Spent some years (working ;) ) at a psych hospital where there was no shortage of danger and what amounted to hand-to-hand combat (coordinated take-downs of violent people). Just because the hospital didn't call it fighting didn't mean it wasn't. Get a call from a unit that all available males are needed. Everyone hauls ass over there; if they've managed to get the guy (usually) into a soft room, he's in there screaming like a banshee, sometimes naked, out of his mind with rage, trying his damndest to tear down the building. Everyone calmly divvies up assignments as to who grabs what, who's got a towl on his forehead so he can't get his teeth into anyone, etc...
Even as the assignments go out, your pupils are dilating, your pulse is accelerating, mouth gets coppery, feel like your made of coiled spring. This uncontrollable transformation is as old a man himself. It's about getting ready to do battle with something or someone. A well-trained and veteran group of guys could execute the take-down flawlessly (no harm to the patient), but almost never without one of them getting banged up, bruised, cut, whatever.
If the situation was escalating too rapidly for enough guys to gather, or there were just too few guys scheduled that night, then there'd be female workers joining in, maybe even some nurses. The difference in the two types of crews (all male versus mixed) was immediately recognizable and undeniable. An all-male crew will function with a focus and controlled ferocity that is utterly impossible with women on board. Women mean guys are worried the women will get hurt, even if the woman in question is the biggest, toughtest dyke nurse on the grounds. This is a distraction. Women mean one or all of the guys is uncontrollably sexually "aware" of the woman. This is a distraction. And that big, tough dyke (who has by now earned my eternal, unabashed RESPECT for doing what she does day after day) is never a match for a man as relates to ability to bring strength and (again) ferocity to the situation. It's not even close.
I'm not military and never will be at this age, but my opinion based on life experience is it's absolute madness to put women in situations where they will (with rare exception) dilute the destructive capabilities of fighting forces. I fully recognize that many women can perform the duties required of a combat soldier; the issue isn't "Can they do it?" The issue is: is their presence, as it relates to the majority male fighting force, a dilution of the destructive capabilities of the force. Surely it is.