Free Republic

The military's policy on women service members is broken and must be fixed! Last week's disclosure that a Marine staff sergeant gave birth on the USS Boxer – an amphibious assault ship stationed in the Persian Gulf – should set off alarm bells. This is believed to be the first active-duty woman to deliver a baby on a combat ship in a war zone. Washington Times writer Rowan Scarborough, following up on a tip to Center for Military Readiness, disclosed that this birth occurred on May 23, at 10:58 p.m., to a 33-year-old woman who is assigned to Headquarters Battery...

(CNSNews.com) - An investigation into how a Marine sergeant serving in the Persian Gulf was able to keep her pregnancy secret from her superiors could eventually result in constructive changes for men and women in the armed services, a military watchdog group said Friday. The 33-year-old Marine, who gave birth to a healthy 7-pound boy aboard the amphibious ship USS Boxer in the Persian Gulf on May 23, allegedly told her superiors she did not know she was pregnant. How a pregnant Marine serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom managed to keep her condition secret struck some officials and observers as...

<p>A Marine gave birth aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer in the Persian Gulf last month, marking what Pentagon officials believe is the first time an active-duty woman delivered a baby on a combat ship in a war zone.</p>

<p>It is an absolute outrage that Phyllis Schlafly, president of the Eagle Forum, is attacking the rights of mothers to serve in the military ("Is war any place for a mother?" Sunday).</p> <p>This is not supporting our troops; these women are a vital part of our country's armed services and have served with honor and distinction. For many of these moms, the military provides the best way to support their children.</p>

<p>With one single mother from the U.S. Army killed in Iraq and another wounded and captured, some conservatives are urging the military to restrict the deployment of mothers in war zones.</p> <p>"Healthy, responsible nations do not send the mothers of small children to or near the front lines. That violates the most basic human instincts," said Allan Carlson, a historian affiliated with the Family Research Council, a conservative organization devoted to family issues.</p>

The face of war is never pretty, but this time war showed us images we have never seen before. We saw pictures of mothers being sent to Iraq to fight one of the cruelest regimes in the world. What is the matter with the men of this country -- our political and military leaders -- that they acquiesce in the policy of sending mothers of infants out to fight Saddam Hussein? Are they the kind of man who, on hearing a noise at 2 a.m., would send his wife or daughter downstairs to confront an intruder? Three young women were...

Pfc. Jessica Lynch has won the hearts and the gratitude of a whole nation. If initial reports are accurate, she showed enormous courage when the Iraqis ambushed her maintenance unit. Though she had been shot, stabbed and sustained at least three broken bones (though it is not yet clear in what sequence), she reportedly fired her weapon until she was out of ammunition. As one official told the Washington Post, she was "fighting to the death. ... She did not want to be taken alive." They're talking about a Medal of Honor for her. This 5-foot-4-inch, 19-year-old soldier from West...

In a feature story in Tuesday's USA Today, Family Research Council's Dr. Allan C. Carlson said that the cost of sending tens of thousands of mothers to the battlefield is too great for our nation's children. "We've let an ideological drive to achieve perfect equality get in the way of common sense. No other nation has ever put so many women in combat or near-combat, and children are paying the price," he said. A prolific author, policy expert, and historian, Dr. Carlson is the Distinguished Fellow for Family Policy Studies at Family Research Council. Pentagon numbers show that the amount...

The argument about women in combat is over. In fact, it was over three years ago, when two female sailors were among the victims of the bombing of the USS Cole. Women had been serving aboard U.S. combat ships only since 1994, yet these deaths — the first time any female sailor had been killed in hostile action onboard — did not lead to a policy reversal. No special outrage accompanied the sight of “women in body bags” being brought home for burial, as many had predicted, either then or during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Now, as we fight...

War is too complicated for 5-year-old Jonathan Lane to understand. Jonathan Lane He only knows the simple things - his mom is gone and he misses her. He wants to cuddle with her, show her that he can tie his shoes. He wants her to escort him to school on his first day of kindergarten.But Kristin Lane of Batavia is in Iraq.Jonathan prays every night that his mom will return safely.American flags wave over a red, white and blue sign outside the home his mom shared with his grandparents, Susan and Chuck Timm. Outlined with American flag garland and a...

<p>What can you say about the men in a society that sends women to fight its wars?</p> <p>The temptation is to call them cowards. That might be too harsh (or it might not be). Whatever and whoever they are, they ought to feel shame and mortification when they look upon the photographs of Shoshana Johnson, a 30-year-old single mother of a 2-year-old daughter, languishing in an Iraqi prison. We can only hope that what is probably happening to her, at the hands of men who are taught by their degraded culture and abased religion to regard women as throwaway vessels of their perversions, is not happening to her.</p>

How does one define honor for women in combat? Of course, it was bound to happen. Casualties of war are inevitable. And although we have not as a nation reached the point of actually sending women directly into combat, we now send them so close to the front that it is unavoidable that some of those captured or killed by the enemy will be young women. Women such as 19-year-old Jessica Lynch, missing in action, an Army supply clerk whose convoy made a wrong turn into an ambush, the same ambush that led to the capture of 30-year-old Shoshana Johnson....

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. ABOARD U.S.S. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Gulf (Reuters) - Evelyn "Vonn" Banks is known as "Grandma Navy." As command master chief of the airwing aboard the carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln she has more than 2,000 sailors to worry about, not to mention five grandchildren back home. "I've never been home for any of the births. I'm the grandma that comes home after everything," Banks says. Her latest granddaughter Ashlyn was born Nov. 5 and another is due in August, by which time she is hoping to be back home in Memphis, Tenn. More...

Two years ago today, we buried my father. I cried then – I still do. It's hard without him because he'd always been there. My mother is healthy and lives in the house they shared. Her strength and faith maintain her through each day. There's a gaping hole in life with him gone but his spirit is with her and their love prevails. My parents, through the ebb and flow of life, were together for 65 years – an astonishing record. In this day of splintered families, I was fortunate to have an intact home. Mom and Dad were always...