Coast Guard Academy sets record for female enrollment

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy is welcoming an incoming class with the highest percentage of women ever: 38 percent.

The female enrollment rate has not been matched at the Naval Academy, the Military Academy at West Point or the Air Force Academy, though each has seen an increase in female enrollment at a time when gender barriers have been falling across the armed services.

It was 40 years ago that military service academies were required by law to admit women.

The Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, is marking the milestone Monday by acknowledging some of its first female graduates at a reporting-in ceremony that marks the start of an introductory training period for new cadets.