There was a time when we went to war for the sake of ONE of our people. Thank God others like you came along to set us straight. 
I am however disturbed to see women in combat/support roles so close to the action as to be placed in harms way. We should not be placed in the position of having to send our men into a risky, dangerous situation to rescue a single soldier. Men die in war, women are an additional burden to bear in such difficult circumstances.
I have to question whether or not the capture of a single male soldier would have caused the brass to risk the lives of these special ops troops for the life of a single man.
God bless the gals for their service but please, if they are to be treated as equals, then let's do so! There is no excuse for her rescue to be of a higher priorty than the rescue of any other soldier.
So, where is Shoshauna? Wrong color? Not a picture perfect blonde, suitable for national media exposure?
The sole women taken captive during Gulf War 1 is a neighbor. Her quiet dignity while describing her ordeal of rape and torture was enough for me to question the role of women in combat support roles. Her account, as a flight surgeon, captured, raped, abused, and subjected to other tortures is proof that some have the strength to endure, but we men will still risk all for the life of a women out of all proportion to their worth and value as soldiers.
The fact is, men will die to protect women. Their presence on the battle field is an additional burden for out troops.
Flame proof suit is activated. Let the discussion begin.
There was a time when we went to war for the sake of ONE of our people. Thank God others like you came along to set us straight.
The sole women taken captive during Gulf War 1 is a neighbor. Her quiet dignity while describing her ordeal of rape and torture was enough for me to question the role of women in combat support roles. Her account, as a flight surgeon, captured, raped, abused, and subjected to other tortures is proof that some have the strength to endure, but we men will still risk all for the life of a women out of all proportion to their worth and value as soldiers.
No flaming here, I think many should be shame-faced for not bringing Shoshauna up, because she still is in danger.
As for your argument they only went to rescue her because she was blonde, I think it is more likely that she is only alive because she is blonde. Think about that.
True enough -- it's imprinted on our DNA. Men will do totally insane shit to protect a woman or a child. Even if it's a 90-year old Iraqi woman or a 10-year old wannabe fedayeen with a live grenade in his hand and he just handed you the pin.
Women are different. (Thank God. Maybe even a different species.) But remember a few lessons from nature -- like never get between a mama bear and her cubs.
No male has ever succeeded in knocking me down. Two women have; and the biggest of the two weighed maybe 105 with her clothes on. Both times it was a fair punch.
I had a number of female troops during my 20 years with the Army. At least 90% of them were as tough as us males and we were all major league trouble makers, barroom brawlers, and generally a pain in the ass to our food chain and the MPs.
These women were probably the only ones who routinely went into the Korean DMZ, and I don't mean just visiting Panmunjom. I trusted them implicitly to cover my fanny and felt sorry for anyone who crossed their front sight post for the wrong reasons. A USMC major general met up with early retirement for expressing doubts about their abilities. Poetic justice -- he complained about their presence in what we considered REMF country and was ordered to publicly apologize before he took up fishing as a hobby.
These women routinely went into dangerous situations the Army will never even mention. Let me mention just one of these wenches before this post turns into three screens full of bullshit.
Lori was with one group of us on a special operation; my bag, wrong time of month. A couple of us Y-chromosome types went on extended recon and left her to watch the vehicle. When we came back, she was engaged in a rock throwing contest with the very unhappy occupants of a North Korean guard post.
A couple of days later, she really proved her worth. One of the local ROK artillery units decided to practice their skills, and as usual did not coordinate with any damn body. Four of us were trapped in their chosen impact area, with proximity-fuzed (air burst) 155mm stuff going off overhead. Lori sat exposed on a ridge line talking us out of there, knowing she stood a good chance of getting turned into pink goo.
She made First Sergeant two years ago.
Is this what you know of military service? Have you served in the military?
Every time a plane is shot down and there is a chance that the pilot or crew survived, rescue forces such as Air Force Pararescue go in after them. Those troops risk their lives to save the life of a single pilot, regardless of the pilot's gender. That's how we do things.
Al? Jesse? Which one? I had no idea one of you took time from race baiting and doing the financial shakedown dance to log onto FR.