[A CA Guy]

I don't think it is a lack of men willing to do the job, it is more about the equal rights stuff forcing certain positions and roles so women can be someone involved in combat.
Women do make excellent pilots by he way.

[El Gato]

I don't think it is a lack of men willing to do the job, it is more about the equal rights stuff forcing certain positions and roles so women can be someone involved in combat.

While the Air Force is not having trouble filling it's slots, the Army is, both officer and enlisted. Without the women, they'd not be filling them at all. As it is, they are forcing, or have forced by now, many AFROTC grads to choose between no commission and switching over to an Army commission. (A high school and college buddy did just the opposite in '72, he'd wanted to fly helicopters, and went through Army ROTC, but then they said his vision wasn't good enough , so he switched to AF, became a bomb/nav on B-52s, and later an R&D engineer at Wright Patterson, and retired as, IIRC, a Major. Lost track of him after that.