Posted on 02/17/2012 7:39:24 PM PST by red flanker
A retired female fighter pilot running for former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' open seat in Congress said Friday that Rick Santorum's recent remarks on women in combat make her want to "go kick him in the jimmy."
Martha McSally, a retired US Air Force colonel and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, is running in Arizona's congressional special election as a Republican. According to her Facebook page, she was the first American woman to fly in combat since the 1991 lifting of a ban on women in that role.
Appearing Friday morning on FOX News Channel's "FOX & Friends," she called the Republican presidential candidate "completely out of touch" for saying that the "emotions" felt by men seeing a female soldier in harm's way may jeopardize their mission.
(Excerpt) Read more at video.foxnews.com ...
Did she suppress her menstrual cycle like about all of them do? This is the dirt little secret now isn’t it?
There’s a famous case (look it up - I came upon it a couple years ago and it was an old story by then as I recall) of a female teaching A-10 flight somewhere in US Southwest who was said to be top notch and suddenly one day she fatally crashed no rational explanation whatsoever.
Correct me if I’m wrong but A-10 pilots don’t regularly experience G-forces in tight turns as regular fighter jet pilots yet its not impossible to think this pilot fainted under some kind of duress by flying close to hilly topography on the wrong day. As I recall the plane suddenly flipped and dove into the ground.
All it takes is ONCE, especially with such an expensive plane.
I haven’t combed thread fully but this HAS to be mentioned.
The double standards never cease. A woman can publicly declare in the media her desire to commit physical violence against a man without consequence. Have a man say anything similar and he would have a complaint sworn out on him and a restraining order issued.
And what if a woman who wanted to be in front lines combat would - for sure - abort every baby she ever became pregnant with?
On what basis do you assert that putting women out of harm's way is the reason for a having a nation?
“But I do have concerns about women in front-line combat, I think that could be a very compromising situation, where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interest of the mission, because of other types of emotions that are involved,” Santorum continued. “It already happens, of course, with the camaraderie of men in combat, but I think it would be even more unique if women were in combat, and I think that’s probably not in the best interest of men, women or the mission.”
It is really unclear, again, what Santorum was “trying” to say. But here is the quote. Why didn’t he just say “instinctively men want to protect women which could compromise a mission?”. Instead Rambling Rick over talked, didn’t make his point and left himself open for ridicule. When I heard this I was offended and can see how a woman in the military could be incensed. You do not use vague assertions with words like emotions and women in the same sentence.
Thank you.
Almost sounds like there is a deliberate effort to screw things up in the military, but who could possibly want that? (that sarcasm is not directed at you in any way, NT). After 10 years(!) of war, I would imagine personnel and resources are stretched very thin and units have to do whatever is necessary to carry out their assignments - but this should never have gone on as long as it has.
My biggest concern is that this war is being used as a template for the future. In the next war, we may not have total air superiority; we may not have almost total freedom of movement and resupply may be a tenuous thing. If we start making permanent changes to the very structure of the military (e.g. women in combat arms) based on present circumstances, I think that will be a very bad thing.
Pilots do end up in harm’s way. [Remember McCain?]
But more importantly:
HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS SUBJECT?
Our nation is in FISCAL DANGER.
Every stupid topic should be smothered by important topics. This silly game is absurd.
Will even 1% of the votes be shifted on this issue?
BTW ... God bless you for serving!
Gee, if I’m wounded in combat, I sure hope someone with something resembling a real muscle can drag me out of the s***.
Looks like Santorum is there to screw up the electoral race with such a topic !
It’s worth the repost of the links as I’d like to know about the Israeli experience with women in combat. Can you find them again?
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.
4. Are there different physical fitness requirements for women and men?
Although female candidates/trainees take exactly the same Physical Fitness Test as their male counterparts, the scoring scale for each event is slightly different in order to account for physiological differences.
http://www.fbijobs.gov/11131.asp
http://www.fbijobs.gov/11133.asp
Things seem to breakdown across endurance and upper body strength. Since there are very real physiological differences between the sexes women’s roles in the military should be limited as well.
You are correct and that’s the argument that ends the debate. Chauvinism is a loser. Add in the physiological differences between men and women and the debate swings back into deep reality territory with the added plus that we get to recognize those very real physical and psychological differences. The ones liberals like to pretend can be socialized away.
Yes because men and women are the same. /s
Now imagine if a male candidate said a female candidte should be kicked for something she said.
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