air crews deployed to the Coast Guard cutter Polar Sea in the Antarctic, including one of an all-female flight crew.
• In 2003 Rear Admiral Carol I. Turner became the first female Chief of the U.S. Navy Dental Corps.
• In 2003 Sarah Schechter became the first female rabbi in the U.S. Air Force.
• In 2003 the Air Force Academy removed its sign stating "Bring Me Men". In 2004 they replaced it with a sign stating "Integrity First. Service Before Self. Excellence In All We Do," which is the Air Force's statement of core values.
• The U.S. Navy opens Sea Operational Detachments (SEAOPDETS) to women.
• In October, RDML Deborah Loewer, SWO, became the first warfare qualified woman promoted to flag rank in the U.S. Navy.
• CMDCM Beth Lambert became the first female Command Master Chief of a Aircraft Carrier in the U.S. Navy, USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71).
• CMDCM Evelyn Banks became the first female CNOCM of U.S. Navy Recruiting.
• Susan Livingstone became the first female Acting U.S. Secretary of the Navy from January–February 2003.

2004

• The Commanding Officer billet aboard Patrol Coastal (PC) ships was opened to female officers in the U.S. Navy.
• The first woman in US Air Force history takes command of a fighter squadron.
• Chief Petty Officer, 1st Class Jan Davis is appointed Coxswain of HMCS Regina and is the first woman Coxswain of a major warship in Canada.
• Major D., an IAF MANAT (Flight Test Center) test-engineer flew the F-16I Sufa on Tuesday (27 April 2004). She was the first woman in the Israel Defense Forces to fly a F-16I jet.

MAJ Tammy Duckworth, USA

• Then-CDR Meredith Austin of the U.S. Coast Guard took command of the National Strike Force Coordination Center, becoming the first female commanding officer of the Center.
• YNC Crystal A. Sparks of the U.S. Coast Guard became the first female Company Commander School Chief at TRACEN Petaluma.
• LCDR Rhonda Fleming-Makell was the first African-American female U.S. Coast Guard officer to earn a 20-year retirement.
• YNCM Pamela J. Carter was the first female active duty master chief petty officer in the U.S. Coast Guard to retire with 30 years of active-duty service when she retired on 1 June 2004.
• First female commanding officer of the U.S. Coast Guard Institute: Theresa Tierney, August 2004.
• Wendy Carpenter became the U.S. Navy’s first female aviator admiral.
• LCDR Louvenia A. McMillan became the U.S. Coast Guard's first African American female Intelligence Officer and the first African American female Field Intelligence Support Team Leader.
• Jill Morgenthaler, a retired U.S. Army Reserve Colonel, handles press duties for the army, including the Abu Ghraib scandal.
• First Lieutenant Melissa Stockwell, a U.S. Army officer, becomes the first American female soldier to lose a limb in the Iraq War.
• American Iraq veterans Kelly Dougherty and Diana Morrison co-found Iraq Veterans Against the War with other veterans.
• 2 January: CPT Kimberly Hampton, USA, becomes the first female military pilot to be shot down and killed by an enemy in United States history.
• 9 April: SPC Michelle Witmer is killed in Baghdad. She is the first woman from the United States National Guard to be killed in action in history. Her sister was subsequently removed from action by the military, citing the risk that enemy forces might target her in an effort to harm U.S. morale.
• September: Brig Gen Dana H. Born, USAF, becomes the dean of faculty at the United States Air Force Academy. She is the first woman to hold that position.
• 30 October: SPC Megan Ambuhl, USA, is convicted of dereliction of duty at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in relation to detainee abuse.
• 31 October: S/Sgt Denise Rose, British Army, becomes the first female British soldier to die in military operations in the Iraq War. Her death is ruled to be a suicide by an inquest.
• 12 November: MAJ Tammy Duckworth, USA, loses both legs when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents. This makes her the first female double amputee from the Iraq war.
• Katie MacFarlane graduates West Point as the Patriot League's all-time leading rebounder in both men's and women's basketball and is the Army women's basketball record-holder in scoring, rebounding and field goals.
• BG Rebecca S. Halstead (USMA '81) becomes the first female West Point graduate to attain the rank of general officer. Before the end of the year, BG Anne Macdonald (USMA '80) becomes a second.
• Michelle Weinbaum, a West Point cadet, becomes the first fencer in the 72-year history of the Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association to win three consecutive invitational titles.
• By year’s end, 19 U.S. servicewomen had been killed as a result of hostile action since the war in Iraq had begun in 2003, the most servicewomen to die as a result of hostile action in any war that the nation had participated.
• Russia's first all-girls military school, Moscow Girls Cadet Boarding School No. 9, opened in 2004.
• Daniella Kolodny became the first female rabbi enlisted in the U.S. Naval Academy.

2005

• LT Marisa McClure reported as first female CO of a PC in the U.S. Navy.
• RDML Wendi Carpenter became the second woman warfare qualified flag officer and the first woman aviator of that rank in the U.S. Navy.

Private Lynndie England in one of the photos from the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal

• LTJG Jeanine McIntish-Menze became the first African-American female U.S. Coast Guard aviator when she pinned on her wings of gold on 24 June 2005.
• SGT Leigh Ann Hester, USA, received the Silver Star for her actions in Iraq during an enemy ambush on their convoy near the town of Salman Pak. She killed at least 3 of the attacking insurgents. Hester was the first female soldier to receive the award for exceptional valor since World War II and the first woman ever to receive the silver star for close combat.
• Elizabeth Cosson becomes the first woman to be promoted to the rank of Brigadier in the Australian Army.
• May: Janis Karpinski, USA, is demoted from Brigadier General to Colonel, although her demotion is not formally related to the abuse at Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal.
• 3 May: SPC Lynndie England, USAR, pleads guilty to abusing Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal.
• 16 May: SPC Sabrina Harman, USAR, is convicted of one count of conspiracy to maltreat detainees, four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of dereliction of duty in connection with the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal scandal.
• 23 June: Cpl. Ramona M. Valdez and Lance Cpl. Holly A. Charette became the first female Marines killed in Iraq when an improvised explosive device detonated near their convoy vehicle in Fallujah. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Regina R. Clark dies in the same incident, becoming the first female Seabee killed in action.
• August: U.S. Army soldier Selena M. Salcedo pleads guilty to assaulting an Afghani prisoner, Dilawar, who died as a result of mistreatment.
• 28 September: United States Airman First Class Elizabeth Jacobson is killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom. She is the first female airman to be killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
• December: Brig Gen Susan Y. Desjardins, USAF becomes the first female Commandant of Cadets at the United States Air Force Academy, and the first woman in the history of any of the academies to be appointed to this position.
• Khara Keegan becomes the first female West Point cadet to receive the "Outstanding Boxer Awards" at the 49th Brigade Boxing Open.
• 1LT Laura Walker (USMA '03) becomes the first female West Point graduate to be killed in action when she is killed in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
• Lieutenant Colonel Maria T. Zumwalt became the first female Aide de Camp to the United States Army Chief of Staff

2006

Major Nicole Malachowski

• The U.S. Coast Guard appoints the first female Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard, making her the first woman in history to serve as a deputy service chief in any of the U.S. Armed Forces.
• The U.S. Marine Corps assigns the first female Marine in history to command a Recruit Depot.
• CWO3 Mary Ward became the first female warrant boatswain to command a U.S. Coast Guard station when she took command of Station Port Canaveral in 2006 where she served until her retirement on 16 June 2006.
• CWO2 Apple G. Pryor, assigned as the Main Propulsion Assistant onboard the CGC Boutwell, was the first African-American female Naval Engineering Chief Warrant Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard.
• LT Isabel Papp was the first female medical officer to be assigned to a PSU in the U.S. Coast Guard. She was also the first Hispanic female MD to be assigned to a PSU and was also the first Hispanic female Physician's Assistant in the Coast Guard Reserve.
• LT Rachel Lewis was the first African-American female officer in the U.S. Coast Guard to serve aboard USCGB Eagle as Command Cadre (Operations Officer), 2006–2008.
• MAJ Tammy Duckworth, USA runs for U.S. Congress.
• 1 January: Chai Hui-chen becomes Taiwan's first female combat-status general.
• March: Public debut of Maj Nicole Malachowski, USAF, the first woman pilot selected to fly as part of the Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron (Thunderbirds), and the first woman on any US military high performance jet team. She was selected in 2005.
• May: Flight Lieutenant Sarah-Jayne Mulvihill becomes the first British servicewoman to be killed in the Iraq War.
• 17 May: Captain Nichola Goddard, (Canadian Forces Land Force Command), becomes the first Canadian woman to be killed in action since World War II, and the first Canadian female combat soldier to be killed on the front lines. She was near the front lines serving as a forward artillery observer during a battle with Taliban forces. She was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade struck her light-armoured vehicle.
• 16 June: Pte Michelle Norris, British Army, saves the life of her sergeant by climbing out of a vehicle and pulling him from the turret of the Warrior Patrol Vehicle that they were in while under heavy gunfire. She is eventually awarded the Military Cross for her actions, and is the first woman to receive one.
• 12 August: Sgt. Maj. Keren Tendler, the first female Israeli helicopter flight mechanic, is killed in action during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict along with four other crew members. A fund is later established in her name to help other women become flight mechanics.
• 8 September: SFC Meredith Howard, USA, is killed in action in Afghanistan. At age 52, she is the oldest American female soldier to be killed in combat.
• 22 September: Aviation Cadet Saira Amin wins the Sword of Honour at The Pakistan Air Force Academy, becoming the first female aviation cadet to do so.
• December: The number of American servicewomen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan reaches 70, more than the total from the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and Operation Desert Storm. The 70 women represent less than two percent of the American deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• December: Margaret D. Klein, USN, becomes the first female Commandant of Midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy.
• 6 December: Maj Megan McClung, USMC, became the first female Marine officer to die in Iraq. Her death also made her the first female graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy to be killed in the line of duty.
• Chief of Naval Operations-directed Command Master Chief (SW/AW) FLTCM Jacqueline DiRosa assumed duties as Fleet Master Chief, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, on 17 July 2006, making her the first U.S. woman to hold the office of a fleet-level master chief.
• CAPT Cindy Talbert became the first female LDO to obtain the rank of Captain in the U.S. Navy.
• HTCS(SW)Tanya DelPriore became the first female selected as a Command Senior Chief in the U.S. Navy.
• CMDCM April Beldo became the first female Command Master Chief of Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes in the U.S. Navy.
• MC1 Jackey Bratt became the first female Combat Photographer to be awarded the Bronze Star in the U.S. Navy.
• CDR Lenora C.Langlais became the first African American U.S. Navy Nurse Corps Officer to receive a Purple Heart in combat, during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
• Maritza Sáenz Ryan became the first woman and first Hispanic (Puerto Rican and Spanish heritage) West Point graduate to serve as an academic department head at West Point. In 2006, after accepting the presidential nomination and being confirmed by Congress, Sáenz Ryan was named head of the Department of Law at West Point. She replaced former head Finnegan, who left to become the academy’s Dean of the Academic Board.
• In December 2006 female cadets from the Pakistan Military Academy for the first time assumed guard duties at the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam at Karachi.
• In this year women were enrolled in the Pakistani military for assignments other than duties in medical setups/units for the first time in history.
• On August 2nd, 2006, Angela Salinas became the first Hispanic woman to become a United States Marine Corps general officer, and the sixth woman in the Marine Corps to reach the rank of brigadier general.

2007

Specialist Monica Lin Brown

• Sara A. Joyner became the first woman in the U.S. Navy to assume command of an operational fighter squadron.
• HTCS(SW) Tanya DelPriore became the first woman in the U.S. Navy to be awarded the Expeditionary Warfare Pin.
• CMDCM Evelyn Banks became the first female Command Master Chief of the U.S. Naval Academy.
• NCCS(SW/AW) Cynthia Patterson became the first female Command Senior Chief of a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) in the U.S. Navy – USS INDEPENDENCE, LCS 2 BLUE.
• CMDCM Laura Martinez became the first African American female Force Master Chief of Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) in the U.S. Navy.
• Lana Hicks was the first African American woman selected to the ranks of CWO5 in the U.S. Navy.
• Mary Cunningham became the first African-American female and the first active-duty female in the U.S. Coast Guard to make Chief Damage Controlman when she was promoted from DC1 to DCC on 1 August 2007.
• On 25 September 2007 AMT2 Katrina Cooley became the first African-American female HH-65 Flight Mechanic in the U.S. Coast Guard.
• Martha E. Utley became the first female master chief for the Health Services rating in the U.S. Coast Guard.
• In 2007 the Brigade of Gurkhas announced that women are allowed to join. Like their British counterparts, Gurkha women are eligible to join the Royal Engineers, Logistics Corps, Signals and brigade band, although not infantry units.
• 19 January: The United Nations first all female peacekeeping force is set to deploy to Liberia. The peacekeeping force is made up of 105 Indian policewomen.
• Spring: Spc Sorimar Perez and Spc Amanda Landers become the first women in the history of the United States military to become Avenger crewmembers. The positions were restricted to males until October 2006.
• March: The Botswana Defence Force begins recruiting women into military service. Tebogo Masire, the commander, states that they will not receive special treatment.
• March: Acting Leading Seaman Faye Turney, a British sailor, is captured by Iran along with fourteen other British sailors. While captive, she appears on television apologizing for trespassing in Iranian waters, and also writes a letter stating that she and her fellow sailors "apparently trespassed" on Iranian waters.
• April: The fifteen British sailors captured by Iran are released. It is revealed that Acting Leading Seaman Faye Turney was separated from the other sailors and singled out for special treatment by the Iranians. In a news conference, some of the other sailors state that she was used as a propaganda tool by Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticizes the United Kingdom for sending Turney, the mother of a young child, into a war zone.
• April: Monica Lin Brown, Specialist in the United States Army stationed in Afghanistan, saves the lives of her fellow soldiers by running through gunfire and using her body as a shield while mortars fell nearby. She earned a Silver Star medal for her actions.
• 10 July: Captain María Inés Ortiz, U.S. Army, becomes the first Puerto Rican nurse to die in combat and first Army nurse to die in combat since the Vietnam War.
• 28 September: Ciara Durkin, a member of the Massachusetts National Guard, dies under mysterious circumstances while deployed in Afghanistan. Her death is ruled a suicide, but her family disputes this.
• The first woman in US Naval history takes command of a fighter squadron.
• The last U.S. female veteran of World War I dies, a former yeoman (F). Her name was Charlotte Winters.
• U.S. Spec. Jamiell Goforth became the first female soldier to win the Forces Command Soldier of the Year competition.
• The Service Women's Action Network was established in 2007 to provide U.S. female veterans with resources and community support to help them heal their wounds and readjust to civilian society. SWAN has since become a 501(c)3 human rights organization providing national policy advocacy and direct services to U.S. servicewomen and female veterans.
• Since 2007, Mexico's army has allowed women soldiers to work as pilots and engineers in addition to nurses and doctors.
• LCDR Louvenia A. McMillan became the U.S. Coast Guard's first African-American woman to hold the Advanced Boat Force Operations Insignia.

2008

General Ann E. Dunwoody

• Jennifer Lowden became the first female school chief for Training Center Yorktown in the U.S. Coast Guard on 1 June 2008. She also became the first female MKCS in the Coast Guard when she was promoted on 1 August 2008.
• March: British flight Lieutenant Michelle Goodman, a helicopter pilot, becomes the first woman to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
• 23 May: Lt. Col. Pi Woo-jin, one of the first female helicopter pilots in the South Korean military, is reinstated into the military after a legal battle over her forced medical discharge after she underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer. She is the first soldier to ever be reinstated into the South Korean military after a forced medical discharge.
• April: Melissa Stockwell becomes the first American Iraq War vet to be chosen for the Paralympics.
• 10 April: Squaw Peak, Arizona is renamed Piestewa Peak in honor of Lori Piestewa.
• 18 June: Corporal Sarah Bryant becomes the first female British soldier to be killed in Afghanistan when she and three other SAS men die in a roadside bomb.
• 30 September: As of this date, over 200,000 women are serving active duty in the United States military.
• 14 November: Lieutenant General Ann E. Dunwoody, U.S. Army, becomes the first U.S. military female officer to be promoted to the rank of four-star general.
• The Pentagon reports that the number of reports of sexual assault in the U.S. military rose by 8 percent this year from 2007.
• Shawna Kimbrell becomes the first black female fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force.
• Christy Isis Achanzar becomes the first Filipina to graduate from West Point.
• The U.S Marines began using female engagement teams in 2008.
• Ofra Gutman became the first female officer in the Rabbinate Corps of the Israel Defense Forces, although she was not a rabbi.

2009

• CMDCM(AW/SW) JoAnn Ortloff became the first female Operational (numbered) Fleet Command Master Chief in the U.S. Navy, when assigned to COMTHIRDFLT.
• Flt Lt Kirsty Moore became the first female aviator for the Royal Air Force's Red Arrows, the RAF's aerobatic team.
• LT Felicia Thomas took command of the CGC Pea Island on 19 June 2009. She is the first African-American female commanding officer of a U.S. Coast Guard cutter.
• LT Carrie Wolfe and LT Olivia Grant became the first African-American female Engineering Officers on a "major" cutter in the U.S. Coast Guard when they reported aboard the CGC Spencer and CGC Venturous respectively in the summer of 2009.
• CAPT Sandra L. Stosz was promoted to RADM, becoming the first female graduate of the Coast Guard Academy to reach flag rank.
• January: Kim Rivera, the first female soldier to flee the U.S. military for Canada, is deported back to the United States after losing her appeal in Canadian court.
• 21 January: Samira Jassam, an Iraqi recruiter of female suicide bombers, is captured. She admits to organizing rapes against potential recruits in order to convince them that martyrdom was the only means to escape their shame.
• 20 February: Lt. Col. Brenda Cartier becomes the first female flying squadron commander in the United States Air Force Special Operations Command.
• 8 April: Commander Josée Kurtz becomes the first woman to command a major Canadian warship.
• 15 April: "The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq" is published. It consists of forty interviews of female veterans discussing their experiences of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment by their male counterparts.
• April: Lance Corporal Amy Thomas finishes her six-month tour of duty, the last two months of which she spent attached to the elite Royal Marines of 42 Command. She is believed to be the British Army’s first female combatant. Women are traditionally unable to join the Marines or infantry regiments in the British military.
• Statistics from the U.S. Defense Department state that one in 10 U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are female, and more women have fought and died in the Iraq war than any since World War II.
• August: Abu Sayyaf, a militant Islamic group in the Philippines, is reported to be recruiting female fighters.
• September: The United States Army makes Command Sgt. Maj. Teresa L. King the first woman to oversee drill sergant training in its 235-year history.
• Lance Corporal Katrina Hodge becomes Miss England 2009.
• 25 November: Commandant Virginie Guyot, a French Air Force fighter pilot, is appointed leader of the Patrouille de France demonstration team, becoming the first woman in history to lead a military aerobatic team.
• First Lt. Roslyn L. Schulte became the first female U.S. Air Force Academy graduate to be killed by enemy forces in Afghanistan or Iraq. She died near Kabul, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered in a roadside bomb attack.
• Karen Soria became the first female rabbi in the Canadian Forces; she was assigned to 3 Canadian Forces Flying Training School in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba.
• Eleanor Valentin became the first female flag officer to serve as director of the United States Navy Medical Service Corps.
• Colonel Maria T. Zumwalt became the first female Army officer to Command an Infantry Brigade during combat operations. As the senior Battalion Commander in the Brigade, she was place on orders by the First Cavalry Division Commander Major General Daniel P. Bolger, in Command of the 1st Brigde Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division (Iraq) during a long absence of the Brigade Commander.

Photo of Colonel Maria T. Zumwalt

US Army 52964 CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq - Col. Maria Zumwalt, of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, gives a speech highlighting the contributions of Hispanic-Americans at the Multi-National Division-Baghdad Hispanic Heritage Month Obs

2010

First female pilot to fly F-16I fighter aircraft in the Israeli Air Force

• On 9 April 2010 LTJG La'Shanda Holmes became the first African-American female helicopter pilot in the U.S. Coast Guard.
• CWO2 Rosie McNeill became the first female ISS warrant officer in the U.S. Coast Guard.
• Rear Adm. Margaret Kibben became the first female chaplain of the U.S. Marine Corps.
• July: The United States Department of Veterans Affairs increases its gender-specific services by 21 percent.
• 18 July: A Taliban leader calls for the deaths of Afghan women training to join the Afghan military.
• Divya Ajith Kumar becomes the first woman in the history of the Indian Army to receive the Sword of Honour, which is the highest award given to a cadet of the Officers Training Academy.
• The Afghanistan army gets its first female officers.
• Ali Thompson becomes the first female U.S. Marine pilot to command a squadron. Lt. Col. Ali Thompson, a CH-53E pilot, took command of HMH-464 on board MCAS New River, NC, relieving Lt Col Richard Rush.
• Itunu Hotonu becomes the first Nigerian woman to be promoted to the rank of rear admiral by the Nigerian Navy.
• U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Nora Tyson became the first woman to command a carrier strike group.
• Lieutenant Alexandra Hansen was made the first female commanding officer of a ship (the HMNZS Pukaki) in the Royal New Zealand Navy.
• For the first time, all four of the U.S. Navy's sailors of the year are women. They are: Pacific Fleet Sailor of the Year – Operations Specialist 1st Class (SW) Samira McBride, assigned to the destroyer Lassen; Fleet Forces Sailor of the Year – Hospital Corpsman 1st Class (SW/AW) Ingrid J. Cortez, amphibious assault ship Bataan; Reserve Sailor of the Year – HM1 Shalanda Brewer, Navy Expeditionary Medical Unit 10; CNO Shore Sailor of the Year – Cryptologic Technician (Technical) 1st Class (SW) Cassandra Foote, Center for Information Dominance Learning Site, Pensacola, Fla.
• In February, the Secretary of Defense signed a letter notifying Congress that the U.S. Submarine Forces were being opened to women.
• In March, DoD announced that RADM Carol M. Pottenger was nominated for appointment to the rank of VADM and an assignment as Deputy Chief of Staff for Capability Development, Supreme Allied Command Transformation, in Norfolk, VA. She will be the first female SWO 3-star Admiral in the U.S. Navy.
• On 29 April 2010, the Department of the Navy announced authorization of a policy change allowing women to begin serving onboard U.S. Navy submarines. The new policy and plan is set to begin with the integration of female Officers. A group of up to 24 female Officers (three Officers on each of eight different crews) are scheduled to enter the standard nuclear submarine training pipeline in July 2010 – and expected to report to submarine duty by late 2011 or early 2012. Integration of Enlisted females into submarine crews is expected to begin soon thereafter.
• In June, Engineman 1st Class (SW) Isa Grace became the first enlisted woman in the U.S. Navy to qualify as Engineering Officer of the Watch (EOOW) aboard the USS Mesa Verde (LPD 19).
• In 2010 Ifong Lee became the first Samoan CWO2 in the U.S. Coast Guard.
• On 1 June 2010 Martha E. Utley became the first woman to serve as Command Master Chief for the U.S. Coast Guard HSWL service center.
• In 2010 Sgt. Sherri Gallagher became the first woman to win the title of Soldier of the Year at the Best Warrior Competition.
• Native American Women Warriors (NAWW), America's first all-female, all-Native American color guard, was founded in 2010.

2011

• On 1 March 2011 Kristin Werner became the first female Chief Gunner's Mate in the U.S. Coast Guard.
• On 3 June 2011 RADM Sandra Stosz assumed command of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, becoming the first woman superintendent of that institution, and the first woman to command any U.S. service academy.
• Major Mitali Madhumita becomes the first female officer in India to be decorated with a gallantry medal.
• Shikha Awasthi, a cadet of the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) at Pune, India, becomes the first woman to receive a Sword of Honour for overall excellence at the passing-out parade of the institute. She also becomes the first graduate of AFMC to receive all three top honours, namely, the Sword of Honour, the Presidents Gold Medal and the Kalinga Trophy.
• Air Force Major General Margaret Woodward, 51, becomes the first American woman to lead a combat air campaign. She directs the airstrikes over Libya for 11 days, until NATO takes over.
• An anonymous woman becomes the first to undertake combat missions in the RAF's new Typhoon fighter.
• The first all-female U.S. Air Force combat mission is flown by Maj. Christine Mau, Maj. Tracy Schmidt, Capt. Leigh Larkin, and Capt. Jennifer Morton, called the "Strike Eagles of 'Dudette 07'." They fly two F-15E jets in a sortie over Afghanistan.
• Ramona Go is the Philippine army's first female general.
• Captain Lisa Head is the first British female officer to be killed in Afghanistan. She is also the first British female bomb disposal expert to be killed in action.
• Ramatoulie DK Sanneh is the first female Brigadier General in Gambia.
• Rear-Admiral Jennifer Bennett is appointed as the first female Chief, Reserves and Cadets, in Canada.
• Capt. Donna Cottrell becomes the first female commanding officer of the U.S. Coast Guard’s one-of-a-kind tactical drug interdiction helicopter squadron.
• Orna Barbivay becomes the first female Major General in the Israel Defense Forces.
• Brigadier General Loretta Reynolds becomes the first female commander at Parris Island. Furthermore, while serving a yearlong tour of duty with the group at Camp Leatherneck Afghanistan, Reynolds became the "first female Marine to command battle space," according to the website for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. She was the first woman in the Marine Corps to command units in a war zone.
• For the first time, four sisters from the same family (the Robillards) graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy.
• Sarah West was appointed as the first female warship commander in the Royal Navy of the British Armed Forces.
• Second Lieutenant Noy, a combat soldier in the Caracal Battalion, became the first female officer to command a sniper platoon in the Israel Defense Forces.
• Julie Bentz became the first female brigadier general in the American National Guard.
• A 30-year-old RAF officer (Flight Lieutenant Rachael Cadman) became the first woman to complete the Enduroman Arch2Arc Challenge.
• Warrant Officer Class One Esther Freeborn became the first female Bandmaster in the 350-year history of the Household Cavalry in England.
• The first female pilots joined the Botswana Defence Force.
• Proscovia Nalweyiso became the first female Brigadier General in Uganda.
• Australia decided to gradually remove all restrictions on women serving in front-line combat over a period of five years.
• Sapper Shanti Tigga became the first female jawan in the Indian army.
• Marcia M. Anderson became the first African-American woman to achieve the rank of major general in the United States Army Reserve.
• The first all-female team of skydivers of the Indian Air Force made its official debut during the annual Air Force Day parade.
• Jessica Ray became the first female Avenger master gunner in the U.S. army.
• Brigadier Simone Wilkie became the first woman to be in command of Australian soldiers at war. Specifically, Brigadier Wilkie, 47, was National Commander, Afghanistan, and was in charge of all 1500 Australian personnel serving with ADF units and embedded with international forces in the combat zone.
• Chantelle Taylor became the first female British soldier to reveal she killed an enemy fighter while on active combat, which she did in 2008 and revealed in 2011.
• Blessing Liman became the first female pilot in the Nigerian Air Force.
• The first woman joined the ranks of the Mexican navy's special forces.
• Defence Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed that women are to be allowed to serve on the submarines of the Royal Navy (the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces). The first women officers will begin serving on Vanguard-class nuclear subs in late 2013. They will be followed by female ratings in 2015, when women should also begin serving on the new Astute-class subs.
• Robyn Walker became the first woman in the Australian Navy to attain the rank of Rear Admiral and to take on the job of Surgeon‑General for the Australian Defence Force.
• Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho became the first female U.S. Army surgeon general.
• The U.S National Guard began using female engagement teams in 2011.
• A group of women from Port Hueneme became the first all-female team in Seabees history to take on and complete a construction project.
• The USS Constitution announces the selection of Senior Chief Aviation Maintenance Administrationman (AW/SW) Roxanne Rhoades, making her the first woman to serve as the Command Senior Chief onboard Old Ironsides.
• On 16 December 2011, 24-year-old Justine Sacco became the first woman to assume command of Delta FSC, 26th Brigade Support Battalion, forward support company of 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry 3rd Brigade Combat Team at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
• Margaret W. Burcham became the first woman to command a U.S. Corps of Engineers division when she took command of the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division located in Cincinnati, OH. The division consists of seven engineer districts that include over 4800 personnel operating in a 17 state region with the responsibility for the federal water resource development throughout the Great Lakes and Ohio River basins.
• The first group of U.S. female submariners completed nuclear power school and officially reported on board two ballistic and two guided missile submarines in November 2011.
• Pratima Dharm, born in India, became the U.S. Army's first Hindu chaplain, as well as the first female chaplain of Indian descent in the U.S. Army.
• Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta of California and Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell of Los Angeles became the first same-sex couple chosen to share the first kiss upon a U.S. Navy ship's return.
• Lieutenant Commander Kay Burbidge became the first female senior observer in the Royal Navy.

• The Skype scandal in the Australian military occurred when footage of a young male recruit having sex with a female classmate was streamed online to cadets in another room without her knowledge.
• Brenda Sue Fulton was named to the West Point Board of Visitors, making her the first openly gay member of the board that advises the Academy.

2012

• Air Force Col. Ginger Wallace became the first known out member of the U.S. military to have their same-sex partner participate in the pinning ceremony tradition that had been reserved for spouses and family members. Her partner of 10 years, Kathy Knopf, pinned colonel wings on Wallace days after the two attended President Obama's State of The Union address as a guest of the First Lady.
• Navy Chief Elny McKinney and Anacelly McKinney became the first known same-sex couple to marry on a U.S. military base. They were wed at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego.
• The 50,000th graduate of the U.S. Navy's Naval Nuclear Power Training Unit in New York was a woman, MM3 Jenna Swindt, who completed her training in March.
• Five women were awarded their pilots’ wings in a graduation ceremony with the Israeli air force; they were the most women ever to become Israeli air force pilots at one time.
• South Korea's Navy appointed its first two female officers to command fast attack craft.
• The U.S. Coast Guard hosted its first women's athletics leadership conference.
• Florence Green, who was the last known living World War One veteran, died.
• The Pentagon announced that it would allow women in the U.S. military to serve in noninfantry battalion jobs, such as radio operators, intelligence analysts, medics, radar operators, and tank mechanics, beginning in summer 2012. It began on 14 May. Cicely Verstein became the first woman in America to qualify for an Army combat-arms support job.
• Col. Dawne Deskins became the first female commander of the U.S. military's Eastern Air Defense Sector in Rome, New York.
• Margaret W. Burcham became the first woman to be promoted to general officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
• Five "Tigertails" of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron One Two Five (VAW-125), embarked aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) as part of Carrier Air Wing Seventeen (CVW-17), flew an historic flight on 25 January when they participated in the U.S. Navy's first all-female E-2C Hawkeye combat mission.
• Commander Monika Washington Stoker, United States Navy, became the first African American woman to take command of a U.S. Navy missile destroyer.
• Brig. Gen. Laura Richardson became the U.S. Army's first female to serve as a division deputy commander.
• Janet Wolfenbarger became the U.S. Air Force's first female four-star general.
• The U.S. Marine Corps opened its Infantry Officers Course in Quantico, Va. to women for the first time in its history. Two women joined; one dropped out on 28 September after not completing the introductory endurance test. The other passed that test but was dropped later because of unspecified medical reasons.
• The first Saudi Arabian women have been recruited into the country’s military service, Arab News reports. However, they will be stationed as privates as Passport Control departments on only border crossings.
• Col. Jeannie Leavitt became the first woman to take command of a U.S. Air Force combat fighter wing.
• On 29 May, the very first U.S. Air Force Medical Service Senior Non-Commissioned Officer Leadership Award ever given was presented to Senior Master Sgt. Lorraine A. Hieskill, superintendent of the 59th Surgical Inpatient Squadron, at the San Antonio Military Medical Center, Ft. Sam Houston, Texas.
• Gwendolyn Bingham was named the first female White Sands Missile Range commander in the U.S. military.
• The U.S. Air Force has now identified at least 31 women as victims in a growing rape scandal, a four-star general announced.
• U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta changed the policy that the unit commander would decide whether to move ahead with the investigation and prosecution of reported sexual assaults, a policy accused of placing the decision in the hands of commanders who work with, and are often close friends of, the accused. Under the new policy announced by Panetta, the decision rests higher up the chain of command, at the level of colonel (or, in the Navy, captain).
• It was announced that the Australian Defence Force would open all jobs in the military to women in 2013.
• Carmen Melendez de Maniglia became the first female admiral in Venezuela. She was in the Navy.
• Col. Tammy Harris became the commander of CFB Borden near Barrie, Ontario. She was the first woman to head a Canadian Forces base.
• Lt. Britta Christianson became the first female supply officer to qualify in submarines in the United States.
• Colonel Marian C. Aledio became the first female Judge Advocate General in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
• At a ceremony in Arlington, Army Reserve officer Tammy Smith became the first openly gay, active duty general in American history. Smith was promoted to brigadier general at a private ceremony at the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
• A group of Chinese female pilots made their first solo flights in the J-10 combat aircraft, becoming the first female air force pilots capable of flying the multirole aircraft - the country's most advanced fighter jet.
• Rear Adm. Robin Braun became the first female commander of the U.S. Navy Reserve, and the first woman to lead any Reserve component of the U.S. military.
• Lance-Corporal Jacinda Baker, 26, became New Zealand's first female soldier killed in the war in Afghanistan, and in fact New Zealand's first female soldier killed since the Vietnam War.
• Michelle Janine Howard of the U.S. Navy became the first black woman to earn a three-star-rank in the U.S. armed forces.
• Sherry-ann Edwards became the first female fleet chief petty officer in the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard.
• Capt. Delana Small became the first female chaplain in a U.S. combat arms unit. She joined the 101st Airborne Division, also known as the "Screaming Eagles."
• A British soldier, a Fijian national serving as a gunner with the Royal Artillery, gave birth to a boy while serving in Afghanistan. The birth, which occurred in a field hospital, is thought to be the first time a serving member of Britain's military went into labor in a combat zone.
• Leading Hand Claire Butler, 29, from Middlesbrough, was named the first crew member on the largest warship built for the Royal Navy, the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. Bosses believe the ship, which will have 1,600 crew members when fully operational, will head to Portsmouth in 2017, with flying trials beginning in 2018 and deployment possible two years later.
• For the first time ever, the Indian Air Force is preparing two of its women pilots for combat roles. Flight Lieutenants Alka Shukla and M P Shumathi were trained at the Yelahanka station in flying twin-engine Mi-8, a utility and medium-size assault helicopter. Both pilots are at their operational units where they will continue with their armament and special heli-operations training.
• Col. Giselle Wilz became the first woman in the North Dakota National Guard to achieve the rank of "full bird" colonel.
• Zoe Briant-Evans, a Royal Navy Officer from Penzance, became the first woman appointed to the post of First Lieutenant at Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC) in Dartmouth.
• Karla Marie MacArthur became the first female judge advocate in the South Dakota Army National Guard.
• Mona Abdo became Israel's first female Arab combat commander.
• Kathryn Neff became the first female Marine to graduate from the [American] Sapper School and the first interservice graduate to win the Sapper Spirit Award.
• Zubaida al-Meeki became the first female officer to quit President Bashar al-Assad's forces to join the Free Syrian Army.
• Jennifer Walter became the first female brigadier general in the Iowa Air National Guard.
• Lieutenant Commander Kay Burbidge became the first woman in the Fleet Air Arm to have 3000 flying hours.
• Lt. Nilofor Rhmani became the first female pilot in the Afghanistan air force to fly solo under the air force’s pilot training program.
• Channing Day, a British servicewoman, became the first woman killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. She was also the first female soldier from Northern Ireland to be killed in Afghanistan, according to the British army.
• The first Riverine Combat Skills Course (RCS) class in the United States to include women graduated in 2012. The women were: Chief Engineman Patricia Cooper, Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Brittney Hellwig, Master-at-Arms Seaman Brianna Tran, and Master-at-Arms Seaman Angela Evans.
• Commander Sandra Walker became the first woman to take command of a major tanker in New Zealand. It was the 138m replenishment tanker, HMNZS Endeavour.
• Dalva Maria Carvalho Mendes became the first female two-star rear admiral in the Brazilian Navy.
• Australia made a parliamentary apology to mainly female victims of sexual and physical abuse in the military and set up a compensation fund after thousands of claims of rape and sexual assault. A report in 2011 detailed more than 1,000 claims of sexual and other forms of abuse in the Australian military.
• The first same-sex marriage at the U.S. Military Academy was held for a young lieutenant and her partner (Ellen Schick and Shannon Simpson) at the Old Cadet Chapel in West Point’s cemetery.
• The first same-sex marriage at the U.S. Military Academy's Cadet Chapel at West Point (not to be confused with the Old Cadet Chapel) was held for Brenda Sue Fulton and Penelope Dara Gnesin. Fulton was a veteran and the communications director of an organization called Outserve, which represents actively serving gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender military personnel.
• The U.S. Air Force launched an initiative to rid its ranks of material seen to objectify women. Pictures and calendars featuring half-naked women were removed from Air Force work spaces and public areas in an attempt to combat sexism and rape culture.
• Three Sailors assigned to USS Maine (SSBN 741) and USS Wyoming (SSBN 742) became the first female unrestricted line officers to qualify in U.S. submarines Dec. 5th. Lt. j.g. Marquette Leveque, a native of Fort Collins, Colo., assigned to the Gold Crew of Wyoming, and Lt. j.g. Amber Cowan and Lt. j.g. Jennifer Noonan of Maine's Blue Crew received their submarine "dolphins" during separate ceremonies at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Ga., and Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, Wash.
• The Royal Australian Navy appointed Capt. Angela Bond as the first female commanding officer of naval base HMAS Stirling near Rockingham.
• CWO2 Kilohana Akim became the first female Pacific Islander of Hawaiian descent to make INV3 in the U.S. Coast Guard when she was promoted on 1 June 2012.
• An anonymous woman became the first Orthodox Jewish female combat navigator in Israel.
• Sonja Dyer became the first female maneuver Brigade S-3 in the U.S. Army.
• Ens. Kimberlee D. Hazle was comissioned as the U.S. Navy's first female Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment (ALRE) Boatswain (Bos'n).
• Chief Warrant Officer Laura E. Freeman became the first female Material Maintenance Specialty (MAT) warrant officer in the U.S. Coast Guard when she was commissioned MAT2 on 1 June 2012.
• Allyson Robinson (who served on active duty as Daniel Robinson) became the first executive director of OutServe-SLDN, following the merger of OutServe and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network in October 2012. This makes her the first transgender person to ever lead a national LGBT rights organization that does not have an explicit transgender focus. OutServe-SLDN is a network of LGBT actively serving military personnel, which launched publicly on July 26, 2010 as OutServe, and is one of the largest LGBT employee resource groups in the world.

2013

• Since 2013 American women troops and family members covered under Tricare can receive medical coverage to abort pregnancies resulting from sexual assault. The Defense Authorization Act for 2013 amended a Pentagon regulation to include rape and incest on the list of permissible uses of Defense Department facilities or funds for abortions for military beneficiaries. Only cases when the health of the mother was in danger were acceptable from 1981 until 2013. However, abortions were covered for female service members until 1981, when Congress passed a law barring the use of Defense Department funds in cases other than those when the mother’s life was endangered.
• Sara Joyner became the first woman to command a carrier air wing in the U.S. Navy. She took command of Carrier Air Wing 3, nicknamed "Battle Axe."
• Naval Support Activity Washington promoted the first female to ascend through the ranks from patrol woman to captain at the United States Naval Observatory Naval District Washington Police Station, Jan. 10.
• The first women battalion of Bihar Military Police was created in India.
• Cadet Jenna Vercollone became the first female to represent the U.S. Military Academy in any capacity in the sport of hockey. She was a member of the West Point Inline Hockey Club, a hobby club within the Directorate of Cadet Activities.
• The Syrian regime started recruiting female soldiers to perform security checks on veiled women.
• Pentagon chief Leon Panetta removed the U.S. military's ban on women serving in combat, overturning a 1994 rule prohibiting women from being assigned to smaller ground combat units. Panetta's decision gave the U.S. military services until January 2016 to seek special exceptions if they believed any positions must remain closed to women. The services had until May 2013 to draw up a plan for opening all units to women and until the end of 2015 to actually implement it.
• The Australian military opened up combat jobs to women in January 2013.
• In an address to her people, a Russian woman appeared in a video announcing her decision of joining the Free Syrian Army.
• In 2013, U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said that the first women to join Virginia-class attack subs had been chosen: They were newly commissioned female officers scheduled to report to their subs in fiscal year 2015.
• The first female Afghan National Army noncommissioned officers graduated from Regional Military Training Center-West.
• The South Dakota Army National Guard appointed Susan Shoe to the highest ranking senior-enlisted position in the state during a change of responsibility ceremony Saturday, Feb. 2, at the Joint Force Headquarters building on Camp Rapid. She is the first woman to serve in this position in South Dakota.
• Captain Jannatul Ferdous became Bangladesh’s first female paratrooper.
• Amira al-Aarour became the first Syrian woman to hold a leading post in the Free Syrian Army.
• An all-female battalion was armed by the Syrian government to back the rule of Bashar Al Assad.
• Maj. Gen. Megan P. Tatu became commander of the 79th Sustainment Support Command, the largest U.S. Army Reserve Command on the west coast. She is the first female general to do so.
• In Syria, the first all-female battalion of Kurdish women was created. Specifically, 150 Kurdish women set up a female-only battalion in the northern province of Aleppo. The city where the battalion originated is Afrin. The battalion is named the Martyr Rokan Battalion. It fought against the regime of Bashar Al Assad.
• For the first time the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs decided to allow the same-sex spouse of a military veteran to be buried in a U.S. national cemetery. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki gave permission for retired Air Force officer Linda Campbell, 66, to bury the ashes of her same-sex spouse Nancy Lynchild at Williamette National Cemetery in Oregon.
• Tech. Sgt. Leslie Cummings, the first female military training instructor in the U.S. Air National Guard, became the first U.S. Air National Guard member to be named the Air University Noncommissioned Officer of the Year. This also makes her the first female military training instructor named the Air University Noncommissioned Officer of the Year.
• Eva Lizet Julca Anaya, a 23-year-old native of Peru, became the first foreign female cadet in the history of the Korea Military Academy.
• Taiwan decided to cancel the 8 percent limit for women serving in its military, as part of efforts to recruit more female soldiers.
• Allison Jones, from Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, became the first woman appointed to fire the Edinburgh's One o'clock Gun at Edinburgh Castle.
• The Chinese army's first female special warfare unit was officially established in a brigade of the Nanjing Military Region.
• The Maritime Self-Defense Force of Japan named its first female skippers for destroyers used in training exercises - Miho Otani, 41, and Ryoko Azuma, 39, who were the first female graduates of the National Defense Academy of Japan.
• Capt. Lee Na-kyum and Capt. Oh Hyun-jin became the first all-female crew to fly a C-130 cargo aircraft in the South Korean Air Force.
• Valley Forge Military Academy and College named its first female president, Stacey R. Sauchuk. Sauchuk thus became the first female president at a private military academy and college in the United States.
• Brigadier Dianne Gallasch was named as the first female commandant of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in the institution's 102-year history.
• The U.S. Veterans Affairs Department launched a new hotline -- 1-855-VA-WOMEN -- for questions from veterans, their families and caregivers about VA services and resources available to women veterans.
• Marlene Rodriguez became the first woman to join Chapter 49 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. Chapter 49 is the largest chapter in California with about 325 members.
• Nadja West became the first African-American female two-star general in the U.S. Army Medical Department.
• The first female special operation company of the Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLAA) carried out the first parachute landing training in an area of North China on May 14, 2013. The 15 participating female special operation members parachuted successfully from 800 meters to 1,000 meters in the air at the first try. The female special operation company was founded in a brigade of the 38th Combined Corps of the Beijing Military Area Command (MAC) of the PLA on March 30, 2013. It is also known that besides the "August 1" Aerobatics Team and the airborne force of the PLA Air Force (PLAAF), it is the first time for the PLAA to organize air parachute landing for organic female soldiers.
• Nilofar Rahmani, the first female pilot of Afghanistan to be trained inside the country earned her flying wing in May after graduating from Undergraduate Pilot Training. She is also the first female pilot to be trained in the Afghan Air Force in more than 30 years.
• Autumn Sandeen, a U.S. veteran and transgender woman, received a letter from a Navy official stating, “Per your request the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) has been updated to show your gender as female effective April 12th, 2013.” Allyson Robinson of Outserve-SLDN declared, "To our knowledge, this is the first time that the Department of Defense has recognized and affirmed a change of gender for anyone affiliated, in a uniformed capacity — in this case a military retiree."
• The first class of U.S. women soldiers joined A Battery, 1st Battalion, 78th Field Artillery, to learn the 13M, Multiple Launch Rocket System Crewmember military occupational specialty -- an MOS that was previously closed to women.
• Tania Calderon-Griek became the first woman to earn her way into the final round of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division's All American Week combatives tournament.
• The first female combat soldier statue in America was unveiled at the Coleman Veterans Memorial in Michigan on Memorial Day.
• Lisa M. Franchetti was appointed as the first female commander for U.S. Naval Forces Korea.
• Karen Voorhees became the first woman to advance to chief petty officer in the rate of aviation survival technician in the U.S. Coast Guard since women were integrated into U.S. Coast Guard active duty service in 1973.
• The first five women graduated from the 14-week U.S. course which prepares soldiers to work on the Bradley Fighting Vehicle during training or while under fire in a war zone.
• Syrian state media said Nicole Mansfield, a single mother from the Midwestern city of Flint, Michigan, was killed with two others in an ambush by Syrian government forces on an opposition mission in northwestern Syria. They said she was with a rebel group, but it was not clear which one.
• Retired Navy Seal Kristin Beck (formerly called Chris Beck) came out as transgender, the first retired Navy Seal to do so.
• Armenia's Defense Ministry announced that, for the first time, women could be students at the nation's military schools.
• Julie A. Bentz became the first woman promoted to major general in the Oregon National Guard.
• Major General Patricia “Trish” Rose became the first openly lesbian two-star general in the U.S. Air Force, and the highest ranking openly gay officer in the entire U.S. military at the time.
• The U.S. Air Force appointed Dr. Mica Endsley as its first female chief scientist.
• Norway's parliament voted to conscript women into its armed forces, thus making Norway the first European and first NATO country to make military service compulsory for both genders.
• Bette Bolivar became the first woman to take command of the U.S. Navy Region Northwest.
• The Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars elected Sylvia Sanchez as their first female commander.
• The U.S. Labor Department began a website focused on women military veterans.
• Sgt. Maj. Angela M. Maness took the reins of the “Oldest Post of the [U.S. Marine] Corps” as the new sergeant major of Marine Barracks Washington. She is the first woman in history to hold this billet at the Barracks.
• 16 female students passed the final evaluation to become fighter-pilots and received their bachelor's degrees at a graduation ceremony in Shijiazhuang Aviation College in North China's Hebei province on June 25, 2013, thus becoming China's first female fighter-pilots.
• Army. Lieutenant Ganeve Lalji became the first-ever female officer to be posted as the aide-de-camp (French for field assistance) of a top general in the army of India.
• The first female commanding officer of a helicopter squadron at RAF Shawbury, Becky Frater, started work. The squadron is 705 Naval Air Squadron (NAS), one of the two basic helicopter training squadrons at the Defence Helicopter Flying School (DHFS) at RAF Shawbury.
• Kristin K. French was appointed as the first female commanding general at the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois.
• On July 5, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro promoted Carmen Melendez to admiral-in-chief rank and appointed her as the first female minister of defense in the history of Venezuela.
• Sergeant Sophie Hobson, 35, who is based at RAF Brize Norton, became the first female ground engineer (GE) to work on the Hercules aircraft.
• Yingluck Shinawatra became Thailand's first female defense minister.
• Deann Davis became the first female ship rider from the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) to accompany a ship with the U.S. Coast Guard.
• Pakistan's first group of female paratroopers completed their training. Captain Kiran Ashraf was declared the best paratrooper of the batch of 24, the military said in a statement, while Captain Sadia, referred to by one name, became the first female officer in the Pakistan military to jump from a MI-17 helicopter.
• On March 1st, 2013, Major General Michelle D. Johnson was chosen to be the next (and first female) superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy. She began that job on August 12th, 2013.
• Lieutenant Colonel Bobeth O’Garro was confirmed as the Commandant for the Cayman Islands Cadet Corps, thus becoming the first female Commandant to lead a Corps in the Caribbean region.
• Pfc. Jessica Jones and Pfc. Angelika Jansen became the first two women to have graduated as U.S. Army artillery mechanics. Jones and Jansen graduated July 16 as 91P artillery mechanics after 15 weeks of training at Fort Lee.
• Four women became the first women to graduate from the M1 Abrams Tank Systems Maintainer Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, United States.
• The U.S. military announced Spc. Jennie Dushane was the first female soldier in the North Dakota National Guard to earn the Squad Designated Marksman distinction.
• Capt. Amy Burin was installed as the first female commanding officer of SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic.
• In March a new U.S. Army combat uniform that takes into consideration fit requirements of female soldiers (the Army Combat Uniform-Alternate, known as ACU-A) was approved for use by both men and women. The new uniform is wider in the hips and backside and has elastic around the waistband instead of a draw string, as well as adjusted pockets and elbow-pad and knee-pad inserts and shortened crotch length. The rank and name plate were also repositioned on the uniform jacket. The new uniform also has slimmer shoulders, a longer coat, and buttons that replace the Velcro pockets.
• The Royal Air Force appointed Elaine West as its first ever woman to hold the position of Air Vice-Marshal, and the U.K. military said it would encourage women to aim for high-ranking careers. As Air Vice-Marshal Elaine West had the highest rank a woman in the British military had ever held at the time.
• U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said his department would extend a pilot program giving victims of sexual assault their own legal representation and would consider allowing them more influence in the sentencing phase of trials.
• The US Naval Academy announced that it will integrate sexual assault prevention into the academic program in an effort combat high rates of sexual assault in the military.

• The US soldier born as Bradley Manning, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents, announced plans to undergo hormone therapy and asked to be recognized as a woman named Chelsea Manning.
• The U.S. Colonel born as James Pritzker, who has endowed a study on transgender people in the military, announced she identifies as a woman and will now be known as Jennifer Natalya Pritzker.
• Debbie Kash was chosen as the first female commander of the Military Order of World Wars, a national patriotic organization of American military officers of all services and their descendants.
• Flora D. Darpino was sworn in as the first female Judge Advocate General of the United States Army.

Gallery

• 
  Brigadier General Coral Wong Pietsch
• 
  Capt. Vernice Armour
• 
  Specialist Lori Piestewa
• 
  Major Kim Campbell
• 
  Captain Kimberly Hampton
• 
  SGT Leigh Ann Hester, USA
• 
  Colonel Janis Karpinski
• 
  Sabrina Harman posing over the body of Manadel al-Jamadi, an Iraqi prisoner tortured to death in United States custody in November 2003 during the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal
• 
  Elizabeth Jacobson
• 
  Brigadier General Susan Y. Desjardins
• 
  Captain Margaret D. Klein

See also

• Women in warfare (1945-1999)