I suppose it’s only anecdotal but didn’t Sgt Leigh Ann Hester from the Ky NG win a Silver Star for her role in defending a convoy under attack in Iraq.?
And God bless her of course for not losing it on that mission, which sounds like an opportunity almost dished itself out to her, no double entendre entendred. But those Kentucky gals are known to be mean.
First, no one questions the courage of women, we have many examples of it in history.
Second, the issue is the role of the man in the society in protecting women, not putting them harms way.
Third, women are a problem in unit cohesion and create many problems in that regard.
I don't care whether the person in the uniform is male or female; if women can do the job and want to serve, let them serve. Biological facts show that there are some things virtually no women can physically do and those jobs can and should be reserved for men who can meet the standards. Most men can't meet those standards either, by the way. The focus ought to be less on women and more on making sure the standards reflect realistic ability to do the job.
There are other things that very few women can do or want to do, and if women can do them, more power to the women.
Yes, upper body strength is an issue for women, but we're not fighting with swords and spears where biceps are key. There are very few things in the modern military that a functioning trigger finger and good aim won't address.
I don't particularly like what this female colonel said about Santorum, but I'm guessing there are a lot of ground troops who were **REALLY** happy when she showed up with her A-10 Warthog and couldn't have cared less about the pilot's gender.
46 posted on Friday, February 17, 2012 10:42:59 PM by xkaydet65: “I suppose it’s only anecdotal but didn’t Sgt Leigh Ann Hester from the Ky NG win a Silver Star for her role in defending a convoy under attack in Iraq.?”
Yes. And by the way, she got out of the military and became a civilian police officer, but re-enlisted because she missed military life. I think she chose the National Guard rather than active duty so she could keep her civilian police career, but I would need to check to be sure. She knew **EXACTLY** what she was getting into the second time, even if she didn't know the first time, and she chose to go back in.
Doesn't that say something?
52 posted on Friday, February 17, 2012 10:46:19 PM by HiTech RedNeck: “And God bless her of course for not losing it on that mission, which sounds like an opportunity almost dished itself out to her, no double entendre entendred.”
Several years ago I had the opportunity to interview a group of soldiers from Hester's unit, which at the time the Army had sent to Fort Leonard Wood for motivational purposes.
Since all the other reporters were focusing on Hester at that time, I decided to interview some of her fellow soldiers from that mission since basically all the men were being ignored. Every one of those men said it was a routine and ordinary escort of a convoy until everything blew up, and every one of them said Hester performed exactly as she should have done when she got into situations where many people **DON'T** perform as trained. They said nobody could have predicted that ambush, except insofar as the obvious fact that convoys need escorting because they make potential targets, and everybody I talked to said this was a perfect example of why constant training is needed since nobody ever knows when everything will blow up.
Yeah, I know that people on active duty aren't going to say bad stuff about the military to a reporter, but when I hear similar things from all the junior enlisted guys about what Sgt. Hester did, it seems pretty clear that she wasn't an equal-opportunity promotion. A half-dozen people simply are not going to go public in one-on-one interviews to praise a fellow soldier if they don't think she deserved the praise.
By the way, the insurgents had a car waiting with handcuffs and other devices — apparently they were expecting to take prisoners to be hostages. They got bullets and grenades instead.
52 posted on Friday, February 17, 2012 10:46:19 PM by HiTech RedNeck: “But those Kentucky gals are known to be mean.”
LOL!!!!! I'm not going to touch that one — I might get a Kentucky woman kicking me in the you-know-where no matter what I said.
I sometimes wonder if it was because PC Army brass wanted to single her out for this high award BECAUSE she was female?
Not saying she wasn’t brave, but we have seen manipulation of these things before, as I recall.