King: I just googled you and find that you did extensive work on women in the military. I was "in" from 64 to 94.
I was a drill sergeant at Fort Jackson in 1981/2 when the Army decided to train women right alongside the men. It was a disaster! I complained to the colonel and he gave me some PC BS and I'm still riled about it.
Just a few comments: Training women in the infantry alongside men short changed the men and brutalized the women. Training women in infantry like settings was out of place for the girls and you never saw such a room full of long faces when you were instructing about the care and usage of hand granades, for instance. Men on the other hand loved being soldiers (most of them) and got right to it. Women and men are genuinely different and the military should cotton to that fact!
During the VN War I was an attack pilot in the Marine Corps. We were hard chargers. There were no women around, except in those places where one would expect to find them. Women in the fighting units cannot enhance the fighting spirit of men in combat.
I have to admit that I've been "out" for a long time and when I left active service in the Marines in 1980, women were just beginning to make inroads into the squadron, but not as pilots. When I later joined the Army Reserve there were quite a few women being trained in infantry type environs. In addition, all of the women, dolls or no, became pregnant in pretty short order. One just cannot put young men alongside young women and not expect nature to make its way. This caused all kinds of problems. Problems that we did not want to have to deal with, but we had no choice.
I believe, however; that there is a place for women in the military, but in more feminine roles. I am not being "sexist", but realistic.
One last thing. When I was a company commander in a training battalion in the army infantry we had a female regular officer who was part of our battalion. This young women was as pretty as women get. She was about 22 and had her uniforms taylored. This beauty could really fill her BDU's! Blond, blue eyed and one hell of a jock! She was a 90 lb bundle of energy. She was also the fastest soldier on the obstacle course in the entire battalion.
We had a young 2Lt fellow who was as good looking young man as the lady was female. He was the second faster GI on the OC. He was rendered unusable because he was so enamored by the lady, who was trying to be a "Soldier" and was trained to ingore all feelings of the flesh. It was sad to watch. I felt sorry for the young man. If I had been 22 and not 42 I would have been in the same place that he was.
Oh, I also had a female trainee die in my arms...almost, but I carried her to the ambulance. She died soon after. Women could not take the heat while humping heavy packs! We lost quite a few women as heat casualities. So what did the army do? Why they lightened the loads of course! So the men too carried less which reduced the effectiveness of their training.
When men are in combat their relationships with women should be in the abstract. When the bullets are flying having women around is a distraction that they do not need.
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