Women have fought and died alongside their spouses since the beginning of time. But God, put a uniform on them, and men say ‘no way jose’. It’s been some time since this country was attacked by land forces in war, and when it happens again, it won’t matter if women wear the uniform. They will fight and die alongside their spouses, children, neighbors, and friends. But then it will be okay, because they won’t be wearing combat fatigues.
Read what you just said and think. Your first sentence especially. Women have fought and died alongside their spouses since the beginning of time.
What two words are important here? "their spouses". Huge, huge, difference in circumstance as well as physical and mental requirements. A six month deployment with 5500 with only men is stress in itself. I guarantee you during that time frame 75% of those 5500 are going to reach a point somewhere in that cruise they are not very easy to be around for a few days. There is major stress. Stress not needed either on the crew or the crew spouses back homes is a coed ship. It's not The Love Boat. It's Ground Hog Day.
The second thing is the intense labor involved. One Freeper mentioned carrying paint 50 feet? Try carrying a 200 pound barrel of refrigerant up and down a few decks. I had to carry a 50 pound C02 fire extinguisher the length of the ship running as hard as I could run and climb ladders sometimes 8 or more decks. Then I had to be ready to fight the fire. Try putting a woman weighing 100 pounds on a fire hose with 200 PSI. I weighed 195 on the ship. It took three men my size to safely man one fire hose.
Let me ask you something. Which would you rather have try and get your son lets say weighing 180 pounds out of a burning space up 4 decks to safety? A 100 pound woman or a 180 pound man? Would you want your wife or daughter working in conditions where one wrong move near a 1200 PSI super heated steam main could decapitate her. A leak the size of a pencil lead that you can not see or hear.
Then there is the sleeping arrangements. On the aft end of a carrier the berthing compartment second deck for the cooks and a few others is wide open. The berthing are {sleeping quarters} sleeps several hundred and the main passage too other spaces further aft run right through it. To even go to take a shower requires you to transit several other spaces.
Yes women have fought beside men and kin in their own communities defending their own families and homes. There was no other choice. In the military there is a choice. Women do not belong in combat units nor on combat ships.