Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Women in Combat: Study Recommends Ending Military's Last Male Bastion
Politics Daily ^ | David Wood

Posted on 01/19/2011 11:11:11 PM PST by neverdem

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-117 next last
If this dumb idea gets approved, then these would be Amazons must be held to the same physical standards as men, including the minimum distance for throwing a hand grenade. Sanitary napkins in sundry packets? I guess they could be used as extra field dressings for wounds.
1 posted on 01/19/2011 11:11:15 PM PST by neverdem
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: neverdem

This should be an automatic no. When we look at all the hand-wringing the DBM does over each serviceman killed in cobat (despite the fact that the DBM hates the military!), imagine how bad it will be if a female gets killed in combat!!

War is not someplace to send women. It’s bad enough that we have to send our young men. Unfortunately for those women who might think this is a good idea, not all of life’s activities are intended to be co-ed!!


2 posted on 01/19/2011 11:17:57 PM PST by DustyMoment (Go green - recycle Congress in 2012!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

Tampons are perfect for puncture wounds, specifically bullet wounds in combat. We always carried a few.


3 posted on 01/19/2011 11:22:36 PM PST by Uriah_lost (Is there no balm in Gilead?....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

The Amazons of legend cut off one breast to prevent interference with archery. I wonder if these women would accept comparable sacrifices.


4 posted on 01/19/2011 11:26:24 PM PST by Uriah_lost (Is there no balm in Gilead?....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Uriah_lost
The Amazons of legend cut off one breast to prevent interference with archery. I wonder if these women would accept comparable sacrifices.

Here is the test. Put them in their own brigade with no men to do the heavy lifting. We'll see how long the notion of a new frontier remains.

5 posted on 01/19/2011 11:31:25 PM PST by LoneRangerMassachusetts (The meek shall not inherit the Earth)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: DustyMoment

Exactly, battling women in military is a last mean to consider as an only last term of national survival if only most of the men are wiped out already.


6 posted on 01/19/2011 11:32:57 PM PST by cunning_fish
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

On ships a lot of stuff gets moved by hand. Subs take all their supplies on board by hand, and while it may seem mundane loading 4 months of food on board is a lot of physical work. In the squadron I was with the only time the Ordnancemen got out any power equipment to load a plane was when they were putting on 2000 lbs. bombs. Everything lighter than that was done by hand. If you have women doing those jobs you are going to need a lot more bodies.


7 posted on 01/19/2011 11:33:52 PM PST by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

Have one question..on a tank..where and how will the female crew member take a leak from the tank..when field conditions do not permit dismounting the vehicle.

The dreaded words “I have to go to the bathroom”. Well this is not a car..a truck, the base camp..or a convoy...

Put them in the infantry..airborne..but no tanks.


8 posted on 01/19/2011 11:41:30 PM PST by bushpilot1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

I respect these women that made their mark in combat, sounds like they kicked ass. Having said that, I don’t think they have a place in front line units. We don’t need to see raped and tortured pows. We don’t need to see any more mangled female soldiers than we have to. Hell I’d prefer gays getting shot up before women, and I’m no supporter of gays in combat.


9 posted on 01/19/2011 11:52:28 PM PST by catbertz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

I don’t recall where I had read it, but there was this report about some country in Asia having experimented with this, one time. After a war, they decided to disband the female combat units, based on the recommendations of a post-war inquiry report. What they found was that men in combat lose morale to a much greater extent when they witness female comrade casualties, and on top of that, overall casualties in those units were higher because the male troops would lose focus by attempting to provide cover to their female comrades.

Perhaps someone here can find the actual report and post it.


10 posted on 01/20/2011 12:01:34 AM PST by James C. Bennett (An Australian.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wardaddy; Joe Brower; Cannoneer No. 4; Criminal Number 18F; Dan from Michigan; Eaker; Jeff Head; ...
Socialism Is Back

Democrats losing too many white voters, says civil rights leader

Arizona Rampage Could Have Been 'Catastrophe' if Gunman Had Been Able to Reload magazine spring failure?

It's time to inject sanity into the gun debate (more moonbattery)

Some noteworthy articles about politics, foreign or military affairs, IMHO, FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.

11 posted on 01/20/2011 12:02:57 AM PST by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

The problem is, they can’t carry a man on their back and they can’t do prolonged marches/work that involves their upper body.

There are exceptions though. The Deck Gals of the Navy’s AOE fleet could do it but they wouldn’t be able to run fast and they may not be distinguishable from men.

It is one thing to sit in a turret, aim and shoot. If that vehicle rolls though, are they going to be able to carry the male solder that is critically wounded.

There used to be a saying, “The army is only as strong as it’s weakest solder.” Well the Democrats are doing a good job of destroying it. Some of the Army General’s are complicit.


12 posted on 01/20/2011 12:07:39 AM PST by dila813
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

“”The truth is that very few women and few men can meet or exceed the desired standards of an Army Ranger,” she said. “But some can, and they should be given the opportunity.””

Well another thing, so we have to rearrange the entire military for a “few” women that can actually do it. \\\mine mine mine, me me me, I I I, sounds familiar

It is the Democrat Mating Call.............


13 posted on 01/20/2011 12:10:34 AM PST by dila813
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem; All

Ther was a time when female military combat pilots were mocked.

“Angel of death

Her gunship cruised low and loud over northeastern Afghanistan, a mix of milkshake-brown flatlands, grassy valleys and boulder-strewn mountain slopes. On Capt. Allison Black’s monitor aboard an AC-130H Spectre, the region below was a flickering sea of night-vision green.

It was mid-November 2001. As an evaluator-navigator with the Air Force’s 1st Special Operations Group, Black was plotting routes, communicating with ground forces and identifying targets in the darkness below. Just days before, the Afghan capital of Kabul had fallen to light-and-lean Special Forces teams relying on Air Force fighter jet and gunship strikes. They were aided with intelligence from the Northern Alliance — Afghans with their own vendetta against the Taliban.

Now the target was a smallish province along the northern border. Bearded American soldiers, relying on the Northern Alliance’s knowledge of local terrain and Taliban habits, were moving covertly through the surrounding hills on horseback.

For weeks, the Army detachment had lived with Northern Alliance Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, a hulking and prickly haired war veteran thrilled to watch American air power cripple his Taliban foes.

Just 16 hours after Black landed at Karshi-Kanabad Air Base in neighboring Uzbekistan, she had been shuttled to her first-ever combat mission. It was off to a choppy start. Although the crew had successfully destroyed a bank of rocket launchers and several Taliban trucks, they were forced to evade anti-aircraft fire that pelted the Spectre’s steel belly.

“All they needed was a high-caliber [anti-aircraft] system to present a problem,” Black said. “We were definitely on edge.”

Dented but intact, the gunship flew on. Operational Detachment Alpha 595, from the Army’s 5th Special Forces Group, lit up Black’s radio as her plane neared its encampment. With Dostum’s help, the troops had learned of a nearby safe house packed with more than 200 Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

Black began to chart the course. When her voice crackled over the soldiers’ field radios, Dostum was delightedly incredulous. A woman? Sent to kill the Taliban? “He couldn’t believe it,” Black said. “He thought it was the funniest thing.”

The Spectre neared and its cannons erupted. Unaccustomed to the Gatling gun’s mechanized snarl, the fighters confused the airstrike with a ground assault. Militants scattered into the fields, seeking cover in ditches and vehicles, although Black could see their heat-signature silhouettes from her console by the cockpit.

Dostum, hidden with the Army detachment several miles away, said the Taliban also believed a high-powered laser pointer used by Spectre operators to identify ground targets — a “sparkle,” in Air Force spec ops speak — was a death ray that turned everything it touched to flames.

As the hailstorm of munitions continued, Dostum grabbed his walkie-talkie, switched to the Taliban’s unsecured frequency and relayed to them the sound of Black’s chatter coming through Army radio.

He used the female pilot’s voice to taunt them as they bled.

“He said, ‘America is so determined, they bring their women to kill the Taliban. You’re so pathetic,’” Black said. “‘It’s the angel of death raining fire upon you.’” After circling the safe house environs many times — striking militants after they’d regroup in threes and fours — the Spectre had just enough fuel to return to Uzbekistan. The crew had expended all of its ammunition: 400 rounds of 40mm cannon shot and 100 rounds of 105mm Howitzer rounds. Black contacted an incoming gunship sent to finish off the remaining militants with a fresh load of ammo.

In those few hours, Black had become the first female AC-130H navigator to shoot in combat. Six years later, she’s a combat-medal-wearing mother to two sons, ages 6 months and 2 years, and she expects to return to Afghanistan in early 2008. She estimates the total number of human targets eliminated on that first tour at more than 250 enemies.

“I’m so proud to represent women, and proud to represent the gunship community, but it’s very humbling,” she said. “Here I am, Captain Black, getting all this attention for something myself and 12 other folks did.”

Although her gender was used to rile the Taliban, Black said it’s never proven a liability with her crew. “I never have to worry about it,” she said. “Everybody I care about knows who I am. They know what Allison Black is about.”

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/12/airforce_deadly_women_071229w/


14 posted on 01/20/2011 12:22:10 AM PST by dixiechick2000 ("First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." - Gandhi)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
I was an iron worker and the first girl they put on the high steel fell off and died.
15 posted on 01/20/2011 12:22:59 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper (I Love Catholic Nerds)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

>> If this dumb idea gets approved...

Some who would rather not may lose that provision to avoid combat.

Chivalry in the West is dead. Perhaps that began with Roe vs Wade.


16 posted on 01/20/2011 12:27:15 AM PST by Gene Eric (Your Hope has been redistributed. Here's your Change.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
A group of female Army cooks apparently felt the same way. They were deployed to Iraq where they discovered all the cooking was done by civilian contractors. Instead, they were pressed into service as infantry and came home proudly wearing the highly prized Combat Infantryman Badge, earned only by participating in a firefight with the enemy while a member of or assigned with infantry or special forces.

This sounds like a load of BS to me. I have a very hard time believing a CIB would be awarded to cooks, let alone female cooks. Can anyone verify this?

17 posted on 01/20/2011 12:31:51 AM PST by VeniVidiVici (Florida - Give me your sick and tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe tax free!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dixiechick2000

Let me know when she can carry an AC-130 load on her back and I’ll give her kudos.

Female combat pilots - it’s just not the same thing.


18 posted on 01/20/2011 12:35:24 AM PST by VeniVidiVici (Florida - Give me your sick and tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe tax free!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

How long before the only people barred from Military Service will be White Straight Males?


19 posted on 01/20/2011 12:37:12 AM PST by DakotaRed (Why not just pass a law requiring criminals to obey the laws?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: VeniVidiVici

I would fully expect all military personnel to fulfill the physical requirements for combat.

When females were first allowed to be Navy combat pilots, there were women killed while trying to hit the boat. They’ve come a long way since then.


20 posted on 01/20/2011 12:42:28 AM PST by dixiechick2000 ("First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." - Gandhi)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-117 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson