[waterstraat]

For the most part, hand to hand combat is irrelevent in todays army.

Very few of todays regular soldiers ever get to do it anymore. I know hundreds of men who were in ww2, korea, vietnam, the gulf war, Grenada, etc, and none of them ever fought hand to hand with the enemy.

I agree that women probably would not qualify to be a navy seal, or a delta force member, but there is no reason to keep them out of the regular army, navy, marines, or airforce.

[demosthenes the elder]

please refer to my post #12
Mass has its merits, even in jobs like maintenance, as I discovered while training to be a machinist and found out how an 80lb 4-jaw indexable lathe chuck could ovrebalance me. It is not simply a matter of strength. Mass, by itself, can be one hell of an asset when shifting heavy objects, which is a major component of a great many military non-combat tasks.

[SauronOfMordor]

I agree that women probably would not qualify to be a navy seal, or a delta force member, but there is no reason to keep them out of the regular army, navy, marines, or airforce.

Women may do OK in slots that never involve physical strength, but that's not front-line combat. She might not have to go hand-to-hand too often (but it does still happen), but she WILL need to be strong enough to carry 60-80 pounds on her back for miles, moving quickly. She might be strong enough to pull a trigger, but not in good enough shape to run through alleyways, pulling herself up 8-foot back walls, then running to the top of an 8 story building in order to get into position FIRST.