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Even clerks and technicians face the possibility of seeing combat, particularly in a world where low-intensity conflicts and terrorism are more common. This means that even a pencil pusher has to meet certain physical abilities.

With this statement I absolutely agree. The issue is what level of physical ability. I have never said that I think women ought to be hauling .50 calibers, body armor, and various and sundry other items along across battlefields. But what level to physical fitness does a radar tech need? Probable the ability to run a few miles in a few minutes, dead lift 75 pound weights from the ground to waist height; and the ability to function without sleep for 24 hours. Thus not as strenuous as infantry grunts, but more strenuous than couch potatos.

In the Battle of Bastogne, cooks, clerks, and other "rear echelon" troops were issued whatever rifles and ammunition could be found and sent to the front lines to help prevent the Germans from overrunning the surrounded American forces.

Considering that one of the "lessons" of the now-concluded war in Iraq was that U.S. ground forces could be smaller and still get the job done, we could see more instances of this in the future. The smaller the forces, the more likely they could find themselves cut off or surrounded. A fully combat-capable force could fight itself free, where a force partially composed of soldiers under-qualified for combat operations could face disaster.

You are assuming that the next fight that the US gets in will have "safe" areas where female radar operators, etc., could be deployed. As Jessica Lynch's story shows, there wasn't even such a place in this pissant war. What makes you think that the next one won't have even more dangers for the "tail" of the column?

Only a fool prepares for the best case scenario...