Women in the U.S. military

U.S. Army soldier SSG Norma Gonzales of 426 Civil Affairs Battalion reads a magazine next to fellow soldiers while waiting to be ferried by a helicopter to different U.S. military bases in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan October 11, 2012. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

U.S. Marine and Female Engagement Team leader Sgt. Sheena Adams (L) and H.N. Shannon Crowley from First Battalion, Eighth Marines sit in an armored vehicle before heading out on an operation from their base at Musa Qala in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

U.S. Army convoys are given the thumbs up from a fellow soldier after crossing into Kuwait during the last convoy out of Iraq December 18, 2011. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

U.S. Army Specialist Nicole Derk of the C Company 3/82 Dustoff MEDEVAC performs a system check on a helicopter at the beginning of her shift in Logar province, eastern Afghanistan, November 21, 2011. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

Village elder Haji Amir Mohammad Agha presents a rose to U.S. Army Spc Charli Johnson during a visit by Afghan and U.S. soldiers in Jelawar in the Arghandab Valley north of Kandahar, Afghanistan April 18, 2011. REUTERS/Bob Strong

U.S. Marine Capt. Jill A. Leyden of Easton, Maryland, touches the grave of her friend Major Megan M. McClung at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Veterans Day, November 11, 2010. McClung was killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom on December 6, 2006. Leyden and McClung served together in Iraq. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

U.S. soldiers serving in the NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo take part in an exercise session with Billy Wayne Blanks, the inventor of Tae Bo exercise program, at the military camp Bondsteel in Sojevo, southeast of Pristina, Kosovo January 17, 2011. REUTERS/Hazir Reka

Hospital personnel attempt to revive a mortally wounded Marine after he was brought in by medevac helicopter at Camp Dwyer near the town of Marjah in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, August 22, 2010. REUTERS/Bob Strong

SPC Erica Taliaferro, a U.S. female soldier from 549th MP Company, Task Force Bronco patrols in Pachir wa Agam district in Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan, March 5, 2012. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

U.S. female soldier SPC Erica Taliaferro from 549th MP Company, Task Force Bronco eats MRE sandwich with an ISAF Afghan police trainer (R) inside an armored vehicle as troops stayed inside their vehicles for 15 hours during a two-day joint U.S-Afghan military mission conducting "Route Clearing Patrol", finding and removing roadside bombs on roads, in Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan March 8, 2012. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

A U.S. marine drinks the blood of a cobra during a jungle survival exercise with the Thai Navy as part of the "Cobra Gold 2013" joint military exercise, at a military base in Chon Buri province, Thailand February 20, 2013. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Specialist Joanne Read, of the U.S. Army's Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, First Armored Division, helps unload a resupply truck at Command Outpost AJK in Maiwand District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, January 24, 2013. REUTERS/Andrew Burton

Second Lt. Johanna Shaffer shares a cookie with an Afghan child while under the security of Marines assigned to 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment (Reinforced), during her all-female team's first mission in Farah Province, February 9, 2009. REUTERS/Monty Burton/U.S. Marine Corps/Handout

U.S Army PFC Jessica Harmon from Task Force Denali 92 MP carries a peacock at Wazi-Zadram police station in Paktya province, Afghanistan December 11, 2009. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

U.S. Army Specialist Nicole Derk of the C Company 3/82 Dustoff MEDEVAC cross-stitches during her shift in Logar province, eastern Afghanistan November 21, 2011. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

U.S. Combat Medic Health Care Specialist Seantella Cottner of the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division plays the saxophone in her Forward Aid Station tent on the Combat Operation Outpost (COP) McClain in Logar Province in Afghanistan July 22, 2009. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

A female U.S. army soldier looks out from the window of a Canadian helicopter transporting U.S. troops and workers to different military bases in Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan September 19, 2011. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

U.S. Air Force TSgt. Jennifer Kinney treats a soldier who is suffering from combat stress at Combat Stress Control Clinic of 125 BSB Charlie Medical Company of Task Force Mustang at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Shank, in Logar province, eastern Afghanistan November 11, 2011. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

U.S. Army soldier SPC Katie Luna of 572nd Military Intelligence Company, 8th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment cries while paying respects during a memorial service for platoon member, late SPC Brittany Gordon at Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan October 19, 2012.

U.S. Air Force Major Stacie Shafran carries her luggage to a loading paddock while waiting for her departure from Iraq at the former U.S. Sather Air Base near Baghdad, Iraq, December 14, 2011. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton