2名女性在海豹突击队选拔中晋级史上最高排名
2026-11-04T19:57:00-0500 / CBS新闻
华盛顿报道 — 两名立志成为海军海豹突击队成员的女性，在美军残酷的训练体系中晋级至史无前例的高度，尽管最终她们未能在加利福尼亚州科罗纳多海军两栖基地完成这项严苛的课程，仍创造了历史。
多位消息人士向CBS新闻透露，一名 enlisted 水兵和一名海军军官几周前参加了基础水下爆破/海豹突击队（简称BUD/S）训练。两人均顺利完成了第三周的训练，其中第四周将开启臭名昭著、长达5天半的耐力测试——地狱周。CBS新闻获悉，该名军官被退回至下一期班级，最终在地狱周开始前申请退出课程；而这名 enlisted 水兵则因身体原因在地狱周前被淘汰。
尽管这两名女性并未通过海豹突击队课程，但她们的晋级程度远超自2016年特种作战部队向女性开放以来所有尝试该课程的女性。
出于安全和隐私考虑，CBS新闻暂不公布候选人的姓名。
顺利进入地狱周本身就是一项壮举：根据美国海军1998年至2023年间汇编、并依据《信息自由法》发布的数据，近一半的候选人（约45%）会在地狱周之前的数周训练中被淘汰或退回至下一期班级。地狱周被广泛认为是为期约6个月的初始训练中，对身心要求最严苛的环节之一。
地狱周旨在测试候选人的体能与心理极限。训练从午夜开始，候选人在接下来的5天内仅能获得约4小时睡眠，需完成搬运圆木、将船只推入汹涌海浪、在冰冷海水中浸泡、完成约200英里的跑步等任务。
海军特种作战司令部发言人表示：“为维护海军特种作战（NSW）中心课程的公正性及候选人的隐私，我们不会讨论任何个人的选拔或未选拔细节，也不会透露其在训练体系中的阶段。”
早在2016年五角大楼正式向女性开放所有战斗岗位之前，女性就已在美国特种作战部队中服役。追溯至二战时期，女性曾为战略情报局（中央情报局和美国特种作战司令部的前身）收集情报，或为其协调空投补给与战斗突袭。
1988年，国防部出台了“风险规则”政策，根据女性面临的战斗相关危险限制其分配岗位，但在海湾战争期间，一些女性尽管正式被分配至“非战斗”岗位，仍参与了实际战斗。
她们在海湾战争中的服役促使国会于1991年12月废除了战斗航空限制，允许女性担任战斗航空岗位。1994年，国防部长莱斯·阿斯平废除了风险规则政策，但保留了禁止女性在旅级以下单位担任直接地面战斗岗位的规定。
近二十年后，国防部长利昂·帕内塔废除了1994年的政策，取消了基于性别的战斗岗位分配限制。到2016年，女性获准参加海军海豹突击队、陆军游骑兵及绿色贝雷帽的选拔。
过去十年间，已有数千名女性加入步兵、装甲兵和炮兵部队，但尝试合格进入精英特种作战单位的女性相对较少，过去十年中仅少数人成功完成了严苛的选拔和训练课程。
根据美国海军1998年至2023年间的数据，海军海豹突击队训练体系在各个阶段淘汰了约68%的候选人。淘汰率最高的是为期7周的第一阶段（包含地狱周），其中66%的候选人会被淘汰或退回至另一期班级。
每一期新学员中近一半（约45%）无法通过地狱周之前的三周训练——约29%的人主动退出课程。尽管地狱周以美军最严苛的耐力测试之一闻名，在地狱周之前的几周里，退出的学员人数仍多于地狱周期间。
约21%的学员在地狱周期间离开，原因或为主动申请、身体问题或表现不佳。这些数据表明，每5名开始地狱周的学员中，近4人能够完成整个环节。
在后续训练阶段，淘汰率大幅下降：强调战斗潜水技能的第二阶段淘汰率为5%；聚焦地面作战的第三阶段淘汰率为3%。在海豹突击队资格训练课程中，淘汰率不足1%；这一为期6个月的课程是进入海豹突击队分队前的最后阶段。
根据CBS新闻此前的报道，2021年，一名水兵成为首位从海军特种作战训练体系毕业的女性，担任特种作战作战乘员。海军表示，历史上尝试加入该岗位的候选人中，仅有约35%能顺利毕业。
海军特种作战作战乘员（简称SWCC）是精英海上作战人员，接受训练操作高速、重武装船只，将海军海豹突击队人员运送至敌方区域或从敌方区域撤出，同时执行其他海上任务。尽管他们接受独立的选拔和训练课程，SWCC仍隶属于海军特种作战司令部。
除海军特种作战外，女性也成功通过了其他严苛的特种作战训练体系。
据《军事时报》报道，已有17名女性尝试成为海军陆战队特种作战司令部下属的海军陆战队突袭兵，但截至2024年尚无一人通过；该报还指出，美国空军有54名女性进入特种作战岗位训练，但仅有少数人完成了训练。
据《陆军时报》报道，2020年，一名国民警卫队士兵成为第二位完成陆军特种部队资格课程并加入绿色贝雷帽分队的女性——第一位是1980年的凯瑟琳·怀尔德上尉，她以中校军衔退休。根据Military.com 2023年的一份报告，获得绿色贝雷帽的女性不足10人。
加入历史悠久的第75游骑兵团的女性不足10人；该部队是陆军精英特种作战单位，专注于高风险突袭、机场占领和大规模作战行动。该团的所有岗位人员都必须通过选拔流程及游骑兵学校的严苛测试，无论具体岗位是什么。
其中一名女性是前上尉海莉·吉本斯，她是西点军校毕业生，于2021年完成游骑兵学校训练。她曾担任第75游骑兵团的后勤军官，直至2023年退伍。
“如果你是后勤官、通信官、军事情报人员，在那个编制里每个人都是游骑兵，”吉本斯在接受CBS新闻采访时表示，“所以我当时就想，‘我要成为这个团队的一份子，而不仅仅是协助团队。’”
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无日期照片：海莉·吉本斯上尉曾担任陆军游骑兵。图片由海莉·吉本斯提供
女性在战斗岗位服役及特种作战选拔中面临着军界的抵制，如今依然如此。在这两名女性通过BUD/S训练最初几周之际，她们在社交媒体上遭到前海豹突击队成员及军事账号的批评。
国防部长皮特·赫格塞思多次质疑女性是否应服役于地面战斗和特种作战岗位，认为女性加入可能削弱军队效能和身体素质标准。
他在被提名为该职位前不久，曾在与前海豹突击队成员肖恩·瑞安的播客采访中表示“我们不应让女性担任战斗岗位”。在提名确认听证会上，赫格塞思称女性将获得地面战斗岗位，“前提是标准保持不变”。
他并未给出标准被降低的实例，仅表示他从军人处获悉，标准已“以直接、间接、显性及隐性的方式发生了变化”。
今年早些时候，五角大楼委托开展一项研究，评估女性在地面战斗岗位服役的效能。五角大楼新闻秘书金斯利·威尔逊在1月向CBS新闻发表的声明中表示，这项研究旨在“确保标准得到遵守，同时美国保持最具战斗力的军队”。
吉本斯告诉CBS新闻，尽管赫格塞思有隐性主张，但特种作战的标准并未改变。
“他声称标准发生了变化，且有人降低标准让女性加入其编制，这完全是谎言，因为没有哪个旅级指挥官会签署这样的许可——否则他们会被视为不合格，且是不可信任的人，”吉本斯说。
2 women advanced further in Navy SEAL tryouts than any in history
2026-11-04T19:57:00-0500 / CBS News
Washington — Two women attempting to become Navy SEALs advanced further through the military’s grueling training pipeline than any women before them, making history despite ultimately failing to complete the demanding course at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in California.
An enlisted sailor and a naval officer entered Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL, or BUD/S, training several weeks ago, multiple sources told CBS News. Both had made it to the third week of training, with Hell Week, the infamous 5 1/2-day endurance test starting in the fourth week. CBS News has learned the officer was rolled back to the next class and ultimately requested to be dropped from the course before Hell Week and the enlisted sailor was medically pulled from Hell Week.
While the two women did not pass the SEAL course, they made it further than any other woman who has tried since special operations opened its doors to women in 2016.
CBS News is withholding the names of the candidates for security and privacy reasons.
Gaining access to Hell Week is a feat of its own because nearly half of all candidates, about 45%, are either removed or rolled back to the next class during training in the first few weeks prior to Hell Week, according to data compiled by the Navy between 1998 and 2023 and released through the Freedom of Information Act. Hell Week is widely considered one of the most physically and mentally demanding portions of the initial training, which lasts roughly six months.
Hell Week is designed to test the physical and mental limits of candidates. After starting in the middle of the night, candidates get about four hours of sleep over the next five days and complete tasks like carrying logs, launching boats into crashing waves, lying in cold ocean water and running around 200 miles.
A spokesperson for Naval Special Warfare Command said: “To protect the integrity of NSW Center courses and the privacy of its candidates, we don’t discuss the details of any individual selection or non-selection status or where they are in the training pipeline.”
Long before the Pentagon formally opened all combat positions to women in 2016, women have served alongside U.S. special operation forces. As far back as World War II, women helped gather intelligence or coordinate supply drops and combat raids for the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA and U.S. Special Operations Command.
In 1988, the Defense Department adopted the “Risk Rule” policy that restricted women from assignments based on their exposure to combat-related dangers, but during the Persian Gulf War, some women did experience combat though they had officially been assigned to “non-combat” roles.
Their service in the Gulf War led Congress to repeal the combat aviation exclusion in December 1991, which allowed women to serve in combat aviation roles. In 1994, Defense Secretary Les Aspin rescinded the risk rule policy but kept in place the exclusion that barred women from serving in direct ground combat units below the brigade level.
Almost two decades later, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta rescinded the 1994 policy, removing gender-based combat assignment restrictions. By 2016, women were allowed to try out to become Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and Green Berets.
Over the last decade, thousands of women have joined infantry, armor and artillery units, but relatively few have attempted to qualify for elite special operations units, with only a handful having successfully completed the rigorous selection and training programs over the past decade.
The demands of the Navy SEAL training pipeline weeded out about 68% of candidates at various stages of training, according to Navy data between 1998 and 2023. The highest attrition occurred during the program’s seven-week first phase — which includes Hell Week — where 66% of candidates were removed or rolled into another class.
Nearly half of each incoming class — about 45% — do not make it through the three weeks preceding Hell Week — some 29% voluntarily withdraw from the course. Despite Hell Week’s reputation as one of the military’s most punishing endurance tests, more candidates drop out during the preceding weeks than during Hell Week.
Around 21% left during Hell Week either because they asked to leave or had medical or performance issues. The figures suggest that nearly four out of five candidates who began Hell Week were able to finish it.
Attrition declined sharply during the later training stages, with 5% during the second phase, which emphasizes combat diving, and 3% during the third phase, which focuses on land warfare. Under 1% leave during the rigorous six-month SEAL Qualification Training course, which is the final leg of the pipeline before they are assigned to a SEAL team.
In 2021, a sailor became the first woman to graduate from the Naval Special Warfare training pipeline to become a Special Warfare Combat Crewman, according to previous reporting by CBS News. The Navy said that historically only about 35% of candidates attempting to join their ranks make it to graduation.
The Navy’s Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen, known as SWCCs, are elite maritime operators training to operate high-speed, heavily armed boats that transport Navy SEALs into and out of hostile territory, along with other maritime missions. While they undergo separate selection and training courses, SWCCs are part of Naval Special Warfare Command.
Outside of naval special warfare, women have successfully navigated other rigorous special operation training pipelines.
Seventeen women have attempted to become Marine Raiders under Marine Forces Special Operations Command but none had passed as of 2024, according to the Military Times, which also reported that 54 women in the Air Force had entered training to join special operation jobs. Only a handful have completed the training.
In 2020, a National Guard soldier became the second woman to finish the Army’s Special Forces Qualification Course and move on to a Green Beret team — the first was Capt. Kathleen Wilder in 1980, who retired as a lieutenant colonel, according to the Army Times. Less than 10 women have earned the Green Beret, according to a 2023 report from Military.com
Fewer than a dozen women have joined the historic 75th Ranger Regiment – an elite special operations Army unit that specializes in high-risk raids, airfield seizures and large-scale combat operations. Everyone who serves in the regiment has to pass the selection process and the grueling tests during Ranger School no matter the position.
One of those women is former Capt. Hailey Gibbons, a West Point graduate who completed Ranger School in 2021. She served as a logistician in the 75th Ranger Regiment until she left the military in 2023.
“If you’re a logistician, if you’re comms guide, military intelligence, everyone is a Ranger in that formation,” Gibbons told CBS News in an interview. “And so I was like, I want to be a part of the team. I don’t just want to assist the team.”
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Undated photo: Capt. Hailey Gibbons served as an Army Ranger. Provided by Hailey Gibbons
Women have faced resistance from the military community in serving in combat roles and trying out for special operations, and that’s still the case. As the two women were making their way through the initial weeks of BUD/S, they were criticized on social media by some former SEALs and military focused accounts.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has repeatedly questioned whether women should serve in ground combat and special operations roles, arguing that their inclusion could undermine military effectiveness and physical standards.
Shortly before he was nominated for the position, the former Fox News host and National Guard veteran said “we should not have women in combat roles” in a podcast interview with Shawn Ryan, who is a former Navy SEAL. In his confirmation hearing, Hegseth said women would have access to ground combat roles, “given standards remain high.”
He offered no example of how standards had been lowered but said he’s been told by service members that standards have changed “in ways direct, indirect, overt, and subtle.”
Earlier this year, the Pentagon commissioned a study to review the effectiveness of women in ground combat roles. In a statement given to CBS News in January, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said the study was “to ensure standards are met and the United States maintains the most lethal military.”
Gibbons told CBS News the standards have not changed for special operations despite Hegseth’s indirect claims.
“When he’s saying that the standards have changed and that people have lowered standards to allow women into their formations, it’s absolutely a lie because no brigade commander would sign off on that — because then they would be looked at as less than and as someone who they can’t trust,” Gibbons said.