After 55 years, two women made history as the Navy’s first female candidates in the selection process to join two special operations forces previously not open to women. One woman is in the running to be a Navy SEAL and the other is trying to become a Special Warfare Combatant Crewman (SWCC), Military.com, an independent website, reported Wednesday.

The Navy declined to release the identities of the two women for security reasons, according to NPR. It confirmed that they are the first two to progress as far into the selection process.

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Both women will have to complete the same training male candidates complete. No special treatment will be provided for differences in physical capability. Over two years passed since all combat roles became open to women. Fifty-five years passed since John F. Kennedy began Navy SEAL teams in 1962.

“It’s different for everyone,” Lt. Cmdr. Mark Walton, spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command, told the Two-Way when asked what makes training so difficult. “It could be the physical stuff, it could be mental, it could be medical. There could be a lot of different reasons.”

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Female Marine recruits prepare to fire on the rifle range during boot camp February 25, 2013 at MCRD Parris Island, South Carolina. Two women have made history by becoming the first women to have made it so far in the special operations application process. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Military.com listed some basic qualifications necessary to become a Navy SEAL. Some included being 18-28 years old, being a U.S. citizen, being a high school graduate and having both eyes correctable to 20/20 eyesight. Several education aptitude tests concerning science, math and foreign languages are also required to become a Navy SEAL candidate.

Prospective Navy SEAL candidates are required to pass the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEALS (BUDS) test after boot camp. However, they are encouraged to enter boot camp already in shape. In the physical screening tests (PST) necessary to have around an 80 percent chance of graduating BUDS, candidates must be able to do 80-100 pushups in 2 minutes, 80-100 situps in 2 minutes and complete a 1.5 mile run in 9-10 minutes, among other physical activities. The difficulty of these qualifications is increased when applying to be a Navy SEAL officer.

One woman was in the boot camp necessary to apply for the Navy’s Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewman program, reported Naval Special Warfare Center Deputy Commander Captain Christian Dunbar to members of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Service in June. Another woman, a junior in an ROTC program at an undisclosed college, applied for a spot in the SEAL officer selection process for 2018. The process is scheduled to begin Oct. 1 and she will also complete special operations assessment and selection, an early step in the process, later this summer.

“That’s a three-week block of instruction. Then the [prospective SEAL officer] will compete just like everyone else, 160 [applicants] for only 100 spots,” Dunbar said.

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However, despite these women who reached a historic milestone, it is unclear when they will actually join the forces.

“It would be premature to speculate as to when we will see the first woman SEAL or SWCC graduate,” a spokesman for Naval Special Warfare Command, Capt. Jason Salata said to Military.com. “Managing expectations is an important part of the deliberate assessment and selection process; it may take months and potentially years.”

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