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The Pentagon made big news last week when it announced it was opening up more combat positions to women in the U.S. military. These 14,000 positions include tank mechanics and front line intelligence officers. However, about one-fifth of active-duty military positions, including the infantry, combat tank units and special operations commando units, will remain off-limits. ... Last week’s rule change in the United States was largely a reflection of the fact that women are, to a large extent, already participating in combat. Despite the restrictions in place, 144 American women have been killed and 865 wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq...

Rick Santorum, in an interview with CNN's John King a bit ago, was asked whether he thinks it's a good idea or a bad idea for the Pentagon to relax some of the rules about women taking frontline roles in combat, "perhaps opening the door to a broader role for, ultimately, women in combat." His answer was both praising of women serving the country, and as a part of the armed services, but he went on to explain why he would take issue with women on the front lines. "Look, I want to create every opportunity for women to be...

Just as the U.S. military is indoctrinating troops to accept open gays in their ranks, a federal commission is pressing the Pentagon to make the force more diverse by, among other ideas, opening infantry and armor units to women. With the Military Leadership Diversity Commission’s report out this month, its leaders have briefed Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn and plan to deliver its 162-page report to every member of Congress. The commission says it wants the military to resemble the ethnic makeup of America. It is urging the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force to “validate” the standards...

Heather Pfleuger -- an exuberant, all-American, girl-next-door -- was transformed when she arrived in Afghanistan. She'd shrug into her body armor, strap on her helmet, yank on gloves, goggles and scarf, and slide down behind her turret-mounted Mark-19, a 40mm grenade launcher. From there, she could kill an armored vehicle and everybody in it a mile away. When she whooped with glee and led a convoy outside the wire, local Afghan fighters, hard men who'd faced down the Russians and the Taliban, fell respectfully silent. "Specialist Pfleuger can hit anything," her squad leader. Sgt. Kevin Collins, told me proudly. "I...

WASHINGTON – A pair of reports due in coming months will offer a new look at the role of women in combat units and whether female troops could serve in front-line fighting in the near future. On Thursday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said he expects to see next month the results of a periodic review into the service’s military occupation specialties, which includes discussions about the possibility of opening more jobs to female troops. Casey, speaking at an Association of the U.S. Army event in Virginia, did not say whether the role of women should be expanded,...

The United States Veterans Administration (VA), despite over half a century of experience in taking care of veterans, suddenly finds itself in unknown territory. That's because the last decade has produced, for the first time, a large number of female combat veterans. There are nearly a quarter million of them, including over 5,000 receiving disability benefits (for injuries received in combat, or non-combat, operations). The female veterans do not respond to the stresses of military service, or the physical injuries, the same way as men do. This has forced the VA to adapt, or at least try to. For example,...

Nobody wants to buy them a beer. Even near military bases, female veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't often offered a drink on the house as a welcome home. More than 230,000 American women have fought in those recent wars and at least 120 have died doing so, yet the public still doesn't completely understand their contributions on the modern battlefield. For some, it's a lonely transition as they struggle to find their place.

The image of young women in a hot , dusty combat zone toting automatic weapons is still startling to some. But right now there are 10,000 women serving in Iraq, more than 4,000 in Aghanistan. They have been fighting and dying next to their male comrades since the wars began. "I can't help but think most Americans think women aren't in combat," says Specialist Ashley Pullen who was awarded a Bronze Star for valor in 2005 for her heroic action in Iraq where she served with a military police unit. "We're here and we're right up with the guys." Technically...

<p>This photograph from Afghanistan recently made rounds on the Facebook and e-mail accounts of folks whose work centers on military women's issues.</p> <p>The image itself didn't surprise them. It showed four Marines resting at a makeshift patrol base, their guns and helmets propped up against the familiar dusty backdrop of an Asian battlefield. Two of the Marines seemed to be snacking. One picked at her foot.</p>

There is no mistaking that the dusty, gravel-strewn camp Warhorse near Baghdad is anything other than a combat outpost in a still-hostile land. And there is no mistaking that women in uniform have had a transformative effect on it. They have their own quarters, boxy trailers called CHUs (containerized housing units, pronounced "chews"). There are women's bathrooms and showers, alongside the men's. Married couples live together. The base's clinic treats gynecological problems and has, alongside the equipment needed to treat the trauma of modern warfare, an ultrasound machine. Opponents of integrating women in combat zones long feared that sex would...

AUSTRALIAN female soldiers are already serving on the front line and here is the photograph to prove it. As the debate rages about lifting the ban on women serving in combat roles, small numbers of female soldiers, such as army medic Jacqui de Gelder from Canberra, are already doing the business. She was on her first combat foot patrol in the village of Chora in Afghanistan just two weeks ago. The younger sister of navy clearance diver Paul de Gelder, who lost his foot to a shark attack in Sydney Harbour, spent the previous day treating victims of a suicide...

WOMEN should be able to serve in all frontline combat units of the Australian Defence Force, including the SAS and commando units, under a controversial plan that could avert a looming recruitment crisis. The push by Defence Personnel and Science Minister Greg Combet would remove gender as a criterion for selection for specialised categories of military service. The Rudd government wants to lift the proportion of women serving in the defence force from the current level of 13 per cent, as demographic pressures bear down on defence force recruitment over the next decade. Removing any gender discrimination for serving in...

Before 2001, America’s military women had rarely seen ground combat. Their jobs kept them mostly away from enemy lines, as military policy dictates. But the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, often fought in marketplaces and alleyways, have changed that. In both countries, women have repeatedly proved their mettle in combat. The number of high-ranking women and women who command all-male units has climbed considerably along with their status in the military. “Iraq has advanced the cause of full integration for women in the Army by leaps and bounds,” said Peter R. Mansoor, a retired Army colonel who served as executive officer...

Capt. Dorothy Watkins and Spc. Joshua Watkins, both of Hazleton, Pa., are deployed to Camp Taji, a base camp north of Baghdad, with the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania National Guard. Photo by Jon Soles, Multi-National Division – Baghdad. TAJI — One Pennsylvania National Guard Soldier has two ways he can address Capt. Dorothy Watkins. He can call her ma'am or he can call her mom. Spc. Joshua Watkins and his mother, Capt. Watkins, are both serving here with the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division. The mother and son from Hazleton, Pa., are...

European Union directive forced the Ministry of Defence to review their "close-combat" role. Under the Equal Treatment Directive, the MoD said it had to carry out the study despite a similar review in 2002 concluding that the policy to employ only male personnel in close combat roles should remain. Lance Corporal Amy Thomas, is thought to be the first British woman to fire on the frontline in Afghanistan Servicewomen are currently excluded from roles where they are likely to "deliberately close with and kill the enemy face-to-face". Brigadier Richard Nugee, the Army's Director of Manning, is leading the review that...

More American women have fought and died in Iraq than in any war since World War II. Over 206,000 have served in the Middle East since March 2003, most of them in Iraq. Some 600 have been wounded, and 104 have died. Yet, even as their numbers increase, women soldiers are painfully alone. In Iraq, women still only make up one in 10 troops, and because they are not evenly distributed, they often serve in a platoon with few other women or none at all. This isolation, along with the military's traditional and deep-seated hostility towards women, can cause problems...

One Canadian soldier killed and four others injured in AfghanistanCEFCOM NR–09.010 - April 14, 2009OTTAWA – One Canadian soldier was killed and four others were injured when their armoured vehicle struck an improvised explosive device north of Kandahar City in the Shah Wali Kowt District. The incident occurred at approximately 5:00 p.m., Kandahar time, on April 13, 2009. The fallen soldier is Trooper Karine Blais, from 12e Régiment Blindé du Canada based at Canadian Forces Base Valcartier. Trooper Blais was serving with the 2nd Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment Battle Group. The injured soldiers were evacuated by helicopter to the Multinational...

SAN ANTONIO — Mary Dague hears the catty whispers sometimes. "So ugly," the strangers say when they think she can’t hear. The 24-year-old has bright green eyes, a quick smile, and on the days she gets her husband’s help, perfectly applied mascara and blush. But all the gawkers really see are her arms, each amputated above the elbow. What they don’t suppose — with no fatigues or standard-issue Army T-shirt to clue them in — is that this chatty young woman, who likes to wear a little black dress to fancy parties as much as the next girl, is an...

Obama will consider combat positions and selective service registration for women The female college students who enthusiastically supported Barack Obama for president might not know that he wants women to register with the Selective Service at age 18, just as men do. Or that he wants the military to officially open combat positions to women. Although the topic was drowned out by campaign rhetoric and statements on policies that college students find more congenial, his position on registration of women is clear. And Obama’s national security spokeswoman stated before the election that Obama intended to change current policies on women...

Barack Obama has consistently and very publicly staked out policy positions far to the left of the American public on such issues as taxes, abortion, and same-sex marriage. But one issue has slipped quietly under the radar: If elected president, the Illinois senator would require women to register for the military draft. As commander in chief, he would also consider assigning women to roles in close combat, also known as "the point of the spear." "Women are already serving in combat [in Iraq and Afghanistan], and the current policy should be updated to reflect realities on the ground," Obama spokeswoman...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The U.S. shouldn't try to kill Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Mike Huckabee declared when he first ran for office. No women in combat anywhere. No gays in the military. No contributions in politics to candidates more than a year before an election. His statements are among 229 answers Huckabee offered as a 36-year-old Texarkana pastor during his first run for political office in 1992. In that unsuccessful race against Sen. Dale Bumpers, Huckabee offered himself as a social conservative and listed "moral decay" as one of the top problems facing the country. Now that he's...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31, 2007 – What’s another marathon, really, for Jill Stevens? Sgt. Jill Stevens, Utah National Guard member and the 2007 Miss Utah, smiles after crossing the finish line at the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., Oct. 28, 2007. Photo by Staff Sgt. Mary K. Flynn, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The 2007 Miss Utah is no stranger to the physical and mental discipline required to knock out 26.2 miles. She ran the Marine Corps Marathon here on Oct. 28, finishing in about 3.5 hours. It’s the third marathon she’s run since winning the pageant...

It should raise eyebrows when Democratic presidential candidates, and particularly Sen. Hillary Clinton, say that 18-year-old girls should have to register with Selective Service. When the question came up during Monday’s “YouTube” debate on CNN, all of the candidates who answered—Sen. Christopher Dodd, Sen. Barack Obama, John Edwards, and Mike Gravel—said that they opposed the draft, but if there were one, women should be part of it. Hillary Clinton’s answer was particularly ironic, since her husband Bill Clinton famously avoided military service in the Vietnam era. I am not aware that young Chelsea Clinton, or the daughters of Pres. George...

TODAY, THE HOUSE Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chaired by Henry Waxman (D-CA) conducted a hearing into "misleading military statements" that followed the death of Pat Tillman and the ordeal of Jessica Lynch. I cannot speak of the Pat Tillman incident, but I can speak to the story of Jessica Lynch.I spent more than two years of my life studying the battle of An Nasiriyah. I read thousands of pages of government reports and personally interviewed nearly one-hundred of the participants of the battle, including four survivors of the 507th Maintenance Company's ambush, several Marines who came upon the...

On any given day, one isn't likely to find common cause with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He's a dangerous, lying, Holocaust-denying, Jew-hating cutthroat thug -- not to put too fine a point on it. But he was dead-on when he wondered why a once-great power such as Britain sends mothers of toddlers to fight its battles. Ahmadinejad characterized the release of 15 British sailors and marines, including one woman, seized at sea last month as a gift to Britain. In reality, the hostages were the West's gift to Ahmadinejad. When a pretender to sanity like Ahmadinejad gets to lecture the...

WASHINGTON, DC -- Army Private Jessica Lynch told a congressional hearing Tuesday morning that "Americans are capable of creating their own heroes" without the military making them up. Lynch, a West Virginia native who got tremendous coverage after a military team rescued her from a makeshift Iraqi hospital, joined relatives of NFL-star-turned war hero Pat Tillman in discussing her time in the limelight. "This is not a time for finger-pointing, but a time for proof," she told the panel. Lynch's platoon was hit by a rocket and grenade attack on the initial drive to Baghdad in 2003. Three in her...

The number of military service women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan has reached 70, more than the total from the Korean, Vietnam and Desert Storm wars."Some have argued that the women who have died are no different than the men," according to a report noting the 70 casualties from the Center for Military Readiness, which opposes women in combat. "But deliberate exposure of women to combat violence in war is tantamount to acceptance of violence against women in general." The reasons for the historical high casualty rate are multiple. Women now make up more than 14 percent of the volunteer...

Modified uniforms for modesty is a trademark of the new religious female soldiers. The vast majority of Modern Orthodox rabbis are staunchly opposed to army service. 'On reserve duty I slept in the division commander's car," says Sharon Perel, 27. "We were out in the field on an overnight military exercise. We pitched tents for the night. Everybody else, men and women, slept together. But I didn't feel comfortable doing that. The commander understood my predicament and lent me his car." Perel is one of dozens of religious women who are called up regularly to do reserve service. These women...

Yawning over a woman's death WorldNetDaily May 27, 2006 By Ted Byfield © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com Canada lost its first woman soldier to enemy fire near Kandahar, Afghanistan, last week, and the unquestioning public acceptance of a female combat death was hailed by the Defense Department as indisputable evidence that the Canadian public has now acquiesced in the feminist vision of the fighting woman soldier. However, conservative columnist Barbara Kay in the National Post has not in the least acquiesced in it. While commending as heroic, "manly" and admirable the quick death from a mortar shell of Capt. Nichola Goddard...

An exceptional woman Barbara Kay, National Post Published: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 When news broke of Canada's first female combat death last week -- that of Captain Nichola Goddard in an Afghanistan firefight -- Canadians greeted the news in a gender-neutral way. It was not a female soldier we mourned per se, but simply a soldier. The Department of National Defence's chief historian applauded this as "a reflection, really, on society saying we have accepted the implications of gender integration." I don't think that's true. Canadians accepted Captain Goddard's death without ambivalence because she was a career soldier, on...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - The man who led Canadian troops into one of the biggest battles they've faced yet described Friday how hundreds of coalition and Afghan troops foiled insurgent fighters massing for an assault on the governor of Kandahar province, and how Capt. Nichola Goddard met her death in a Taliban ambush. "We were in the process of doing final searches in the village when one of our call signs came in 'ambush,' " said Lt.-Col. Ian Hope, commander of Task Force Orion's battle group. "A well co-ordinated Taliban ambush which unfortunately resulted in the death of one of...

Death Before DishonorGreyhawkThe latest Iraq war urban legend: Several female service members have died of dehydration because they refused to drink liquids late in the day due to fear of being raped by male soldiers if they had to use the women's latrine after dark. This is absurd for countless reasons - the most obvious being that death by dehydration takes a little longer than a couple hours without fluids, even in the hottest conditions. But this fabrication has an interesting source: Col. Janis Karpinski, former commander of the unit responsible for torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib. And she's found...

IT was her first raid of an Iraqi home, and Pvt. Safiya Boothe, 21, had no idea what to expect. Tucking herself behind a group of men from her Army unit, her soft features and wispy body hidden by full battle gear, she walked through the front door, trying to be as anonymous as possible. When no shots were fired, she exhaled. Inside, she saw a group of Iraqi women cowering in a corner. While her male colleagues searched for weapons and questioned the men there, her job as a female soldier was to put the women at ease and,...

The Army is abandoning mixed-sex training units because too many female recruits are getting injured trying to keep up with their male counterparts. From next April, women will be placed in their own platoons and although the training regime will remain the same, it will be conducted at a pace 'sustainable and commensurate with their physical profile'. Army chiefs hope the changes will greatly reduce drop-out rates among women after research showed female recruits are up to nine times more likely than men to be discharged through a training-related injury. Dr James Bilzon, the Army Training and Recruitment Agency's senior...

WASHINGTON – Harriet Miers, President Bush's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Sandra Day O'Connor, is on record as supporting the establishment of the International Criminal Court, homosexual adoptions, a major local tax increase and women in combat, WorldNetDaily has learned. While some conservative leaders and organizations were stunned by the appointment, most were not alarmed by the lack of a paper trail by the nominee who has never served as a judge at any level. But a profile of her positions as a leader of the American Bar Association, a Dallas city councilwoman and as presidential counselor...

TAQADDUM, Iraq - If every male soldier here were having as much sex as he claims, his female comrades would hardly have time to fight the war. Still, sex happens. And in Iraq, it happens a lot. It's hardly a national secret that male and female soldiers have been mingling for as long as both sexes have been in uniform. And, some soldiers are wont to point out, some male warriors have been finding comfort in each others' arms for as long as wars have been fought. But with limited exceptions in other conflicts, there has never been a time...

Message to Pro-Military Leaders and Friends: I am very disappointed by the President’s choice for the Supreme Court, and regret that I have no choice but to explain the apparent implications of the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Ms. Miers does not have a judicial “paper trail,” but her record as White House Counsel is a legitimate cause for concern. Democrats and liberals who are willing to use the military for purposes of social experimentation have reason to be pleased. As White House Counsel, Ms. Miers either approved of the DoD’s illegal assignments of women in units...

WASHINGTON – Harriet Miers, President Bush's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Sandra Day O'Connor, is on record as supporting the establishment of the International Criminal Court, homosexual adoptions, a major local tax increase and women in combat, WorldNetDaily has learned. While some conservative leaders and organizations were stunned by the appointment, most were not alarmed by the lack of a paper trail by the nominee who has never served as a judge at any level. But a profile of her positions as a leader of the American Bar Association, a Dallas city councilwoman and as presidential counselor...

United States Must Make Military More Accommodating For Women According to the newest military reports, women are not treated like men in the military. Well, like duhhhhhh! Defense Dept. Surveys Academy Sex Assaults1 Woman in 7 Reports Being Attacked "One female student in seven attending the nation's military academies last spring said she had been sexually assaulted since becoming a cadet or midshipman, according to a report on the first survey of sexual misconduct on the three campuses released yesterday by the Defense Department. More than half the women studying at the Naval, Air Force and Army academies reported experiencing...

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - Inside an Afghan village, her unit was conducting random searches for Taliban fighters and weapons caches - then they heard what sounded like a cell phone. That didn't sound right to Marine Sgt. Christine Griego. "It's a poor country, and, if someone has a cell phone, it means they're doing something they probably shouldn't be," said Griego, an aviations mechanic with Marine Aircraft Group 26, 2nd Marine Air Wing. That was the first deployment for Griego, 22, who's now stationed at New River Air Station. The Afghan people had become accustomed to Army and Marine troops conducting...

Women's Combat Role on Front Burner June 27, 2005 Washington - With more than 200,000 women serving in the U.S. military, Americans have long been accustomed to seeing them marching in combat boots right alongside men. But none of that prepared the nation for the grim news that at least four female American troops were killed and 11 others wounded in Iraq late Thursday when a suicide bomber struck a Marine convoy near the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. The bloodiest attack against American women in more than two years of war in Iraq, the incident highlighted the debate over women...

Deaths renew debate over female troops Bob Deans WASHINGTON - With more than 200,000 women serving in the U.S. military, Americans have long been accustomed to seeing them marching in combat boots right alongside men.But none of that prepared the nation for the grim news that at least four female American troops were killed and 11 others wounded in Iraq late Thursday when a suicide bomber struck a Marine convoy near the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.The single bloodiest attack against American women in more than two years of war in Iraq, the incident reignited a long-smoldering debate over whether...

A suicide car bomber slammed into a U.S. military convoy in Fallujah, killing two Marines, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday. Three Marines and a sailor were missing after the attack. CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports that five female Marines are said to be dead, according to officials. They are members of a supply unit who were being driven into Fallujah to assist in searching local women for hidden weapons when their vehicle, which was equipped with armor, was struck by the bomber. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said another 13 Marines were wounded in the Thursday night attack...

Sergeant, 23, Is First Woman Awarded Silver Star Since World War IIBy John J. Lumpkin Associated Press Writer Published: Jun 16, 2005 WASHINGTON (AP) - A 23-year-old sergeant with the Kentucky National Guard on Thursday became the first female soldier to receive the Silver Star - the nation's third-highest medal for valor - since World War II. Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, who is from Nashville, Tenn., but serves in a Kentucky unit, received the award for gallantry during a March 20 insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq. Two men from her unit, the 617th Military Police Company of Richmond,...

Why are our generals trying to push women into ground combat in Iraq despite Pentagon regulations and congressional law against it? What is it about civilian control of the military that the generals don't understand? Current Department of Defense regulations exclude women from ground combat, as well as from assignment to forward support units that "collocate [i.e., are embedded side by side] with units assigned a direct ground combat mission." Federal law requires that Congress be given 30 legislative days' advance notice of any change to this policy. Army Secretary Francis Harvey has been skirting (pardon the word) this policy...

Why did he do it? In mid-May, Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, sponsored an amendment to a defense appropriation bill to close the Army's Forward Support Companies to female soldiers. Had the House not abandoned the issue last week, the Army could have been forced to withdraw or reassign thousands of young women currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to one Hill staffer, "the adults" - presumably Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Army's senior leadership - got Mr. Hunter to dilute the amendment into a recommendation that the secretary...

First Congressional Debate Since 1990s Legislation rarely passes on the first try, but Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, accomplished a great deal when he took on some big guns on the issue of women in combat. After more than a decade of neglect, Congress is now engaged in this issue, and the Army has been put on notice that they cannot force women into land combat without Congress having a say. On May 11 Chairman Hunter surprised his colleagues by co-sponsoring, with Military Personnel Subcommittee Chairman John McHugh (R-NY), an amendment to the 2006...

Total victory is rare in Washington, but House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter (R.-Calif.) accomplished a great deal when he took on the issue of women in land combat. On May 11, Hunter surprised colleagues by co-sponsoring, with Personnel Subcommittee Chairman John McHugh (R.-N.Y.), an amendment to the 2006 Defense Authorization that would have specifically applied current Defense Department regulations to the Army’s new, modular land combat teams. The legislation would have prohibited female soldiers from serving in smaller forward support companies that “collocate” constantly with combat battalions such as the infantry. These embedded units differ from larger support units...

A recent bill that passed the House of Representatives and is en route to the Senate would forbid women from serving in combat support units below brigade level. Let me be the first to say that I have no idea what this means. My brigade has a forward support battalion. That battalion supports the brigade - is that considered "at" brigade level or "below" brigade level? Or is the forward support battalion considered "below" brigade level, by virtue of being a battalion? I have no idea. Unfortunately, it is very hard to tell what the facts are, because of 1)...

Maggie Williams and her daughter Sam Huff had much in common. As a teenager 35 years ago, Ms. Williams joined the US Marine Corps and became an air traffic controller, directing jet fighters and helicopters in Vietnam as the war there was winding down. Back in the United States, she began a career in law enforcement, married a police officer, and raised a family. When she was just 16, Ms. Huff told her parents she wanted to join the US Army right out of high school, and later start a career with the FBI. She toughed out boot camp last...