Sailor becomes first woman to complete Navy special warfare training
CBSN
For the first time in the U.S. Navy's history, a female sailor has successfully completed the grueling Naval Special Warfare training, the Navy announced this week.
The woman was one of 17 candidates to successfully finish the intense 37-week "assessment and selection" process to become a Naval Special Warfare combatant-craft crewman (SWCC). She earned her pins and graduated on Thursday. The Navy did not identify the female graduate — a standard military policy for special operations forces.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.