I think there are a few vets around here but I seem to be more vocal about it so I'll chip in with my opinion.

I used to work as an Afghan linguist which means I went to school with all branches out at DLI in California. I met some amazing people, not least of all was a young Marine named Lauren. Lauren wanted to learn Pashto so she could go out and work on the Lioness Teams. She would have killed someone if they needed killing, but that's not what she wanted to do. She wanted to help the women in a war torn shit hole have a slightly better life.

I met a lot of people during my time that were there to 'serve their country' or 'nuke 'em to the stone age' or whatever, and it takes all kinds, but Lauren was one of the few who I respected because she was there to do a different version of good in the world.

She did end up getting to be on the Lioness team because she worked her ass off, but the Marines almost cancelled the program before she could get in it because women were getting killed and they weren't supposed to be in combat operations. The whole program was a loophole in the first place. The Lionesses were 'temporary attachments' to a unit. It didn't matter that they were literally giving access to intelligence that otherwise might have gone missed, directly improving the lives of the women in Afghanistan, as well as saving American lives while they were at it. It mattered that they had vaginas. The Marines did cancel the program pending investigations which never happened, and Lauren left the Marines.

I guarantee that there will be problems in integrating females into combat operations. There were problems just bringing them to the desert in the first place because men and women like to have relationships and sex, and that can sometimes blow up in unpredictable ways. Those problems will be so insignificant in the face of the drastic improvements made by integrating women into combat that you will never hear about them, just like you don't now unless it's gossip at the burn pit.

Good for her, but better for all of us.