Posted on 10/25/2009 7:24:06 AM PDT by Saije
The image of young women in a hot , dusty combat zone toting automatic weapons is still startling to some.
But right now there are 10,000 women serving in Iraq, more than 4,000 in Aghanistan. They have been fighting and dying next to their male comrades since the wars began.
"I can't help but think most Americans think women aren't in combat," says Specialist Ashley Pullen who was awarded a Bronze Star for valor in 2005 for her heroic action in Iraq where she served with a military police unit. "We're here and we're right up with the guys."
Technically they're restricted from certain combat roles. The Department of Defense prohibits women from serving in assignments "whose primary mission is to engage in direct combat on the ground."
Nevertheless, women serving in support positions on and off the frontlines, where war is waged on street corners and in markets, are often at equal risk. There have been 103 women who have been killed in Iraq and 15 others in Afghanistan.
What women can or cannot do in combat is not always clear in today's wars, and many say that the Department of Defense and Congress should reevaluate women's roles in modern warfare.
As female aviators, military police officers, and civil affairs officers, about 80 percent of the positions in the Department of Defense and 70 percent in the Army are available to women, according to a RAND study. Women make up about 11 percent of the forces deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Covering their own hair, women Marines in Afghanistan are part of female engagement teams that reach out to Muslim women, and as intelligence officers investigating those who may be infiltrating the communities.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
The Israelis require women to serve, and they seem to have no problem with it...
Israel is at the constant state of alert and they need every person who can carry a rifle they can find. America dont have that problem since we have a large pool of manpower.
That being said, There is a place for women in combat, as MPs, truck driver and chopper pilots.But front line duty should be left to men.
Sorry to all the women I offended.
....instead of glorifying this, ABC ought to reflect on what it says about the shameful state of American manhood....give it 10 years and see how ABC feels about the sight of a homeless woman amputee begging on the street corner.
“But front line duty should be left to men.”
I think that’s partly the point in the article. In both Iraq and Afghanistan it’s sometimes hard to tell where the front line is actually located.
I agree with you 100%- I served in the Army for four years, and often times offend women by espousing that very same belief. I served with many hard working women, but the majority want the “glory” without the work, and they play that gender card nicely when it suites them.
Not in frontline combat units. The Israelis learned long ago from their experiment that that was a mistake they wouldn't repeat.
There is a place for women in combat as MP’s, truck drivers, etc., until we see another Bulge, Pusan or Tet. At that point the inability to fight in sustained combat over weeks at a time (without returning to base every night) will send us back into the healthy you man mode. By the way, there are many men forty to sixty serving and far more have been died and earned awards for valor. Should we concentrate on recruiting men over forty?
Actually, the A-10 pilots I’ve met said she was a pee-poor pilot.
“I can’t help but think most Americans think women aren’t in combat,” says Specialist Ashley Pullen who was awarded a Bronze Star for valor in 2005 for her heroic action in Iraq where she served with a military police unit. “We’re here and we’re right up with the guys.”
Good point.In the Bulge, the US Army had to put clerks and cooks on the line, many of those havent fired a weapon since basic. These women who are doing the driving and policing have been using their weapons and have proven themselves almost as capable as men.
In the War on Terror, there is no front lines. Therefore anyone serving in those zones are riflemen{or riflepersons}and told to expect anything.
There is no easy answers,but I would rather have women who can shoot than men that cant.
I’m not offended, I’m just wondering where the “large pool of manpower” is? Those women wouldn’t be in those areas if there were enough men to do those jobs.
ps
My flight instructor when I got my twin rating was a very attractive female. When she was instructing, you did not even realize her attractiveness or the fact she was female. She was very professional. Southwest Airlines think so to, she is now one of their senior pilots.
They don't allow into front line combat roles either. While women do learn to crew tanks and other fighting vehicles, they do so only in training units, training the men. I don't think they go as far in that direction as we do. Especially in the IAF as compared to the USAF for example. Women fly everything we've got with wings or rotors. They serve on most of our warships.
The US military have met all recruitment goals this year. Thanks in part to Obamas “No Jobs Left Behind” economy plan.
And to be honest, I dont know. Hows that for an answer?
No word on how many have been shipped home due to pregnancy. In an Army of equality, any new fathers been shipped home?
One of my brother-in-law’s squadmates just watched his daughter’s birth via videophone. He will have some R&R next month, so he will at least be able to hold her before she is eight months old (they return home in June).
“As long as it does not take great upper body strength or the ability to pack 100 lbs of gear across the desert on your back, let them serve anyplace they are needed.”
Intersting related coincidence: Yesterday I accompanied daughter and son-in-law to a neighborhood ‘harvest festival’ and the local cops showed up to engage in some community PR.
Now, with that image in your mind, let me tell you the real deal: Both ‘cops’ were drop-dead gorgeous, average-size blonds who could qualify for the good-looking female cop roles in a TV show. However, both were outfitted with all the gun/communications gear that all police-people wear and there was no doubt in my mind that they were fully qualified to use said gear and handle anything that might ‘go down’.
The times, they have changed...
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