Unless Congress decides to overrule the Department of Defense, women will finally be cleared to serve on nuclear submarines in about a month. The change follows an announcement last fall by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said he favored lifting the ban on female submariners. U.S. Navy officials say the first women on submarines will likely be nuclear-qualified supply and surface lieutenants already in the fleet, who will join the crews of Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines by late 2011. Women have been serving on surface ships since 1993 when that ban was lifted.