Military role for women still evolving

[thedrifter]

Military role for women still evolving
Latest wars making some limits obsolete

By JEROME L. SHERMAN
BLOCK NEWS ALLIANCE

When Staff Sgt. Tabitha Williams completed basic training for the U.S. Marine Corps at Parris Island, S.C., it was the proudest moment of her life.

The 13-week course - the longest of any military branch - ends with the Crucible, three days of sleep and food deprivation and obstacles that both men and women must overcome.

"I realized I could do anything I wanted to do," said Sergeant Williams, 27, a 5-foot-tall Marine recruiter in Ross, Pa., who had the nickname "Little Tabby" as a teenager.

Today the Marine Corps has more than 11,000 females, including more than 1,100 officers. About 200,000 women serve in active duty posts in the armed forces, 14 percent of the total.

Yet Sergeant Williams and her fellow female soldiers and Marines are far from being able to do "anything" in the military, a fact that irritates proponents of full gender equality. The Department of Defense prohibits women from serving with the infantry, special forces, armor, field artillery, and on submarines.

But the nature of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan has made some prohibitions obsolete as insurgents target support units and put all military personnel in harm's way, argues Lory Manning, a project director for the Women's Research & Education Institute in Arlington, Va.

Female medics, for example, sometimes accompany combat units into battle. And special forces teams bring female soldiers on missions to help them question Muslim women who are reluctant to cooperate with male soldiers.

Two women have won the Silver Star medal for valor in combat, the first to do so since World War II. Nearly 100 women soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"These women aren't asking for special privileges," said Ms. Manning, a Navy veteran. "We think women and men should be allowed to do any job they are physically qualified to do."

Elaine Donnelly, a former member of President Bill Clinton's "Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces," has criticized both the Department of Defense and Congress for allowing these changes to take place without public debate.

"It's a cultural shift. It does concern me quite a bit," she said. "These women are patriotic. They're courageous. But we should not ask of our women and the military more than is realistic."

Ms. Donnelly, who now heads the nonpartisan Center for Military Readiness, argues that ordering women to serve in combat is lowering standards and creating resentment among male soldiers.

"There are differences between men and women where physical strength is an issue," she said.

That's a point Ms. Manning, a Navy veteran, disputes.

"There are some pretty strapping women out there," she said.

When she joined the military in 1969, few positions were open to women. No woman could have command authority over men, nor could she serve on any Navy craft, except hospital ships and some transport ships.

By the time Ms. Manning retired 25 years later, there had been a transformation. Nearly 50,000 women served in the first Persian Gulf War in 1990 and 1991. Thirteen women were killed and two became prisoners of war. In the first three years after the war, Congress allowed women onto combat aircraft and most Navy combat ships.

Defense Secretary Les Aspin issued a new rule for all women in the military, only keeping them from serving in units below the brigade level "whose primary mission is to engage in direct combat on the ground." He also prohibited women from serving in support units that work side-by-side with combat units.

The rule opened up 32,700 Army positions and 48,000 Marine Corps positions, according to the Women's Research & Education Institute. Mr. Aspin's rule remains in effect today, at least officially.

Neither branch of Congress has had a formal committee hearing on the role of women in the military in several decades. That has allowed the gradual expansion of female roles on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, Ms. Donnelly said.

Sergeant Williams, the recruiter who has served in both Iraq and Afghanistan in logistical units, said she would take a combat position if it were open to her. Regardless, she plans to stay in the military.

"They don't call me a female Marine," she said. "They call me a Marine."

The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Jerome L. Sherman is a reporter for the Post-Gazette.

Contact Jerome L. Sherman at:
jsherman@post-gazette.com
or 412-263-1183.

Ellie

[arjones0351]

I am an Infantry Marine who has served in Iraq and my wife is finishing her college degree and plans to attend OCS. Her goal is to complete Law School and get into JAG. However, if that does not work out she has been complaining that there is nothing else she would want to do except combat MOS's. I have mixed feelings on this obviously. On one hand I feel that if they are physically and mentally capable of doing the job then fine. But, I do think it should be limited to other than infantry units. Artillery, tanks, things like that. Something deep inside of me just screams out that a woman should not be a grunt.

[bobo2008881]

I can't help you!I am unable to help you!