[exDemMom]

Working in a hospital, is hardly combat, they don't have anything in common at all.

You realize that I am not talking about a facility like Walter Reed, don't you? I'm talking about the field hospitals, set up where they are subjected to IEDs, suicide bombers, etc. The only "protection" those facilities have are the red crosses painted on the walls. While medical personnel are not fighters, they do get killed in the line of duty, including from enemy action.

This is *not* the Vietnam era any more.

[ansel12]

"After all, women already work in areas that bring them very close to combat; in the capacity of doctors and nurses, they routinely deal with combat-caused injuries and psychological problems."

I have never met a nurse or doctor in the military who thought that they were fighting and living the life, and experiencing the war, as combat troops.

They are where the men injured in combat go to get treated, fed, and cleaned up, and taken care of.