The Navy has announced it will open the Navy SEALs to women and is looking to recruit more women to the service overall as the number of those who step up to serve drops from rates in earlier generations.

The Navy's personnel boss, Vice Adm. Bill Moran, discussed these priorities during a wide-ranging interview on Dec. 16. Answers have been edited for brevity.

Q. The Navy SEALs are opening their ranks to women in 2016. What kind of timetable do you see to opening the training pipeline?

A. We have our plan, as you know we have been leaning pretty far forward on this. We are ready to go but here is the only thing I can share with you. For young women that want to be in that community, we have got to give them time to get ready. So I am not in a rush to put the first one through and you know and get at it that way. We are less interested in headlines and a lot more interested in success. Young women or young men that want to be SEALs at the Naval Academy or EOD at the Naval Academy go through a year-long effort to get them ready physically, mentally . It would be wrong for us to say, 'Hey okay we got approval so who wants to jump in without them having the benefit of that training and opportunity to get ready for this?' You've got to be prepared mentally and physically for this.

Q. Does that plan require a new standard?

A. No. So the standards were thoroughly reviewed by [U.S. Special Operations Command] and [Naval Special Warfare Command] for the Navy. Rear Adm. Brian Losey's team fed that to SOCOM. SOCOM approved that the standards we have are the standards we need and if you meet the standard then you are able to become a SEAL or a [Special Warfare Combat Crewman]. Standards are going to stay the same.

Q. Some observers have suggested that the military is opening all front-line combat jobs to women because few millennials want to serve. What are your thoughts on that?

A. Our veteran population is the biggest influencers on people that want to serve. The World War I, World War II, Korea, and most of Vietnam veteran population was in a conscript force where it was predominantly male. So, those influencers were more influential on young men . Now, we are starting to see generations of veterans who have got sons and daughters who have served with women and therefore have a positive influence on women to want to serve as well. The bigger problem is the decline in the veteran population across the country because the generations over generations have gotten smaller and those who have served are down around 18 to 20 million total where we were up in the 30 to 40 millions several decades ago. We ought to be looking at the large number of young women who are high school grads, which outnumber the men, college grads who outnumber the men, [science, technology, engineering, math] grads who outnumber the men, we ought to be reaching into that and saying, 'Hey we want you on our team.'

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Q. The Navy is making a big push to recruit and retain more women. That will be a challenge because they leave the service at nearly twice the rates as male peers. What are the foremost reasons?