View Full Version : Women in combat
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I am a nineteen-year-old in the US Marine Corps Reserves, and there is nothing I am more proud of.**I would like to say thank you to everyone out there who support women in the military and especially women in combat.**My experience in boot camp proved to me that I am physically and mentally capable to serve in the Marine Corps--this includes the extensive training AND combat, if the situation would arise.**I know that if it were necessary, I could perform my duties as a 5811 (military police) in a time of war, along with almost every other woman that I graduated boot camp with.**The level of training in today's boot camp is high enough that any woman (or man, for that matter) who just can't hack it is weeded out in basic training.**Yes, there are women out there who shouldn't be in the military, but there are just as many men who don't belong.**We as women still stick out like sore thumbs and are therefore more critically judged.**I for one, try to use this to my advantage by showing that I am worthy of the title "US Marine."**Also, not everything related to competence is about physical strength.**Although I know I am up to par physically (based on my PFT scores), I also need to apply my intelligence and reasoning to my job as a military policeman (for lack of a politically correct term). Unfortunately, my MOS is about as close as I can get to the front lines.**I would just like to know that if I so desired, I could be in the infantry.**I have been trained as in almost every aspect the same way as a grunt, yet at this point it seems as if I would never be able to apply it.**I know how to fire almost every automatic weapon available to the military, I've carried a pack on the humps that never seem to end, and I have also qualified expert with a rifle--which is the basis of all combat.**If I was trained so well in these areas, I should be able to use it.I would like to believe that the reason women recruits are being trained better and better in these combat-related areas is in anticipation of giving us the privelage to serve in the infantry if we have that ambition.**It is obvious that it is impossible for today's military to move backwards, therefore women in combat is one of the next major steps forward that needs to be taken.**** SEMPER FI.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
breenl21@uwosh.edu
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I would like to say that I really liked this article and thought it was well written. It swayed my opinion on the topic of women in the military.**As a fellow women I was not sure as to how I felt on this topic until I read this.**Women should be allowed to fight in combat if they so wish.**If they are strong emough and capable enough I say go for it.**I commend everyone who does so.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
s0249548@hawkmail.monmouth.edu
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I agree, although I have only recently been commishioned into the service<br
<hr size=7 width=75%>
PFCArmy@aol.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I'm an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California. I am doing research on the subject of Women in Combat.**I am a strong supporter of the effort to give women the OPTION to go to combat if so qualified.**I would like to know if anyone has any resources that I can go to for my research.**If you know of any web sites, books or the like, please e-mail me.Thank you.Sincerely,Charlotte Hufschmidt
<hr size=7 width=75%>
hufschmi@scf.usc.edu
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
**** I oppose women being in the front lines. I don't oppose women fight ing a War, but I do oppose women being in infantry. The reason is, if the situation would ever arrise that a woman had to fight a man in hand to hand combat I feel that the man would have the beginning advantage. Also, you have to also consider many other aspects about this subject. One is what if you were taken captive?? Women have been and probably would be raped and treated horrible by the enemy because they don't treat captives the same way we do. Also, it would be tough for alot of men in infantry to adjust to the change.**** Now don't get me wrong, I like women being in the military and the fact that they want to serve their country, but I feel that infantry is one area that women should stay away from.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
knox22@hotmail.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
:**I am a nineteen-year-old in the US Marine Corps Reserves, and there is nothing I am more proud of.**I would like to say thank you to everyone out there who support women in the military and especially women in combat.**My experience in boot camp proved to me that I am physically and mentally capable to serve in the Marine Corps--this includes the extensive training AND combat, if the situation would arise.**I know that if it were necessary, I could perform my duties as a 5811 (military police) in a time of war, along with almost every other woman that I graduated boot camp with.**The level of training in today's boot camp is high enough that any woman (or man, for that matter) who just can't hack it is weeded out in basic training.**Yes, there are women out there who shouldn't be in the military, but there are just as many men who don't belong.**We as women still stick out like sore thumbs and are therefore more critically judged.**I for one, try to use this to my advantage by showing that I am worthy of the title "US Marine."**Also, not everything related to competence is about physical strength.**Although I know I am up to par physically (based on my PFT scores), I also need to apply my intelligence and reasoning to my job as a military policeman (for lack of a politically correct term). Unfortunately, my MOS is about as close as I can get to the front lines.**I would just like to know that if I so desired, I could be in the infantry.**I have been trained as in almost every aspect the same way as a grunt, yet at this point it seems as if I would never be able to apply it.**I know how to fire almost every automatic weapon available to the military, I've carried a pack on the humps that never seem to end, and I have also qualified expert with a rifle--which is the basis of all combat.**If I was trained so well in these areas, I should be able to use it.**I would like to believe that the reason women recruits are being trained better and better in these combat-related areas is in anticipation of giving us the privelage to serve in the infantry if we have that ambition.**It is obvious that it is impossible for today's military to move backwards, therefore women in combat is one of the next major steps forward that needs to be taken.**** SEMPER FI.To respond to you article, first let me say I am all for women having equal rights, but let me ask you a few questions.**I like yourslef am a 19 year old U.S. Marine Corps Reservist and went through boot camp juat like yourself.**Do you honestly believe that the male**and femal training in boot camp is completely similiar?**If no why not? Why is it that the PFT qualifications for men and women Marines are different both at boot camp and in the fleet?**Why are the males required to preform pull ups and the women just flexed arm hangs.**Why are the women allowed longer for the 3 mile run and can accomplish a fewer number of situps in 2 minutes to achieve a perfect score than the males?**Why are some of the obstacles on the "Confidence Course"**smaller or less challenging than that for the males?If you answer is that generally speaking males are stronger than females I ask you to apply that to a combat situation.**Suppose a unit mixed wtih males and females is on a mission and needs to run 3 miles to the LZ. The males make it there in lets say 20 minutes but are required to wait in a hostile enviroment for the females to arrive because the were given a few extra minutes over the males to run the 3 mile run in boot camp.**Is this good troop welfare?What if a male and female Marine are caught in combat and the male Marine is injured.**Will she be able to carry the wounded Marine to safety quicklly without further endagering herself or the male even though she was only required to hang flexed arm from a chin up bar for a number of seconds while the males were required to do several pull ups?My next question is have you completed MCT? (Marine Combat Training) or SOI?**(School of Infintry)**If no you missed out on the closest enviroment of war that the**Corps presents to its Marines.If I were in any combat situation and needed to rely on another Marines help I would and believe everyone else would want that Marine to be of equaly or better qualified than myself.**Would you want someone who had lesser standards to meet covering you back? If women want to be in combat they should have to fulfill the same obligation and requirements that the males who go to combat.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
mitnibroc@aol.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
:**I am an ex marine an 0311 for that matter.**I admire your strong Esprit De Corp, but many of the things that you are rambling on about are not possible.**You have not experiance the true corp. You have not experianced old smoky, or NTA in Okinawa.**Your statements are like me**telling a Korean war veteran that he doesn't know a thing about war.****You might want to watch what you say, grunts are a whole different breed. SEMPER FI**
<hr size=7 width=75%>
schuem@uwo.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I disagree with this article, because of my experience in Desert Storm.**In 1991, I was enlisted in the Army and was sent to Desert Storm.**My mission was to provide fuel to the tankers and other grounds vehicles on the front line.**In my Division, I was among only approx. 30 women out of over 2000 men.**This was not a pleasant experience and the men did not make this experience any better.**Everytime we moved forward we were warned of the potential snipper attacks from the enemy, but, we as women, were never warned of the sexual "snipper" attacks from my so-called comrades.**I strongly agree with Mike regarding the fact that you may consider yourself trained, but it is a different ballgame when your in it or have experienced it.**As for Lance Corporal Raymond's comments about women standards being lower, that is true.**But for myself I always set my own goals, which was to achieve the maximum as the men.**Even though the Army does not do the exact same physical testing as the Marine Corp, it is similar.**I strongly believe that women should have the choice to go into combat or combat jobs, but not forced.**Those women that choose to be in combat jobs should have to maintain the same standards as the men.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
ducati@impulse.net
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
Like many of you, I am doing a paper on women in combat, and have read all articles posted thus far. First of all, is this a question of basic constitutional rights or male and female historical roles? Historically, the women and children have always been "spared" in a battle...if they weren't then the victors were looked upon as savages. (of course children are not a part of this discussion) In the U.S. we are all attempting to be equal, so why are women not allowed to serve equally as men? Is it because no one wants to see a woman raped and tortured by the enemy? Of course we don't; however they are raped everyday in the US and probably in the military also. Is sending young men off to be tortured any different?**It is a gruesome thought, but no more horrifying than men being subjected. We try not to remember the Holocaust where women were tortured alongside men. In third world countries we have genital mutilation and mass rapings of women occuring daily, we don't want to think about this either. None of this is acceptable behavior, but it does happen beyond the realm of a combat situation. Does not wanting to think about it, solve anything? No, it only keeps us from progressing.It is still up to a woman to choose to put herself in that possible situation and serve her country.**If women never integrate the military, they will continue to be outcasts and victims of our own "boys".**To integrate the military fully, they must be able to be soldiers in combat, or they will never earn the same respect as male soldiers. I'm not saying that just because a few women want to fight a war that we should just go ahead and let them. I am saying that when a female meets the same physical requirements a male meets: they are both soldiers. I do not agree with lowering standars of physical fitness for women in the military. That says women are not capable of equalling men, and prevents them from engaging in combat on the basis of physical fitness.In regard to a comment made about actual war experience being entirely different from training...I'm sure it is!! But aren't all soldiers only trained before they go to war, and experienced afterwords...does it matter if they are women or men?**I think this boils down to seperating what we think women should be doing...to getting them out of the kitchen, putting shoes on their feet, and sending them to serve their country...as if they were a man.Comments are welcome. I am trying to weigh the pro's and con's equally and actually seperate the gender and political issues.Thank You
<hr size=7 width=75%>
lyn1997v@hotmail.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I agree with you article.**Women have proven that they have what it takes to succeed in front-line combat.**Most objections are based on stereotypes and insecurities (from my fellow males).**Female Marines are now being trained for combat and probably will be in front-line positions in the near future.**We must rely on the resources of women combat soldiers in the future, due to declining enlistments.**It is inevitable that women will be in all combat arms positions in the coming days.**We need to put more emphasis on recruiting women, opening combat positions and promoting them to the higher ranks.**Women on the front lines will improve the quality of the armed forces and our combat troops.**
<hr size=7 width=75%>
Dshultz@aol.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I agree with you article.**Women have proven that they have what it takes to succeed in front-line combat.**Most objections are based on stereotypes and insecurities (from my fellow males).**Female Marines are now being trained for combat and probably will be in front-line positions in the near future.**We must rely on the resources of women combat soldiers in the future.**It is inevitable that women will be in all combat arms positions in the coming days.**We need to put more emphasis on recruiting women, opening combat positions and promoting them to the higher ranks.**Women on the front lines will improve the quality of the armed forces and our combat troops.**
<hr size=7 width=75%>
Dshultz@aol.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
i agree with some views posted here, but others just get my every nerve shaking. Having lived overseas my whole life, I grew up with marines.**I can't think of a group o look up to more, or would rather have around.**I'm 16.**and female.**and i'm enlisting when i graduate.**If i should want to fight as part of the front line, why can't i have that option?**people tell me all the time that my generation is the "future of america."**well that's great, but if i'm not allowed to be or at least try to be and do what i really want, then most everyone's just full of bull and should re-evaluate the stance they take on "living your dreams."**i have no desire to do clerical work or sit behind a desk (no offense to anyone), and i think that the men and women who say i should need to examine their true reasons for saying that.**Are the men scared of being displaced? perhaps, although i don't think the majority of men are that insecure.**Do they not want to have to deal with women?**not like them?**maybe all of these, although i have to say that most of my friends are male, so it's not that we're incompatible.**It just gets me mad that some close-minded people feel they can decide what i can or can't do with my future.**it's mine.**why not at least let me try?**if a requirement is to be equal (physically) to men- which i understand and agree with- then so be it.**but don't make everyone involved lose out because an old-fashioned tradition won't be broken. please- take a broader view, think of all the groups involved... including mine. i just hope that i get the chance to do what so many other women before me were denied.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
mpedry@ibm.net
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
Dear Leah Breen,**** I am a former Marine who has experienced combat.**Before you can even talk about combat, you should experience the fleet first. Apparently, you have no idea what you are talking about when it comes being trained for combat, and what you did experienced was the very basic, and not entirely enough to talk about fighting on the front lines.**** The basics training for men and women in the Marine Corps, other than GRUNTS, is just that, basic. And, the women's training is not equal to men's training both physically and mentally.** This is why women do not move forward when they cry about equal opportunties in any "men jobs".**Speak with experience than attitude.**Discipline is what you need to be bestowed upon you, especially, when you talk of what you do not know.**** As for being a reservist, that just doesn't cut.************** SIEMPRE FIDELIAS**"DO OR DIE" ****************Formerly known as CPL GUDO****
<hr size=7 width=75%>
boogerbo@gte.net
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
: I would like to say that I really liked this article and thought it was well written. It swayed my opinion on the topic of women in the military.**As a fellow women I was not sure as to how I felt on this topic until I read this.**Women should be allowed to fight in combat if they so wish.**If they are strong emough and capable enough I say go for it.**I commend everyone who does so.In case you haven't figured it out by now, not everything posted on the internet is completely accurate.**Before you believe one person's article or letter as the gospel, make sure to get ALL of the facts.**My point, the physical standards are not the same for men and women. If she is a 5811, she never went to school of infantry, and if she is a reservist, she likely never even went to marine combat training.**In addition, if she did go to mct, the physical standards for women are STILL different.**********************SEMPER FI
<hr size=7 width=75%>
kdflet00@sac.uky.edu
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
: I was just wondering if you had found anything about women in the military or in front line combat. If you have, could you please send me the addresses? I'd apreciate it greatly. Thank you... -Lisa-
<hr size=7 width=75%>
s0214724@cc.ysu.edu
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I was just wondering if you had found anything about women in the military or in front line combat. If you have, could you please send me the addresses? I'd apreciate it greatly. Thank you... -Lisa-
<hr size=7 width=75%>
squeeza_97@yahoo.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
: : :. I also agree with the artical. I'm doing a speech about women fighting in front line combat. If anyone knows an address that could help me out, will you please send it to me? I'm really interested in this topic and I am looking for an answer. Your help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
ronmay@thew.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
: :. I also agree with the artical. I'm doing a speech about women fighting in front line combat. If anyone knows an address that could help me out, will you please send it to me? I'm really interested in this topic and I am looking for an answer. Your help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
shannon einbeck@stumail.sunyjefferson.edu
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
:. I also agree with the artical. I'm doing a speech about women fighting in front line combat. If anyone knows an address that could help me out, will you please send it to me? I'm really interested in this topic and I am looking for an answer. Your help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
squeeza_97@yahoo.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I am also looking for some info on this article for my argumentative paper.**If you find any info regarding this topic please email me.Thanks
<hr size=7 width=75%>
ArsalanSheikh@mindspring.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I believe that if women want to join the military they should be held to the same standard as men. True, they are discriminated against in certain areas but that has to be expected in anything when people are being do something for the first time. I believe that women will face less discrimination if they can acheive the same standards of testing that men must acheive.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
mohrmann@mosquitonet.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I am writing a term paper about the topic of "women in the military". I have some information, but as with any term paper, I could certainly use more. If you know where I could find infromation, please feel free to EMail me at the address above.**Personal opinions would be greatly appreciated as well.** Thanks!
<hr size=7 width=75%>
Nayomie69@hotmail.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
: :***I am very interested in any more info on women in the military.**I am college student at The University of Mary-Hardin Baylor and I am writing a term paper on the controversy involving women in the military.**If anyone has any info or knows where I can find anything, please email me.**I would really appreciate it!**Personal opinions could also be useful!**Thanks a lotI am looking for women's opinions about this subject. I know that you are the one who is asking for the info ,but I haven't any info to start a speech with. I feel that women should be allowed to fight for our country, so any info that you have gathered would be most helpful.Thank you!
<hr size=7 width=75%>
meharr@yahoo.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I am a senior and I need information on women in the military for my senior research paper.**If anybody has any information for me or knows where I can get some, please e-mail me!**Thank you...
<hr size=7 width=75%>
mookie1109@hotmail.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
:***I am very interested in any more info on women in the military.**I am college student at The University of Mary-Hardin Baylor and I am writing a term paper on the controversy involving women in the military.**If anyone has any info or knows where I can find anything, please email me.**I would really appreciate it!**Personal opinions could also be useful!**Thanks a lot
<hr size=7 width=75%>
jminnick@vvv.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I agree with the article.**I am very interested in any more info on women in the military.**I am college student at The University of Michigan and I am writing a term paper on the controversy involving women in the military.**If anyone has any info or knows where I can find anything, please email me.**I would really appreciate it!**Personal opinions could also be useful!**Thanks a lot
<hr size=7 width=75%>
KMH425@aol.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I am in HIgh School and my English class is doing a debate on "Women in Combat"**and was wondering if you have any info you can send me.**I foyu could thanx.**Oh yeah I am completely Pro.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
moonwalker14@hotmail.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
Although I have never been in the military, and never plan to be, my opinion still stands as women should be allowed in the military. There are different types of women, nowadays. If they are able to go through the training, and get through it, well, then I believe that they should be able to belong in the military, and also fight in the front lines.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
campbelj@columbia.dsu.edu
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
hey girlswell for my english debate topic guess what i got.... no women in military combat...which i totally disagree with but fyi there are hardly any sites left on the internet about htat they are all fo rwonem in the miliary so wait ago girls
<hr size=7 width=75%>
DLG07@hotmail.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I liked this article. I found it very interesting.I also think**that many men would not like the idea of woman in infantry.There would be many nasty comments toward woman.I think woman belong in the corps but not in the infantry field.I know that woman of today are much stronger and healthier. It would**take time to get used to. Also men in the corps are treated a little different. Don' t get me wrong. Woman have to be more sanitary than men. When in infantry you go through many days without showering.All and all I still say infantry should remain just open to men.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
peach@axess.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
********I am a nineteen-year-old in the US Marine Corps Reserves, and there is nothing I am more proud of.**I would like to say thank you to everyone out there who support women in the military and especially women in combat.**My experience in boot camp proved to me that I am physically and mentally capable to serve in the Marine Corps--this includes the extensive training AND combat, if the situation would arise.**I know that if it were necessary, I could perform my duties as a 5811 (military police) in a time of war, along with almost every other woman that I graduated boot camp with.**The level of training in today's boot camp is high enough that any woman (or man, for that matter) who just can't hack it is weeded out in basic training.**Yes, there are women out there who shouldn't be in the military, but there are just as many men who don't belong.**We as women still stick out like sore thumbs and are therefore more critically judged.**I for one, try to use this to my advantage by showing that I am worthy of the title "US Marine."**Also, not everything related to competence is about physical strength.**Although I know I am up to par physically (based on my PFT scores), I also need to apply my intelligence and reasoning to my job as a military policeman (for lack of a politically correct term). Unfortunately, my MOS is about as close as I can get to the front lines.**I would just like to know that if I so desired, I could be in the infantry.**I have been trained as in almost every aspect the same way as a grunt, yet at this point it seems as if I would never be able to apply it.**I know how to fire almost every automatic weapon available to the military, I've carried a pack on the humps that never seem to end, and I have also qualified expert with a rifle--which is the basis of all combat.**If I was trained so well in these areas, I should be able to use it.**I would like to believe that the reason women recruits are being trained better and better in these combat-related areas is in anticipation of giving us the privelage to serve in the infantry if we have that ambition.**It is obvious that it is impossible for today's military to move backwards, therefore women in combat is one of the next major steps forward that needs to be taken.**** SEMPER FI.********To respond to you article, first let me say I am all for women having equal rights, but let me ask you a few questions.**I like yourslef am a 19 year old U.S. Marine Corps Reservist and went through boot camp juat like yourself.**Do you honestly believe that the male**and femal training in boot camp is completely similiar?**If no why not? Why is it that the PFT qualifications for men and women Marines are different both at boot camp and in the fleet?**Why are the males required to preform pull ups and the women just flexed arm hangs.**Why are the women allowed longer for the 3 mile run and can accomplish a fewer number of situps in 2 minutes to achieve a perfect score than the males?**Why are some of the obstacles on the "Confidence Course"**smaller or less challenging than that for the males?If you answer is that generally speaking males are stronger than females I ask you to apply that to a combat situation.**Suppose a unit mixed wtih males and females is on a mission and needs to run 3 miles to the LZ. The males make it there in lets say 20 minutes but are required to wait in a hostile enviroment for the females to arrive because the were given a few extra minutes over the males to run the 3 mile run in boot camp.**Is this good troop welfare?What if a male and female Marine are caught in combat and the male Marine is injured.**Will she be able to carry the wounded Marine to safety quicklly without further endagering herself or the male even though she was only required to hang flexed arm from a chin up bar for a number of seconds while the males were required to do several pull ups?My next question is have you completed MCT? (Marine Combat Training) or SOI?**(School of Infintry)**If no you missed out on the closest enviroment of war that the**Corps presents to its Marines.If I were in any combat situation and needed to rely on another Marines help I would and believe everyone else would want that Marine to be of equaly or better qualified than myself.**Would you want someone who had lesser standards to meet covering you back? If women want to be in combat they should have to fulfill the same obligation and requirements that the males who go to combat.********I am a twenty year old woman and I just recently enlisted in the Navy, but am continuing to pursue my degree at UCLA.**Although I have yet to go to boot camp or face any real perils of my own, I will, however,**have to agree with Lance Corporal Raymond.**I believe that if women are to ever achieve a true sense accomplishment in either the military or the private sector, we must STOP asking for special rights and start EARNING equal ones.**I know and understand that we women face oppression and discrimination every day of every year--I do not condone the fact that women in the private sector get paid less for the same jobs (for example, typing reports) or sexual harassment in any way shape or form.**However, the military, in terms of warfare . . . This is a whole diferent ball game we're dealing with, Ladies.**How can any woman stand up and say that she is ready to face combat when she is training under different standards?!?!?!**Lance Corporal Raymond made several good points--if we are not training under the SAME physical regimens, how can we be sure that we are up to par with the men?**I, for one, do not want to go to war, without being 110 percent sure that I can pull off the same exact physical tasks as the men.**It places their lives and ours in severe danger.**Before we can begin sending women to the front lines, we must work toward overcoming social prejudices, toward changing the laws that dictate that we must run "special" obstacle courses instead of EQUAL ones.**I do not question the fact that there are women out there who are capable of being up to par with the men in our military or that there are men who cannot stand eye-to-eye with some women, but until we are completely sure . . . we will never know.**I would hate to see ANYONE, man or woman, fighting for our freedom who is not truly prepared to do so with complete mental and physical readiness.**Let's place our efforts into changing the laws that oppress us women, not toward being bitter and angry toward our fellow soldiers.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
AMRCANFOOL@aol.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
As the devils advocate, I disagree with the idea of women in combat. It will ultimatley be damageing to our society. Women in the work place is in some ways beneficial but letting them on the front lines is just going to far. Most women don't want to fight in combat at all. Most men don't either. Women just don't like being told there's something they can't do. I agree that women can be benificial to the military in certan areas. Even some command positions in infantry. But when it comes to the dirty fighting no woman can stand up to a man. It's a harsh reality but they can't do it. At some point in combat you will have to fight with your bare handsand a woman would die. Not to say that any man can beat any woman, but men have a clear and definate advantage, that is not in dispute. All the courage, hard work, and sacrafice in the world can't protect you from a bayonett. And on a large scale women would die in combat.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
emitchell@hotmail.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
I agree with what your saying.**There are a lot of men out there like myself that support women in combat.**I'm believe that women should have the right to fight on the front lines if they are qualified to do so.**We need to lift the ban on women in direct ground combat now!**The sooner we allow women to compete for these positions, the better positioned our armed forces will be for the next big conflict.**We should have the most qualified people in all roles, regardless of gender.
<hr size=7 width=75%>
djms@aol.com
Anonymous
12-31-1969, 08:00 PM
:Dear Leah, I am a 30 year old USMC Gulf War Vet. With 11 years under my belt.**You are young, motivated, and very inexperienced!**You have no idea what you and your generation of WM's are setting yourselfs up for.**I graduated boot camp in 1986, my unit was the first to get the same issue of gear as the men, and basically the same boot camp training.**I did not go to SOI, nor did I want to go to SOI.**I enlisted to SUPPORT MY FELLOW MALE MARINES!**Don't get me wrong I am willing to die if need be to get Joe Marine his supplies to fight on the lines, but fighting along side of him on the front lines is a whole other story altogether.**There are three types of men in the Military.**One type is like my husband, instinctually PROTECTIVE!**He will be worring about you, and what will happien to you.**He will NOT BE WATCHING HIS OWN BUTT.**(UNIT COHESION)**There are the men who will shoot you dead than to work with or take orders from a female on HIS BATTLE FEILD.**And lastly there are that very few % that won't give a s**t.**Do you know who Rhonda Cornum is?**With your attitude about women in combat, she should be your hero.**She was one of the two women POW's in the Gulf War.**Her med chopper was shot down.**With her two broken arms, one SMASHED KNEE, and a bullet logged in her shoulder she was captured by the Iraqi soldiers, and raped in the back of the truck with her fellow fightcrew MAN watching helplessly.**When my MSgt joined the Corps the year I was born 1968, she learned how to serve tea to Generals in white gloves, type, and be court reporter.**She was not trained to be on the front lines either, only support.**Now top is a tough old bird, don't get me wrong there, but when it comes down to your type of war, all go, older male Marines, young ones fresh from bootcamp, older women and ones fresh from bootcamp.**Older WM's WERE NEVER TRAINED TO BE COMBAT READY.**I CAN HOLD DOWN THE FORT, YOU BET YOUR LITTLE BOOT ASS, BUT IN THE DRENCHS WITH MY FELLOW MALE COUNTERPARTS, NO.**IT IS NOT FAIR TO THEM, ME, THE CORPS.**YOU MAY BE ACCEPTED, LIKED, ADORED, AND RESPECTED BY YOUR FELLOW MALE COUNTERPARTS, BUT YOU WILL NEVER BE IN THE BAND OF BROTHERS......Dear Leah Breen,**** I am a former Marine who has experienced combat.**Before you can even talk about combat, you should experience the fleet first. Apparently, you have no idea what you are talking about when it comes being trained for combat, and what you did experienced was the very basic, and not entirely enough to talk about fighting on the front lines.**** The basics training for men and women in the Marine Corps, other than GRUNTS, is just that, basic. And, the women's training is not equal to men's training both physically and mentally.** This is why women do not move forward when they cry about equal opportunties in any "men jobs".**Speak with experience than attitude.**Discipline is what you need to be bestowed upon you, especially, when you talk of what you do not know.**** As for being a reservist, that just doesn't cut.************** SIEMPRE FIDELIAS**"DO OR DIE" ****************Formerly known as CPL GUDO****
<hr size=7 width=75%>
Assured_Outcome@MSN.com