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I however wish to define the terms of “Combat” and how we use it in this friendly give and take. Is Combat different when you are up close and personal or at 20,000 feet and bombing little targets on the ground?

We agree on the up close and personal stuff. I can understand how someone might be tempted to view combat operations involving aircraft and ships as fitting for women, as it would seem that those operations do not require the same level of intensity. However, I think that opinion has come into vogue only because we've become spoiled by our technological superiority. We think of, to use your earlier example, flying an A-10 in support of troops as a relatively "safe" job, but I think that is only because it has been a while since we have faced an enemy who was capable of shooting them down. The same goes for support or remote operations on a ship, such as a carrier.

If we use WWII as an example, duty on a carrier was extremely dangerous, as you might find yourself defending against bombers, torpedoes, and heavy gun fire, all amid the increasingly fiery wreckage of your own ship. In such a case, the duty on that ship would suddenly become every bit as demanding as infantry operations on the ground, and thus would be in the realm of being unsuitable for females. The same goes for aircraft. Certainly there are women who can fly well, but if they were required to fly into heavy AAA or against other enemy aircraft, they would then deal with the stress of performing their jobs while possibly sustaining damage and injury, and with the added risk of being shot down in enemy territory, at which point one becomes a glorified grunt, a position, again, unsuitable for a female.

We haven't had to deal with an enemy with those capabilities within the last 30 years, so I think we've fallen into the assumption that being a combat pilot merely requires the ability to fly and the willingness to pull the trigger, and it is entirely possible that we will remain so technologically dominant that complete air superiority can be expected in all future operations. The military, however, does not succeed by making such assumptions. In order to remain at maximum effectiveness, it must train and prepare its pilots and seaman for the worst, and that includes those scenarios I just outlined, which, by their nature, preclude females.

I agree that in what I use as an example of assignments that women are capable of performing as part of their assigned duties. When things go terribly wrong (a cruise missile takes out an Aircraft Carrier, or a plane shot down) the roles can immediately change in the intensity and danger. That is always a possibility and not part of their assigned duties. That is part of their survivor duties. When such bad things happen, their planned roles are not really a part of their “assigned” duties. Then they unfortunately become combat participants on a very different plane.

Still, there are duties that women are capable of performing in the military that are combat/support in nature where their risk is minimal and their contribution can be huge. Combat can be conducted from anywhere on the planet to any other spot on the planet. The possibilities and opportunities are wide open.

I agree that we have a massive technical edge over the rest of the world. Still, the personal nature is always minimized to military personnel except to those types who are told to go out and “break things and hurt people. Those are actual rules of engagement that are given to troops entering battle. The pilots of bombers are generally told to blow things up. It is at the level of combat where you are told to hurt people that women are not appropriate participants.

Basic philosophy in war is to kill more of your opponent than they kill of you. We need to blow up buildings, tanks, things because of the people we will take out of combat. The most efficient weapon of war is the Neutron bomb. The Neutron bomb is designed to kill people without destroying things. It kills all living things with a stream of high speed Neutrons and leaves the things pretty much in place. A funny side effect is that bodies tend to decompose much more slowly because all of the Bacteria are killed as well as the people.

The human race is at its most efficient when we are killing our brothers and sisters who live under a different flag. A bit of sad ironic commentary.

I guess you can tell it is late for me. I tend to ramble at the end of my 18 hour day. I beg your indulgence and bid you good evening. I pray that God will bless you as much as He has blessed me.

Peace!