It is MEN, not women, who are exempting women from selective service registration and MEN not women who are keeping women from serving in combat positions (which I agree with on the basis of qualification but not as a wholesale exclusion based on sex alone).
As I've said, I'm not a proponent of women in combat on any type of quota system whatsoever. But if there are women who are qualified (and I believe there are a very small minority who are) then they should be allowed to serve in that capacity. Also, in a all volunteer military like we have now, the military should not be excluding ANY qualified persons who can serve in any capacity, be it combat or any other. We cannot afford to turn away qualified persons who are patriotic enough to enlist.
Incidently, not all men are qualified for combat. The military finds useful positions for people of all kinds of aptitudes. Proportionally, more people are involved in logistics and support positions.
Are men who never serve in the military or who never see combat "not equal" with men who have?
Lorainne, don't fight it, we see these types of soldiers everyday here on post. It's easier to degrade the whole sex, than to admit anything else. Women take much needed slots or even rank. That may be true, but it is very true with some men as well. And for every woman, you can damn well bet there is a male soldier pulling the same crap as SOME of those women, riding sick call to get out of P.T., whining... pulling the rest of the team/squad down. Trust me you could turn this into a never ending sex war with this mind set... it's not worth it.
God forbid! Don't ask what sex seems to get more DUI's, on post bar brawls, or seem to visit ADAPCP more than the other.... And once a soldier gets to SSG or MAJ and above it's all DA select, so anyone going "career military" these days has to have a D.A. photo and a good set of either NCOER's or OER's to back up getting that rank (and in most all cases that male OR FEMALE DESERVES the higher rank).
I believe if women want to serve in combat arms M.O.S.'s there should be VERY RIGOROUS standards set in letting them do so, even to possibly designating an all sex battalion. And as far as these soldiers that think their women hating attitude is not because of their bias observations, Just tell them to go and DX their attitudes. And just because your not "active duty" does not make your points any less valid or possibly untrue.
Women who received the Distinguished Service Cross - WWI
Jane Jeffery: English Red Cross nurse serving with the American Red Cross; severely wounded during an air raid, refused to leave her post and continued to help others.
Beatrice M. MacDonald: wounded in Belgium during an air raid at a casualty clearing station and lost sight in her right eye.
Helen Grace McClelland: also on duty with the surgical team at the British casualty clearing station and cared for Beatrice MacDonald during the air raid.
Eva Jean Parmelee: although wounded in air raid she continued to serve throughout the emergency.
Isabelle Stambaugh: seriously wounded in an air raid at a British casualty clearing station in Amiens, while working in the operating room with a surgical team.
Reconstruction Aide Emma S. Sloan
Mary Roberts Wilson was the first woman to be awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in combat for her action during the battle of Anzio during World War II. With her Army evacuation hospital under German shellfire, Wilson continued supervising her nursing staff of 50, allowing the hospital to continue functioning. Tom Brokaw devoted an entire chapter to Wilson's exploits in his best-selling paean to World War II-era Americans, The Greatest Generation.
When the Germans bombed the field hospital at Anzio beach, Italy during WWII medical personnel evacuated forty-two patients by flashlight without incident, and for their bravery four nurses:1st Lt. Mary Roberts, 2d Lt. Elaine Roe, 2d Lt. Virginia Rourke, and 2d Lt. Ellen Ainsworth, received the first Silver Star medals awarded to women in the U.S. Army. Ainsworth, who was killed during the attack, was awarded the medal posthumously.
On Sept. 1, 1999 Sgt. 1st Class Jeanne M. Balcombe, of the 1st Platoon, 55th Military Police Company, was posthumously awarded the Soldiers Medal for heroism in the face of danger. While on duty on Aug. 21st 1999, Balcombe's quick thinking and selfless response safeguarded and protected others at the Troop Medical Clinic at Camp Red Cloud, Korea. She placed herself in harm's way between three soldiers and an armed gunman.
Colonel Ruby Bradley is America's most decorated military woman. She served in WWII - and was a POW for 37 months in a Japanese prison camp. Later she was a frontline U.S. Army nurse in Korea on the day 100,000 Chinese soldiers overran American troops and started closing in on her hospital tent. Col. Bradley has earned 34 medals and citations for bravery, including two Bronze stars. She retired from the Army in 1963, but remained a nurse all her working life.
The first woman to receive The Purple Heart as a result of combat was 1Lt Annie G. Fox, while serving at Hickam Field during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec 7 1941. Lt Fox was later awarded the Bronze Star.
And the list goes on and on and on and on and on.......
Are men who never serve in the military or who never see combat "not equal" with men who have? This is a very good question, Lorianne. I am a war veteran, and I lived 3 1/2 years behind the Iron Curtain serving in the US Army Berlin Brigade. But do you see my semantical trick? I am a war veteran but I am not a combat veteran! I spent plenty of years in combat training but I was never in combat. And, yes, I consider a combat veteran a notch higher than I am even though I spent years a policeman! I thank God every day I never had to use that crapola women's rifle, the M16 in combat---(Whoops, here I go!)
Of course I have met many admirable men and women in the civilian world. I say to myself, "This person is very fortunate that he nor she never had to go through basic training nor combat for that matter because this person is quite a mature individual." Then there are other civilians who are such whiners I'd like to throw them into a war zone.
As far as military men who never saw combat, read Anton Myrer's Once an Eagle. I believe Myrer adequately addresses the question of annoying bureaucrat types in the Armed Forces.
As far as addressing females in the Armed Forces, I commend batboy's argumentation. I don't think we're gonna lose a war but I'm sorry to say that we may lose a battle or get nailed in some major incident because of this feminist poppycock and balderdash.
It is MEN, not women, who are exempting women from selective service registration and MEN not women who are keeping women from serving in combat positions . Incidently, not all men are qualified for combat. The military finds useful positions for people of all kinds of aptitudes. Proportionally, more people are involved in logistics and support positions. Are men who never serve in the military or who never see combat "not equal" with men who have? All men are equal with each other, and are superior to women, since all men are subject to the draft. I know it is the MEN who do not want women to serve, but neither do women want to be drafted either. Men do not want women in the miliary or in combat because they think women are inferior. Draftable women, just do not want to do it,and think they can get out of it.
Be that as it may, it doesnt matter the reasons, if women were truely equal, they would be subject to the draft, and would go into combat just as men are.
Women are not equal, the "feminine" is still considered sissy and inferior, and any boy or man who expresses the feminine is scorned. While, on the other hand, the "masculine" is considered superior by all in our society, by both men and women, and masculinity is considered admirable, tomboyish, and desirable, even in girls or women to try to be or emulate masculine/masculinity.
Women may "pretend" they are considered "equal", but they are not !