But, I do not believe that women have any business in overseas deployments (embassies excepted) or combat duty. The U.S. military, as a fighting force, has one mission, to defend the country and the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, using extreme violence if need be. Much as women's rights advocates would like to have it otherwise, the military is not a dating club or an exercise in social engineering...
The last legal challenge to drafting women said that it made no sense to draft women because there were too few places to put them because of MOS restrictions. I may not have the numbers exactly correct, but now that 80% of MOS categories are open to women, 90% of billets can be filled with women.
Private Benjamin gets an invite whether she wants to do lunch or not.
I’m a woman, and I was in the Navy 82-86. One of the huge problems was that not allowing women to deploy (which they didn’t at that time, save tender duty) meant that we used all of the shore billets and men had a harder time getting a shore rotation. They didn’t like that any more than they like having women aboard ships now.
I have thoughts on women serving in combat situations on the ground but it’s very different aboard a ship (where my daughter just happens to be serving now, BTW) Although, I’ll concede that it’s a very charged atmosphere on an extended cruise and it does push people together more than a normal situation. And, though I have no proof, I think that I’d agree that unwed pregnancies are a little more common in the Navy than other services. Cant be sure, just MHO.
You can ride the WAVES, but ya gotta watch out for the sand crabs ( especially the big ones ).... :)