Anna Mulrine writes The secretary of Defense has ordered the Pentagon to let women serve beside men on the front lines of battle. Now, one year into the experiment to decide if that’s possible and how to do it, the military is already learning some unexpected things about how women adapt and how men interact with them. It is also highlighting some cultural differences between different branches of the military.

Under the Defense secretary’s order, each of the services must be ready to open all combat jobs to women by January 2016 – or come back with a marked reason why they shouldn’t and ask for an exemption.

To do this, the Pentagon has launched a grand plan to develop “gender-neutral standards” that involve breaking down precisely what it takes to be a warrior in the modern military. After this, military officials say, they will decide whether women – and some men – are capable of doing the job.

The Army is already opening up more than 33,000 jobs to women this spring and is “going full steam” in preparing to bring female soldiers into all other combat specialties, says Maj. Gen. Mike Murray, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, whose soldiers are taking part in the study at Fort Stewart.