thedrifter
12-23-06, 07:33 AM
Women more than fit to serve in line of fire
By: FRANCIS HAMIT - Commentary
I saw the first tentative steps toward the sexual integration of the armed forces while serving at Headquarters, Army Security Agency, Europe, in 1970. Two women were assigned to that HQ, and they were not given "WAC" brass, but military intelligence brass to wear on their uniforms. One was a captain and the other a private. There was very little trouble with their integration into this all-volunteer, high-IQ subset of the National Security Agency. We needed the help and they carried their share of the work. We all wore the same uniforms.
Ten years after that my (current) roommate was in one of the first integrated basic training companies in the Army. Her duty assignment after that was artillery ---- a Pershing missile battalion in Germany. She pulled a lot of guard duty and went to the field, just like everyone else.
Ten years after that, I wrote an Op-Ed for Defense News, where I pointed out that the only real difference between "combat" and "combat support" on the modern battlefield is the word "support." This was after Capt. Linda Bray, an MP, became the first woman to lead troops in combat in Panama. That short essay became part of the bibliography of this debate.
It was about the same time that women regularly began to be promoted to flag rank, based upon their ability to command. Claudia Kennedy would end her career as a three-star general ---- the first woman to attain that rank but certainly not the last.
In 2004 I wrote a stage play, "Memorial Day," which was produced in 2005 as a showcase by the Masquers Playhouse in the Bay Area's Point Richmond. The central event is the death of a beloved daughter in Iraq: a daughter who is a career Army officer leading a military police battalion. A major, killed by a roadside bomb.
Predicting such an event was simply looking at the circumstances we have now with this war and looking at women soldiers as soldiers first and women second. It grieves me that Maj. Megan McClung died in combat, but she would have been the first to tell you that soldiers, regardless of their sex, will die; that such risk is part of the job. It's a very feminist position. Equal rights means equal responsibility.
As someone who has been a soldier, who served in Vietnam, and who opposed this lousy war from the beginning, I feel every American military death there as a personal affront. I am old enough and traditional enough to feel it doubly when the soldier is female, because men of my generation were raised to shield and protect women. But that does not mean that those women who step up should be prevented from serving in harm's way or that they are not fully capable of carrying their weight. We have too many instances to the contrary, such as Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester's Silver Star, to believe that.
Everyone in the military, regardless of ultimate assignment, goes through a course of basic training where they learn certain things that civilians shrink from. One of them is various ways to kill another human being quickly and efficiently. It's not summer camp. Everyone becomes a soldier: someone who undertakes to protect the larger society, even at the sacrifice of one's very life. There are no exceptions for women, and there never have been. Not really. So we mourn Maj. McClung, but the bells that toll for her are not bells that can be unrung.
The entire debate over whether or not women should be there is superfluous. Because of the all-volunteer nature of the Army, they are there. Because we are fighting a war without clear boundaries, they are and will be in harm's way. Some will die, because that's one of the things soldiers do. When they die, we honor their lives and their service and that ultimate sacrifice by respecting their decision.
Should we return to a draft, I assure you that women will also be selected. And they will serve honorably. To think otherwise is insulting.
Frazier Park resident Francis Hamit is a journalist, author and playwright who served in military intelligence during the Vietnam War. His most recent novel, "The Shenandoah Spy," concerns the early career of Confederate spy Belle Boyd, the first woman in U.S. history to be commissioned as an Army officer.
Ellie
By: FRANCIS HAMIT - Commentary
I saw the first tentative steps toward the sexual integration of the armed forces while serving at Headquarters, Army Security Agency, Europe, in 1970. Two women were assigned to that HQ, and they were not given "WAC" brass, but military intelligence brass to wear on their uniforms. One was a captain and the other a private. There was very little trouble with their integration into this all-volunteer, high-IQ subset of the National Security Agency. We needed the help and they carried their share of the work. We all wore the same uniforms.
Ten years after that my (current) roommate was in one of the first integrated basic training companies in the Army. Her duty assignment after that was artillery ---- a Pershing missile battalion in Germany. She pulled a lot of guard duty and went to the field, just like everyone else.
Ten years after that, I wrote an Op-Ed for Defense News, where I pointed out that the only real difference between "combat" and "combat support" on the modern battlefield is the word "support." This was after Capt. Linda Bray, an MP, became the first woman to lead troops in combat in Panama. That short essay became part of the bibliography of this debate.
It was about the same time that women regularly began to be promoted to flag rank, based upon their ability to command. Claudia Kennedy would end her career as a three-star general ---- the first woman to attain that rank but certainly not the last.
In 2004 I wrote a stage play, "Memorial Day," which was produced in 2005 as a showcase by the Masquers Playhouse in the Bay Area's Point Richmond. The central event is the death of a beloved daughter in Iraq: a daughter who is a career Army officer leading a military police battalion. A major, killed by a roadside bomb.
Predicting such an event was simply looking at the circumstances we have now with this war and looking at women soldiers as soldiers first and women second. It grieves me that Maj. Megan McClung died in combat, but she would have been the first to tell you that soldiers, regardless of their sex, will die; that such risk is part of the job. It's a very feminist position. Equal rights means equal responsibility.
As someone who has been a soldier, who served in Vietnam, and who opposed this lousy war from the beginning, I feel every American military death there as a personal affront. I am old enough and traditional enough to feel it doubly when the soldier is female, because men of my generation were raised to shield and protect women. But that does not mean that those women who step up should be prevented from serving in harm's way or that they are not fully capable of carrying their weight. We have too many instances to the contrary, such as Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester's Silver Star, to believe that.
Everyone in the military, regardless of ultimate assignment, goes through a course of basic training where they learn certain things that civilians shrink from. One of them is various ways to kill another human being quickly and efficiently. It's not summer camp. Everyone becomes a soldier: someone who undertakes to protect the larger society, even at the sacrifice of one's very life. There are no exceptions for women, and there never have been. Not really. So we mourn Maj. McClung, but the bells that toll for her are not bells that can be unrung.
The entire debate over whether or not women should be there is superfluous. Because of the all-volunteer nature of the Army, they are there. Because we are fighting a war without clear boundaries, they are and will be in harm's way. Some will die, because that's one of the things soldiers do. When they die, we honor their lives and their service and that ultimate sacrifice by respecting their decision.
Should we return to a draft, I assure you that women will also be selected. And they will serve honorably. To think otherwise is insulting.
Frazier Park resident Francis Hamit is a journalist, author and playwright who served in military intelligence during the Vietnam War. His most recent novel, "The Shenandoah Spy," concerns the early career of Confederate spy Belle Boyd, the first woman in U.S. history to be commissioned as an Army officer.
Ellie