Posted on 03/07/2005 9:26:22 AM PST by LouAvul
Gina W. went to Iraq, and came back with a different kind of war story. Her battlefields were in the barracks and the mess hall. The weapons were innuendoes and threats. And the enemy? Her own boss.
"When you go there, you have to be prepared for war," she says. "And then you have to be worried about being raped by your own people."
The former Army specialist is one of dozens of military women interviewed by The Bee who say they faced some kind of sexual harassment while in the combat theater in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Though publicity about sexual misconduct in the war zone has focused on rape, female soldiers said unwelcome advances, demeaning comments - and a feeling that being alone around male comrades in arms meant being unsafe - were far greater concerns.
"I think every female (soldier in Iraq) has been sexually harassed," said Sgt. Yolanda Medina of Long Beach, who is doing her second tour there with the California National Guard's 2668th Transportation Company.
The exact number of U.S. military women who have been assaulted or harassed is probably somewhere between Medina's "every female" and the number reported by the Department of Defense.
Defense Department numbers show that from August 2002 through October 2004, 118 cases of sexual assault on military personnel were reported in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. But the Miles Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps victims of military domestic violence and sexual assault, reports that it was contacted by 258 military assault victims in the combat theater during that same time span. That number rose to 307 through mid-February, according to the foundation.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Those are a great couple of sites, womenatwar.com and sexualcombat.com. But my boss said if he caught me looking at that stuff again, he'd fire me and I don't want to have to explain that to the missus.
Owl_Eagle"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
There are already enough potential drags on morale, distractions of one type or another, and obstacles in the way of completing the mission (to close with and destroy the enemy), without injecting women, especially for some politically-correct social experiment, into the combat zone.
Am I reading this correctly? A failed *attempt* to make inappropriate contact with someone (however that is determined) is now an assault?
A woman who wants to be on the front lines in a war makes me wonder.
Bingo.....Ping....and OOORAH!!!!!
Woman being valuable intellectual resourses in the military do not belong in combat......
just my $0.02
(sarasm) Yes, only draft young men who don't want to be there should be in a combat zone.
(sarasm) = (sarcasm)
Look up the difference between assault and battery. Assault is verbal.
It's not so much as they want to 'be' there. They are put into a career field, and when their career field is called to go, they go.
Hey Owl, "womenatwar.com" came up as For Sale, $499.00 and the other as can't be displayed, Oh well.
Were there women in the Army stationed in Nam back then? I know I watched China Beach but the only women I remember were military nurses, volunteers and the Special Forces for Entertainment. I wasn't there, so I can't say.
Hubby was there but the only women he saw was when they went into 'town.'
Hey, I know what you're doing from the other thread, course, I'm doing the same thing.
The headline reminded me of that day, about a year ago, when our soldiers were being accused of raping women at Abu Ghrab. That moonbat in the Cincinnati City Council (or maybe it was Boston) was showing photos and it turned out that it actually came from a porn site called "women in combat" or something like that.
Guess it's really true, somewhere on the internet, there's a perversion for everybody.
Owl_Eagle"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
The notion of women in the military is so fundamentally flawed that those advocating it have to be mentally unbalanced. Any chick volunteering for military service is either looking to keep a lot of guys happy or is very naive. Sexual harassment in the military has been going on for a looong time. Not limited to women in the military, but also including wives of military subordinates.
Whatta bunch of crap.
I served a 20 year military career, traveled and served all over the world, and never, ever, not once, felt in danger of being "raped" by my fellow military comrades. Nor did any of the other women I knew who served.
Now back in the days when I was on a college campus...THAT was a dangerous place for women...sarc
Could it be that much of this break-down of self control between men and women working together, where it is occurring, is coming from Guard and Reserve Units who are deployed away from the ol' hometown and on their own for the first time in their lives? And under rather poor leadership at all echelons, to boot.
If it's an actual rape I say let the guy fry for it, but these women should go to a "toughen up" course (rather than subject the men to a "sensitivity" course) all the same. Brushing off the verbal stuff is usually enough to stop it. Guys want attention; don't give them any.
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