Integration of Female Pilots in the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) - A Culture Already Set-Up for Success

Consistent with the recent January 2013 decision by the Secretary of Defense to lift the ban on women serving in direct combat, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment Airborne began accepting females into their ranks after 30 years of existence. How can an organization with such a rich heroic lineage, which has been essentially all-male for so long, be successful while implementing a relatively drastic organizational change real or perceived of adding females to their ranks and in their cockpits The 160th SOAR As rich heritage of mission success worldwide is due to their reliance on their standards of excellence, and selfless values that are found in their motto and creed this same motto and creed hold the keys to the success for the 160ths female integration. This research paper will examine the units standards and values, and it will demonstrate that the structure and framework for successful female officer integration already exists in the 160th SOAR A, as long as the units leadership proactively enforces its cultures core. Although the 160ths female integration also includes its critical enlisted personnel crew chiefs for the helicopters, the thesis of this paper will only focus on the officer integration. The analysis of the differences between the officers and enlisted assignment process officer assessments vs. enlisted direct-assignment would exceed the scope of this paper.