News-Info-Alerts

Re: Female POW-MIAs Rekindles Women-In-Combat Debate

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: March 29, 2003

"POW rekindles women-in-combat debate
By Jodi Wilgoren
NEW YORK TIMES

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. - One glance at the terrified eyes of Spc. Shoshana Johnson, the Army cook taken captive earlier this week in Iraq, was more than enough for Laura Sargent, a senior airman here scheduled for deployment Monday.

As soon as Dateline NBC flashed the grainy footage of Johnson, Sargent popped in her brand-new DVD of "Toy Story."

"It bothered me a lot worse than if it would have been a man," Sargent, a videographer, said on Thursday afternoon after a pre-deployment test re-qualifying her to shoot an M-16.

"I'm thinking, well, women don't really go into combat, and then you look at TV and think, 'Yeah they do.' That could be me some day."

Lt. Lisa Horton, a computer network specialist who expects to soon be sent to the Persian Gulf, also felt an instant connection to Johnson -- and kept watching.

"I don't want to say that I was proud to see her there, but it was almost like saying, 'You go, girl,'" explained Horton, 28. "I was rooting for her as a female, in a personal way. You can get through this, show them what you've got."

The images of Johnson, the only woman among the seven American POWs, as well as pictures of Pfc. Jessica Lynch and Pfc. Lori Piestewa, who are missing in action, have been among the most searing and surprising in the opening days of this new war.

They signify not only the wide expansion in the combat-related roles women fill in the current conflict, but also the changes in the very nature of combat itself.

Since there is no longer a clear front line, women -- and men -- serving in maintenance, supply and other support units can land in as much danger as those dropping bombs or shooting guns.

Unlike in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, women now fly combat missions and serve on naval ships, though they are still barred from submarines, Special Forces, and the Army's infantry, armor and artillery divisions.

The Clinton administration's lifting of the so-called Risk Rule, back in 1994, means that about 90 percent of all military jobs are now open to women, and that they must follow their male counterparts into hostile zones -- hence Johnson's presence in a convoy that got ambushed.

Overall, more than 200,000 women serve in the armed forces, 15 percent of both the enlisted ranks and the officer corps. They make up 6 percent of the Marines and 19 percent of the Air Force.

Johnson, a single mother of a 2-year-old, is not the first female American POW -- there were two in the first gulf war, and some 80 military nurses spent three years in captivity during World War II.

There have also been nearly 1,000 women killed in action since the Spanish American War, including two aboard the USS Cole when it was attacked by terrorists in 2000, 16 in Desert Storm and eight in Vietnam.

And American women have been in combat since Margaret Corbin replaced her fallen husband behind a cannon during the Revolution.

But this war promises to involve more women in combat, and commanding combat missions, than ever before.

While women in camouflage here at the base, and many of the leaders who fought over the past decade to integrate the combat forces, hate even talking about "female soldiers," as opposed to soldiers, much of the American public is still struggling to accept the notion of women warriors, particularly after looking into the eyes of Johnson.

"The men look scared to me, too, but she, her eyes are so wide, she just looks so scared," said Lory Manning, the retired Navy captain who runs the Women in the Military Project at the Washington-based Women's Research and Education Institute.

"It brings out the protective instinct in everybody. You just want to get her out of there."

Many argued, after the first gulf war, that women had proven their abilities, and that it was unfair to deny them the combat experience that would allow for career advancement.

But critics such as Elaine Donnelly, president of the Washington-based Center for Military Readiness, and Kate O'Beirne, editor of the National Review, question women's physical capabilities, worry about their vulnerability to sexual assault by the enemy, and contend that their presence on battlefields disrupts unit cohesion.

"I do not believe American men in the military are capable of pretending that a young woman in their company is exactly the same as a young 18-year-old man," O'Beirne said. "I think we can expect he will act differently in the interest of trying to protect that young woman. I'm fairly certain she won't mind."

The Contra Costa Times"