The next battle for Pfc. Jessica Lynch

WND ^ | April 10, 2003 | Jane Chastain

[semaj]

"It is also proven that women handle G-Forces better than men in fighters."

Excuse me? That is opposite the truth. Women have smaller and more delicate craniums containing less cerebral fluid then men, and begin to black out under high g force quicker than an average male under similar circumstances. Couple that with a women's lack of physcial strength to perform manual tasks under high G and you have a recipe for disaster.

[Poohbah]

Notice that I didn't propose keeping women at the corps level. I specifically said at the Corps HQ btn level.

Great. So if the enemy finds a Corps HQ, you've got a lot of women taken prisoner and killed. And, BTW, Ralph Peters likened the Corps HQ to an "electronic orgy" in 1987; it's very easy to find.

[elfman2]

"It's usual location would be where all the brigades within the division would be able to utilize it, and to the rear of even division headquarters… End of story..."

I think you're playing loose with the facts to support what you wish were the case. I bet if we spoke to someone in that kind of unit, they'd say that they're prepared to move very close to combat, and are in danger of coming under attack.

Case closed back at you.

[Paleo Conservative]

I've got an argument that the leftist feminists can't beat. Women don't belong in combat because;

"Human Beings have somehow managed to keep the female half of humanity out of the direct effects of war throughout our history.

That's not really provable, but it could be argued that societies that protected women from war out reproduced those that did not. Slight differences in reproductive success compounded over millenia can result in large differences in population sizes.

[elfman2]

"Our Corps-level units do not have invisibility shields, or mystical talismans that make the enemy unable to capture them. "

I didn't say "unable". I said unlikely.

[usmcobra]

Do you know anything about modern flight controls because I do?

There isn't a man alive that can control a Modern fighter aircraft or helicopter that has lost a total lost of flight controls so the whole argument about upper body strength is mute.

The fight controls on modern military aircraft activate control valves for Hydraulic servos or in the case of Fly by wire flight controls electronic sensors that are used to activate those servos electronically.

The first female F-14 pilot suffered from political correctness at it's worst, she was poorly trained and ill equipped mentally for the job given her. In the effort to ensure her success The Navy under pressure from the very top of the chain of command overlooked her performance as a pilot until it took her life. Had she been treated as any other pilot she would have been grounded for her poor skills. It happens all the time to men with similiar abilities.

[HairOfTheDog]

I agree with you...

I haven't seen anyone - *anyone* - use Jessica Lynch "to promote their theory that men and women soldiers are the same" as the article says.

Jessica is being used, but not by anyone pushing for women in all combat roles... She is being used by those against women serving at all in the military, in some kind of "Oh my God we can't let this girl be considered a hero or we are all sunk" kind of pre-emptive attack. It's unseemly.

[elfman2]

"The good folk murdered by Kampfgruppe Peiper at Malmedy would disagree with your assessment of the WW2 Germans being of a civilized nation. "

Back to WWII are you. I think my point should have sunk in by now. For every scenario you can name where women at corps hq get captured and brutalized, you can name 100 where the same could happen to them at front line support units. That's my point. Get it? Minimizing the risk.

[elfman2]

"And, BTW, Ralph Peters likened the Corps HQ to an "electronic orgy" in 1987; it's very easy to find."

But not likely able to be captured by the people we're most likely to face and most brutal to our women.

[Tailgunner Joe]

So if the enemy finds a Corps HQ, you've got a lot of women taken prisoner and killed.

All of a sudden you're concerned for their safety?

[HairOfTheDog]

The women volunteering for service are not incapable of assessing their own risks before joining. The fear of it didn't stop them from wanting to serve.

[Michael121]

The flight controls were not what had been failing on the F-14 it was the engines. They would cut out that is why the were replaced. But they cannot all be replaced at the same time. They were phased in. So it was just a heavy stick not loss of total control.

[Brian S]

I am patiently awaiting PFC Lynch's first comments on this matter.

Should be interesting because it seems she is from a family that 'calls it the way they see it'. The father, mother and brother seems to be of that personality.

We are most likely to get the 'real picture' soon.

[usmcobra]

It was a Vehicle Maintence unit, Not a Tank maintenance unit, a Tank maintenance unit would have had one of those Armored Tank Recovery Vehicle that was used to pull over the Statue of Saddam the other day, and probibly would not have been attacked because it looks like a tank, it sounds like a tank and is actually bigger then most tanks.

These were soft skin vehicles with soldiers with no body armor and the bare minimum of ammunition traveling near the end of a long convoy, and it doesn't matter one lick that any women were with them, the results would have been the same or worse, because they were basically unprotected except for their personal weapons.

[usmcobra]

And just where do you think the Hydraulic pumps that run those flight controls are located? They are powered by the engines.

No engines, little to no flight controls or Hydraulic power.

Modern aircraft require 3000 psi of hydraulic power to work the fight control servos, there are no cables or control rods that a pilot can overcome with super human male upper body strength. And when you talk about helicopters the aerodynamic forces on the rotor are impossible to overcome without Hydraulic servos.

[k2blader]

Based on the many posts I've seen on FR, I think Jessica is "being used" by folks on both sides of the women-in-combat issue.

I feel sorry for Jessica about this. Doubtless, she never wanted such attention.

However, the fact remains that she is currently in the news because she is the first rescued POW and happens to be female. Related discussion/debate over the roles of women in our military is timely and to be expected.

But to think that the author of this article is saying, "Oh my God we can't let this girl be considered a hero or we are all sunk" is to miss the whole point.

[infowarrior]

Nope, I'm not. A Direct Support Maintenance Batallion operates BEHIND a Batallion, or even a Brigade, anywhere from 15 to 45 miles from what would be considered "the front". Any vehicles disabled in combat would be recovered by the recovery team ASSIGNED to the company involved in the action's Headquarters Platoon, which has organic mechanics, recovery specialists, and supply personnel (all male, as it's a line combat outfit). The disabled vehicle would be towed to the Batallion Tactical Operations Center, several miles from the fighting and Direct Support would pick i9t up from there, if it could not be repaired by company or batallion assets.

The problem facing the 507th convoy was that they were not a combat unit, but a combat service support unit. The convoy would have consisted of mainly unarmored trucks, with the sole "armor" being the recovery vehicles which at best, would have only a .50 cal MG as armament. Add this to the fact that they would have had few M60 machineguns (at least operable ones), or M203 grenade launchers, and you can see why if they were facing a well-armed adversary, they would have been seriously outgunned...

the infowarrior

who was a MEMBER of a Headquarters Platoon of a line company of the 3rd ID 1973-1976

[peeve23]

Read it again. I said they should be allowed to do what they can do as well or better. Definitely, if they can do it better.

If they cannot do forced marches, large tires, base plates, etc., then they shouldn't be permitted to do be in those jobs.

Patriots are far to the rear and they are electronic.

[elfman2]

"The women volunteering for service are not incapable of assessing their own risks before joining. The fear of it didn't stop them from wanting to serve."

In a sense, I'm not so worried about the risk to the women who want such a risk as much as to the unit. See #25

[HairOfTheDog]

I think "women shouldn't be anywhere near there because men can't handle it" is the weakest argument there is for keeping them out. Not convincing to me.