Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Women in the military would be barred from serving in direct ground combat roles, under a House bill that sets Defense Department policy and spending plans for the upcoming budget year. The House Armed Services Committee approved the overall measure early Thursday on a 61-1 vote. The same committee in the Senate passed a different version last week. The House and Senate are to vote on their respective bills next week. President Bush requested $442 billion for defense for the budget year that begins October 1, excluding money to pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The...

Pendleton News Women's combat support role could end in Iraq Sgt. Luis R. Agostini Legislation now before Congress is aimed at making sure female Marines like 2nd Lt. Samantha M. Kronschnabel won't accompany their male comrades into a combat zone anymore - or sustain wounds like Cpl. Steinnum Truesdale, a Purple Heart recipient. When U.S. Marines launched their offensive last November in Fallujah, Kronschnabel was among them. "I led the 44 Marines in my platoon from the day we arrived in country and was able to lead my company into the city on D-day," said Kronschnabel, whose platoon of combat...

May 19, 1:22 AM (ET) The land crew waits for the arrival of the USS Nimitz into Pearl Harbor, Hawaii May 18, 2005. The... Full Image Google sponsored links Eliminate Your Debt Today - Consolidate Your Loans Into Easy Affordable Payments & Start Saving! www.next-day-loans.com Get out of Debt - Free consultation on your options from professional counselors Preceptfinancial.com By Vicki Allen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans on a U.S. House of Representatives committee retreated from a sweeping ban on women in combat support and service units, and instead put into law the Pentagon's policy barring women from direct ground combat...

Dear CMR Friend, Today’s news story about the Pentagon’s fecklessness on women in land combat is a call to action: http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20050516-124950-3391r Rep. Duncan Hunter, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is standing up to do the right thing—something you don’t always see in Washington—and he needs support to secure approval of his amendment to bring the Army back into line with DoD policy on the issue of women in land combat. If we cannot prevail on this vote, I fear for the future of our military. The question to be answered here is, will major decisions be made by...

MOSUL, Iraq -- Jennifer Guay went to war to be a grunt. And the 170-pound former bartender from Leeds, Maine, with cropped red hair and a penchant for the bench press, has come pretty close. It was mid-February and Guay, 26, an Army specialist who was the first woman to be assigned as an infantry combat medic, was spending 10 hours a day on missions with the 82nd Airborne Division, dodging rockets and grenades in the crowded streets of Mosul. "Break-break-break: U.S. soldier down!" a hard-edged voice came over the radio. A gun battle had just broken out. In less...

Urgent Message To: Friends of CMR From: Elaine Donnelly, President, Center for Military Readiness Re: Hunter/McHugh Bill to Codify DoD Regulations on Women in Land Combat – Your Help Needed I am pleased to inform you that Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has co-sponsored an amendment to the 2006 Defense Authorization Bill that would prevent top Army officials from unilaterally changing regulations that exempt female soldiers from having to serve in land combat-collocated support units. Chairman Hunter requested that Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), chairman of the Military Personnel Subcommittee, insert language into the National...

WASHINGTON - Women soldiers in the U.S. Army would be barred from serving in combat support units under language added to a defense bill Wednesday. Proponents of the measure said it would affect only a small number of women, while opponents said over time, it would drastically alter the face of the modern army. The amendment sponsored by Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's military personnel subcommittee, would prohibit women from combat support and combat service support units. "The current policy does not serve women well," said McHugh. "The current policy places them in a...

        PRESS RELEASE   For Immediate Release:                                                                                  Contact: Josh Holly or Harald Stavenas May 11, 2005                                                                                                                                   (202) 225-2539   Armed Services Committee Prohibits Women in Combat   Washington , D.C. – House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) today defended the line of demarcation that the Military Personnel Subcommittee established with respect to women in combat support units.  An amendment was offered this afternoon by Subcommittee Chairman John McHugh (R-NY) at Hunter’s request. Hunter’s statement is as follows: “The Forward Support Companies under the new Army modularization will be called upon to move into battle to support...

WASHINGTON - Women soldiers in the U.S. Army would be barred from serving in combat support units under language added to a defense bill Wednesday. Proponents of the measure said it would affect only a small number of women, while opponents said over time, it would drastically alter the face of the modern army. The amendment sponsored by Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's military personnel subcommittee, would prohibit women from combat support and combat service support units. "The current policy does not serve women well," said McHugh. "The current policy places them in a...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend <% printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%> Print Version May 12, 2005, 8:14 a.m. A Man’s JobGround combat is more than just a “women’s issue.” On May 11, the Subcommittee on Military Personnel of the House Armed Services Committee approved legislation requiring the Army to prohibit women from serving in any company-size unit that provides support to combat battalions or their subordinate companies. This is in no way revolutionary. In fact, as I wrote in National Review in December 2004, the House panel is merely telling the Army to abide by existing regulations. In...

Gen. Peter Schoomaker raised eyebrows when he dismissed as not a "gender issue" the women-in-combat controversy at an American Enterprise Institute symposium. The Army Chief of Staff April 11 answered a questioner who rightly praised the courage of female soldiers but expressed concern about the unprecedented number of women maimed or killed in Iraq (33, to date) and Afghanistan (5).

KARMAH, Iraq — Lance Cpl. Erin Libby doesn’t want to be treated the same as her male Marine Corps counterparts. But she does want to be treated as an equal — even in combat. In a way, she got her chance last weekend when Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment led a raid into the city of Karmah in search of high-value targets and hidden weapons. “We’re out here, and we’re rocking on the front line,” said Libby, a 21-year-old from Niceville, Fla., who pinned on the rank of lance corporal during a break in the mission. In...

"...For those on Capitol Hill, the Pentagon and at the White House who think that women in land combat is a ho-hum non-issue, there is strong evidence the U.S. lost the opportunity to capture or kill Osama bin Laden because of politically correct Pentagon policies to have more female warriors..."

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker strongly defended the inclusion of female "warriors" in the armed forces - and the growing number of female casualties.

WASHINGTON - For 25 days at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Specialist Danielle Green wondered if anyone could ever understand. But on the 26th day, a nurse told her: "A new female patient came in today. You have a lot in common." "Really?" Specialist Green said, and the nurse nodded. Like Specialist Green, the new patient was a 20-something firecracker, a 5-foot-8 former college basketball player, an Army soldier in the military police serving in Iraq. Like Specialist Green, she also knew how it felt to have a rocket-propelled grenade shoot through her arm. Specialist Green's left hand had been...

It's very late. Does the President know what the Army is doing? On the issue of women in land combat, it seems no one is in charge. High-level civilians are circumventing law and policy, members of Congress are being misled and decorated generals seem to have lost all perspective. President Bush has been a strong leader on national defense, which makes it difficult to understand why he is saying one thing, but the Pentagon is doing another. During an interview with the Washington Times in January, Bush declared, "No women in [land] combat." He was referring to current Defense Department...

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is real. But it is also among the most highly politicized emotional conditions in America. And now, as the media fill with reports of afflicted veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, it is important to be clear about what PTSD is, what it isn't, and how it gets used and abused. Combat-related PTSD is real. You can read about it in "The Iliad." After the American Civil War, it was known as "Soldier's Heart." In the First World War, it was shell shock; in the Second, combat fatigue. But only in 1980 did it enter the...

On a mission just south of Baghdad over the winter, a young soldier jumped into the gunner's turret of an armored Humvee and took control of the menacing .50-caliber machine gun. She was 19 years old, weighed barely 100 pounds and had a blond ponytail hanging out from under her Kevlar helmet. "This is what is different about this war," Lt. Col. Richard Rael, commander of the 515th Corps Support Battalion, said of the scene at the time. "Women are fighting it. Women under my command have confirmed kills. These little wisps of things are stronger than anyone could ever...

Political correctness in the U.S. military did not end with the Clinton administration. President Bush's military is also pushing an ideology of "equality" at the expense of military effectiveness. For the sake of an absurd feminist experiment, the Bush military is willing to sap its strength, expose women to torture and death and mar the lives of children and families. The price tag of this experiment is on the body bags carrying mothers, wives, and daughters who have died in Iraq, and on the growing list of orphans produced by the war. Read the casualty reports: Lori Ann Piestewa, 23,...

Women and combat badgesIn October, I postulated [in a letter to the editor] the Army would not issue the Combat Infantryman Badge to soldiers with military occupational specialties other than infantry, because it would expose the canard that women are not serving in prohibited units and not conducting prohibited missions. Army Regulation 600-13, Army Policy for the Assignment of Female Soldiers, states: “The Army’s assignment policy for female soldiers allows women to serve in any officer or enlisted specialty or position except in those specialties, positions, or units (battalion size or smaller) which are assigned a routine mission to engage...

WASHINGTON – Women have been allowed to serve on Navy warships and combat aircraft since 1994. But now, the Army is under fire. It is accused of violating its own ban on putting females near the frontlines. The Army's Third Infantry Division that led the assault on Baghdad is the first to re-deploy under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's transformation of the military. Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker is converting the Third Infantry's large brigades into smaller, more lethal "Units of Action.” These mobile fighting units depend on 13 forward support companies, called FSCs. Retired Army Colonel Bill Taylor...

The Washington Times www.washingtontimes.com Women in combat ban again at issueBy Rowan ScarboroughTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished February 4, 2005 The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee has ordered an investigation into whether transformed Army divisions are violating the Pentagon rule against sex-integrated support units embedding with land combat battalions.     Committee Chairman Rep. Duncan Hunter said that his staff should complete the inquiry soon, at which time he will assess whether the Army is complying.     "We're looking into this issue," the California Republican said. "We don't have many preliminary results, but the committee is looking at this. It's a serious...

WASHINGTON -- The Army secretary has rejected a recommendation to permit female soldiers to serve alongside combat units and asserted that recent changes to one Army division do not depart from a longtime prohibition against women operating side by side with front-line fighting forces, according to officials and documents. But current and former Army officers say that despite the lack of an official change in policy, the reality on the battlefield is quite different: Female soldiers commonly support male counterparts in the direct line of fire. In a Jan. 13 letter to oversight committees on Capitol Hill, Army Secretary Francis...

WASHINGTON -- The Army for the first time is placing women in support units at the front lines of combat because of a shortage of skilled male soldiers available for duty in Iraq and is considering a repeal of the decade-old rule that prohibits women from being deployed alongside combat forces, according to Pentagon officials and military documents. The Army's Third Infantry Division has added scores of female soldiers to newly created ''forward support companies" that provide maintenance, food service, and other support services to infantry, armor, and Special Forces units that commonly engage in combat. Army officials acknowledge that...

WASHINGTON -- The Army for the first time is placing women in support units at the front lines of combat because of a shortage of skilled male soldiers available for duty in Iraq and is considering a repeal of the decade-old rule that prohibits women from being deployed alongside combat forces, according to Pentagon officials and military documents. The Army's Third Infantry Division has added scores of female soldiers to newly created ''forward support companies" that provide maintenance, food service, and other support services to infantry, armor, and Special Forces units that commonly engage in combat. [snip] The Army maintains...

TAYLOR -- Many of the soldiers sharing a sendoff lunch with their families Saturday are following the Army tradition of their fathers, uncles and grandfathers. But most of them are their families' first women in uniform. "I think it's the same," said Spc. Desaree O'Donnell, 21, of Hazleton. Her uncle and grandfather served in the military. More than 20 of the 32 National Guard soldiers being deployed from the Taylor-based 228th Forward Support Company B are women. The soldiers were honored as they prepared to leave today for training before a tour of duty in Iraq. A group of 14...

I recently heard from a female soldier who feels betrayed by the Army. Calm but justifiably angry, the soldier said she is being assigned to a forward support company that will "collocate" with the Army's new, modular infantry/armor land combat battalions. This is a serious change in policy, unfair to male and female soldiers alike.

The Army said yesterday it is "premature" to say whether the service will ask for changes in rules forbidding women in combat, a day after President Bush said firmly that he opposes changing the rules against assigning women to ground combat.     The Washington Times asked Army headquarters at the Pentagon whether, given the president´s statement, the service would end a yearlong internal discussion about lifting the so-called "collocation rule" to change the rules prohibiting mixed-sex units commingling with combat units. Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Pamela Hart said: "The policy concerning women's roles in the military is still in effect....

"Officials Ignore DoD Rules, Congressional Notification Law"... "The United States Army plans to force female soldiers into land combat units, despite current regulations and a law requiring prior notice to Congress. CMR has learned that some Army leaders believe there might not be enough male soldiers to fill the new “unit of action” combat brigades. They are therefore making incremental changes in policy that will soon force young unprepared women—many of them mothers—to fight in land combat."

The Army's 3rd Infantry Division is scheduled to head to Iraq next month to bolster security before the Jan. 30 elections. When they leave, they could be the first division that deploys mixed-sex units near all-male combat units. The reorganization is part of Army Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker's plan to change the basic combat brigade into self-contained "units of action" that train and deploy with their support teams. The mixed-sex units, known as Forward Support Companies, would be on the ground near fighting, but not actively involved in combat. As Rowan Scarborough has reported, the redesign has created a...

The Pentagon is implementing new military plans that will make the concept of women in combat a reality.

The US Army is negotiating with the Pentagon's civilian leaders a plan to eliminate a women-in-combat ban so it can place mixed-sex support companies within warfighting units, starting with a division going to Iraq in January, says The Washington Times. Citing unnamed defence department sources, the newspaper said Army blueprints for a lighter force of 10 active divisions included plans for postings of mixed-sex units. A spokesman said the Army is now in discussions with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's staff to see whether the 10-year-old ban in this one area should be lifted, The Times said. The ban prohibits the...

The Army is negotiating with civilian leaders about eliminating a women-in-combat ban so it can place mixed-sex support companies within warfighting units, starting with a division going to Iraq in January.     Despite the legal prohibition, Army plans already have included such collocation of women-men units in blueprints for a lighter force of 10 active divisions, according to Defense Department sources.     An Army spokesman yesterday, in response to questions from The Washington Times, said the Army is now in discussions with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's staff to see whether the 10-year-old ban in this one area should be lifted....

Female soldiers eyed for combat; Army seeks end of 1994 ban...

I have been sitting on the sidelines when it comes to women in combat for many years. However about 73,000 of the Army’s 485,000 soldiers, or 15 percent, are women. About 10,600 of the nearly 178,000 active-duty Marines are women, almost 6 percent. (The Marine Corp has far less non-combat jobs than the other services) All Services combined, more than 200,000 women serve on active duty, representing 15 percent of our overall force.

If you met Teresa Broadwell at a dance club, you would probably think the 20-year-old, 5'4" (1.62m), 112-pound (51kg) woman was - well, it is not politically correct to use this term - but you would think she was cute. Perky even. But if you had met her one dark night last October on a nasty little side street in Karbala, Iraq and, if you had been an Iraqi toting an AK-47, well then, quite simply, you would most likely be dead. This young woman with the improbably vivid turquoise contact lenses - who calls herself "Little-bitty-Teresa" - this kid...

THE former president Bill Clinton's policies of allowing women soldiers into combat zones are being halted as part of a fundamental rethink by the Bush administration about the culture and purposes of the armed forces. Opponents of boosting the role of women in the front line have been appointed to influential positions in the Pentagon and a move to open up a reconnaissance unit linked to special forces is likely to be reversed. But the primary factor influencing the Pentagon is the need to fight a war against terrorism in response to September 11 and the subsequent anthrax attacks. Peacetime ...

DALLAS — Today, equality of the sexes includes dying in combat. In the current U.S. military, women fill battlefield roles alongside men like never before. Long gone are the days when female soldiers were nurses or were serving in some other behind-the-scenes capacity. As a result, 24 female soldiers have died in Iraq, 15 from hostile fire — more female war dead than in any conflict since World War II (search). Despite that reality, supporters of women in combat say it's a giant step for gender equality. Critics argue that it isn't a positive development but one that does more...

Iraqi worshippers have been told that anyone who captures a female British soldier can keep her as a slave. A senior aide of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr also called on supporters to launch holy war against British troops in Basra. Sheik Abdul-Sattar al-Bahadli held in his hand what he said were documents and photographs of three Iraqi women being raped at British-run prisons in Iraq. Al-Bahadli said 250,000 dinars (£195) will be given to anyone who captures a British soldier and 100,000 dinars (£83) for the killing of one. He also offered cash for anyone who captures or kills...

"It was loud, there was shouting, my team leader's seat was on fire ... Okay, the door. Open the door. Just my luck, a 400-pound door is stuck ... More shouting. Seems so far way, like a voice at the end of a tunnel. Got to get the door open or we're going to die." That is part of the e-mail account that Pfc. Rachel Bosveld, 19, sent to her brother, Craig, of a Sept. 12 ambush that struck her Humvee with a rocket-propelled grenade while she and her unit were on patrol in Baghdad, according to an internal Army...

<p>Terrorists in the Abu Musab Zarqawi network in Iraq are specifically trying to kidnap an American female service member to further horrify the U.S. public.</p> <p>Two senior defense sources said the word is being passed within the network on the importance of taking one or more women hostage.</p>

Members of Congress are demanding answers to their questions about scandalous behavior photographed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. “How could this happen?” they ask. But this is not the first time that they have been warned about personal indiscipline and inferior training in the military. Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba observed in his scathing report that military police soldiers at Abu Ghraib were weak in basic military occupational skills. How could this happen? Consider the effect of co-ed basic training, imposed on the Army in 1994. Two years later, sex scandals erupted at Aberdeen Proving Ground and basic training facilities....

After the Gulf War ended, Pam Pelle's battle continued. Pelle, a nurse and Army Reserve staff sergeant with theAkron-based 2291st Army Hospital, was called for active duty during the late fall of 1990. For six months, she worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., nursing returning troops who had severe orthopedic injuries. Day after day, she tended to soldiers who had lost arms or legs and listened to their battlefield stories. After she returned home to Copley, Pelle had nightmares and lost weight. A year later, hours after delivering her first baby, she started to hallucinate in...

Dear Friends: June 6 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Normandy Invasion. More than 85,000 men rallied to assist in one massive assault against the enemy, a campaign which required unprecedented bravery and sacrifice. Some were cut in pieces. Others were literally sawn in half by enemy fire and mortars. Still others attempting to land on Omaha beach never made it alive out of their Higgins craft. Many who did were shot and drowned before reaching the beaches. As we consider the tremendous sacrifice of the brave boys who engaged in one of the most heartbreaking, yet glorious campaigns in...

Question : At the present time, is it Halal to have a sexual intercourse with your Loundi (a female prisoner of war) without getting married to her?. Answer : Praise be to Allaah. It is not permissible for a man to have intercourse with anyone except his wife or his female slave (concubine). A wife becomes permissible after shar’i marriage and a concubine becomes permissible to the man who owns her. She may originally be a prisoner of war, and a Muslim may obtain a concubine from the ruler or commander if he took part in fighting in jihad, or...

WND AT THE WHITE HOUSE McClellan sidesteps women-in-combat Spokesman queried about rapes, pregnancies in co-ed military Posted: May 19, 2004 5:40 p.m. Eastern Editor's note: Each week, WorldNetDaily White House correspondent Les Kinsolving asks the tough questions no one else will ask. And each week, WorldNetDaily brings you the transcripts of those dialogues with the president and his spokesman. By Les Kinsolving © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com At today's White House news briefing, WND asked presidential press secretary Scott McClellan about sexual assaults in the military and women in combat. WND: Scott, the top of Page 1 of Sunday's New York Times...

<p>The Supreme Court yesterday refused to hear an appeal from one of the first women trained to fly U.S. Navy combat jets, who claimed during a lengthy and contentious court battle that an advocacy group ruined her military career with a smear campaign questioning her abilities as a pilot.</p>

Now that we've skipped over ''a chicken in every pot'' to ''an orgasm in every bed,'' maybe it's time to rethink this business of women in combat. That smirking soldier-girl of ours, Pfc. Lynndie England, in all those Abu Ghraib ''prisoner abuse'' photos, well, that's another story--partly. The first part is that we've had enough of that wall-to-wall coverage of how BAD we are, when in fact 99.9 percent of our military is heroic, honorable, and decent. Also, we didn't bring this war to them, they brought it to us, and when it comes to abuse, brother, we're the amateurs...

I told you it would come to this. When the social crusaders determined to put women in combat or as near to combat as they could, I warned it would eventually lead to the drafting of women. Some scoffed. But a report by the U.S. Selective Service System to the Pentagon shows the plans have been under way for more than a year. According to a memo obtained by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer through the Freedom of Information Act, the Selective Service System has proposed revamping the draft to include the registration of women, expanding the age limits and requiring young...

CARLISLE, Pa. -- Kimberly Fahnestock Voelz is buried near the church where she was baptized, a few miles across fallow farm fields from the stables where she raised quarter horses as a teenager. Next door is the yellow frame house she left one day in 1996 and, without telling her parents, joined the Army. Voelz came home in a military coffin in December, dead at 27 from a booby-trapped bomb in Iraq. She was the first American female explosive ordnance disposal expert killed in action -- one of 16 women to give their lives so far in the invasion and...