Skip to main content

Elite Rescue Swimmers: Women Welcome If They're Tough Enough

Share This article

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. -- U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter's order to open all combat jobs to women took effect last month and is now bringing new pressure not to lower standards for female recruits.

"My greatest fear -- and we see this happen a lot over the 45 years I've been in the Armed Forces -- is right now they're saying we are not going to change any standards. There will be great pressure, whether it's 12 months from now, four years from now, because the question will be asked whether we've let women into these other roles, why aren't they staying in those other roles," retired Marine Gen. John Kelly said.

Many feel that if the current standards do remain in place under this new policy, women will be welcome to try out for the combat jobs now open to them because they will have proven they can meet the same standards as men.

CBN News female Reporters and Producers gathered to discuss the topic of women in combat. Click play below to watch.

One branch is already putting that idea to practice.

The U.S. Coast Guard trains one of its most elite positions out of Air Station Elizabeth City. They're known as Aviation Survival Technicians (AST), or rescue swimmers. There are currently about 320 active duty swimmers; three of them are women.

"The Coast Guard has set standards for men and women equally and I feel if they can pass those standards, or the Coast Guard feels that if they can pass those standards, then they can go out and do the same job that we can," AST Chief Mark Pipkin told CBN News.

The training to become an active duty swimmer has one of the highest attrition rates in the military, with many classes starting at 24 people and graduating only five or six.

"Training is difficult because of the environments that we go into. It's not every day that we go into the worst case scenario, but we train for that worst case scenario or the bad storms, the hurricanes, and we train hard enough so that we can operate safely in those environments," Chief Pipkin said.

Jamie Mechikoff recently went through several months of AST training. She said that while it can be intimidating that so few women make it, it's important for her to pass because she's proven she can handle the job -- not because of her gender.

"I'm one of the brothers," Mechikoff said. "I'm one of the guys on the team and I'm going to push through just as much as they are. I don't think of myself as 'I'm the female getting throug.' No, no, I am just a person here at school trying to make it."

She said that while some of the physical aspects of AST School are especially challenging for her, she's found that mental toughness is what's most important for her to succeed.

"That internal dialogue, you know, always pushing yourself. You can't think negatively here and you can't say, 'Woe is me,' or you can't say, 'Oh my gosh, they're always pinpointing on me.' You can't play the 'me' game," Mechikoff said.

"Everyone's doing the same thing you are and everyone's in pain, everyone's hurting, everyone's not feeling their best and they're pushing through. You got to push through," she said.

Chief Pipkin said that from the outside looking in, being an AST seems very physically demanding, but the mental aptitude required to do the job is significantly higher.

Very few men and even fewer women make it through the AST program. But for the elite who do, the expectations are very high.

"Never give up, give everything you got, do what you're trained to do and go out and be safe and come back safely," Chief Pipkin said.

Share This article

About The Author

Caitlin Burke Headshot
Caitlin
Burke

Caitlin Burke serves as National Security Correspondent and a general assignment reporter for CBN News. She has also hosted the CBN News original podcast, The Daily Rundown. Some of Caitlin’s recent stories have focused on the national security threat posed by China, America’s military strength, and vulnerabilities in the U.S. power grid. She joined CBN News in July 2010, and over the course of her career, she has had the opportunity to cover stories both domestically and abroad. Caitlin began her news career working as a production assistant in Richmond, Virginia, for the NBC affiliate WWBT