In an interview with the Associated Press, Linda L. Bray, the first woman to lead a platoon in combat, said that she is "thrilled" that the US military has lifted its ban preventing women from fighting in combat.
While serving in the US army, Captain Bray was criticized for leading military police officers through a firefight during the 1989 US invasion of Panama. Despite the fact that Bray was successful in defeating the Panamanian Defense Force, she was condemned for stepping out of the lines designed to keep female service members off the battlefield. Once publicized, her story caused a fiery debate in Congress and national discourse.
"The responses of my superior officers were very degrading, like, 'What were you doing there?'" Bray said. "A lot couldn't believe what I had done, or did not want to believe it. Some of them were making excuses, saying that maybe this really didn't happen the way it came out."
Afterward, the Army refused to grant her and other female soldiers the Combat Infantryman Badge for their efforts in defeating the Panamanian forces, and she was investigated over allegations by Panamanian officials that she and her soldiers had destroyed government and personal property during the invasion.
Over twenty years later, the controversy over prohibiting women from ground combat was ended when Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that most combat roles will now be open to female soldiers and Marines. In response, Bray, now 53, says "I'm so thrilled, excited. I think it's absolutely wonderful that our nation's military is taking steps to help women break the glass ceiling. It's nothing new now in the military for a woman to be right beside a man in operations."