Rapes Reported by Servicewomen in the Persian Gulf and Elsewhere

I agree - it's not clear cut. The messiness and confusion caused by a mixing of the sexes is grounds enough for some degree of separation.

I spent six years active in the Navy, most of it on a carrier. What I saw when other ships deployed really shook this sheltered boys' belief that women are pure as the driven snow. No sooner than a ship would leave port and some wives and girlfriends could be found flirting down at the club on base. So I came to think perhaps they didn't deserve the automatic placement on a pedestal I was inclined to give them. I want to emphasize 'some'. not at all. nonetheless, my assumption that all women were automatically honorable was proven wrong. (Yes, I was naive )

On the other hand, Several extended deployments with all male crews proved there was no shortage of apalling behavior by men when we pulled into port. There is nothing that surprises me anymore. Again I saw this bad behavior in some - not all, but the conclusion is that men are generally worse offenders. Nor am I surprised at the lengths a misfit will go to to avoid work or get discharged. It' seems that there was at least one suicide per cruise - someone who couldn't 'handle it' even though there there was nothing to really 'handle'.

I know that any woman working with my unit was always adopted like a sister. This did happen as civil service/civilian contractor technical gals worked with us between deployments, in port. I don't mean 'adopted' in any sort of condescending manner but rather that anyone messed messed with her, the were essentially dead meat. If there was anyone in our group who might have had dishonorable intentions I'll never know, but I do know that if they did exist, they were kept in check by the knowledge of what the consequences would have been. And i think this was the rule, ather than the exception. It the old fashioned 'chivlary' that feminism has done it's best to eliminate. Funny, but I truly believe that women
had more 'equality' before they got equality. We always treated them as equals. Now, you have to tiptoe around them because you don't know what's going to happen. And having one's guard up pretty much ensures that they can never truly be treated as 'equal'.

Still, I will initally give woman the benefit of the doubt when such accusations are raised. Male sexual misconduct is far more likely than female misconduct. I'm sure rapes do occur. I'm very much in favor of severe penalites for rapists. But there is a bit of a double standard out there - the MTV culture is suggesting the ideal is for women to act and dress like little sluts, and men to treat them as such. That's not the ideal I grew up with in the 'oppressive' pre-feminist era. Woman are coming up the big losers, no matter which way I look at it.

But I have to agree military bases are by and large safer than anywhere else. There is a code of conduct in the military along with swift and severe punishment for violating it. That clarity makes the miltary bases some of the safest places on earth. But 100 yards out the gate in a foreign port - well, that's quite another matter.

and this has turned into a ramble... and kinda pointless when I skim back over it. You're right - it does trigger a lot of memories.

And thanks for your service! That was not a good time to be in the service (I was in 76-83). We (the military) were most un-cool in that era. But I did notice a huge change when Reagan came into office. I distinctly recall standing a little taller the day after Carter was releived of command.

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