First female Navy SEAL candidate out after a week

SAN DIEGO— The only woman in the Navy SEAL training pipeline has dropped out, a Navy special warfare official confirmed Friday.

The female midshipman voluntarily decided to not continue in a summer course that’s required of officers who want to be selected for SEAL training, Naval special warfare spokesperson, Lt. Cmdr. Mark Walton, told The Associated Press. The Navy has not released the woman’s name, part of a policy against publicly identifying SEALs or candidates for the force.

No other women are in the process required to become a Navy SEAL, Walton said.

Another woman has set her sights on becoming a special warfare combatant crewman. They often support the SEALs but also conduct missions of their own using state-of-the art, high-performance boats. She has started the long process of going through various evaluations and months of standard Navy training.

Officials have said it would be pre- mature to speculate when that Navy will see its first female SEAL or special warfare combatant crewman.

The entry of women in one of the military’s most elite fighting forces is part of efforts to comply with then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter’s directive in December 2015 to open all military jobs to women, including dangerous commando posts.

That decision was formal recognition of female servicewomen who fought in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars in recent years, including those who were killed or wounded.

The woman was participating in the SEAL Officer Assessment and Selection program. It is open to Naval academy and Navy ROTC midshipmen and cadets during the summer before their senior year.

The three-week-long program in Coronado, across the bay from San Diego, tests participants’ physical and psychological strength as well as water competency and leadership skills. The program is the first inperson evaluation of a candidate who desires to become a Navy SEAL officer.