A Whole New Twist on the Phrase "Gun-Bunnies"

The Army is opening virtually all field artillery officer jobs to women

Virtually all Regular Army, National Guard and Army Reserve positions coded for field artillery officers have been opened to women under a directive issued by Army Secretary John McHugh.

The March 4 directive opens to women approximately 1,900 area-of-concentration 13A Field Artillery officer positions in the active component, and 1,700 in the Guard and Reserve.

The change applies to cannon battalions down to platoon level.

The change does not include field artillery positions in special operations units, which are now closed, or positions with “male only” skill identifiers.

The female component of the field artillery officer corps is small, but growing, with only 112 women holding the 13A designation and wearing the crossed cannon insignia of the career branch