Women in Combat Situations

[Anonymous]

So by saying that men and women have equal standings "up and down the line" you mean that a new female recruit would not be treated any differently than male recruit? Or that some of the men are not possibly thinking anything about having to fly on a mission with a female pilot at any point during a war or for practice? I am simply saying, no matter how equal it may seem, it is not. And even though is may be subtle, it is still there and that will affect the way men and women fight. Say there is a female pilot and she is set to fly a run with a male pilot whom she has met before. These are both experienced pilots, but the female SENSES that the male has a problem with her, it may be because she is a woman, maybe the way she flies...it does not matter. He has never SAID anything, or made an obvious gesture, but the signal is still sent that he does have a problem with her. Now what happens when these two are stuck together in a pit flying on an important mission? Will they be successful or they going to have conflict? You said that the deadly consequences were in the 1940's when integration first took place, but is it still not prevalent today? On another note, I was just using this as an example since there are no examples to be taken from infantry. I cannot use the marines for an example either, So I chose to take examples from an integrated section of the military and compare it with the infantry.

dfbour@ilstu.edu

[Anonymous]

Once again, you misquote me. I said that men and women aviators have equal standing up and down the flight line. I said nothing, nor did I imply anything, about recruits whatsoever. I have no experience with enlisted recruits and could not possibly comment from experience what the interpersonal relationships between male and female recruits are like. Fortunately, the officers entrusted with multi-million dollar aircraft are professionals. And as professionals, they don't let petty differences, resulting from gender differences or otherwise, affect their flying.

[Anonymous]

Well, I believe you misunderstood me also. I was setting up a scenario, it does not matter what anyone experience is with recruits, it is common sense that there will be conflict. Also, I never said pilots who have conflicts with women pilots would have problems with their flying. It would affect decision making and efforts to cooperate. And thats only if the male pilots had a problem with the female pilots. It does not include how their instinct would be to protect them or any kind of attraction since they are opposite sex. No matter how much training you have flying a plane, it will never be enough to reverse any sexual attractions you may experience.

dfbour@ilstu.edu

[Anonymous]

: . And as professionals, they don't let petty differences,
: resulting from gender differences or otherwise, affect their flying.

Recall that incident in 01, when the Navy P3 recon plane went down in China and it had a mixed crew. There was a female navigator on board that was less than 5 feet tall. Can you imagine what would had happened had she been the pilot at normal height??? Do you think that she would have had the brute strength to bring the plane down, when the hydraulics failed??

I will also bet that because of her lack of strength, she was not able to destroy enough equipment in time before landing and possibly compromised alot of secret info. Thanks to lax standards, political correctness, touchy feeley policies, etc..

I am not the only one that has this opinion. Look at Col Hackworth's web site

http://www.hackworth.com/22may01.html

"Imagine if our recon plane that's still hostage in Red China had women pilots flying that broken sucker instead of the two male hulks who look like they'd fit fine in the front line of the Giants!"

Oh, by the way LT ANN, you never did answer my question from 01, how many male pilot candidates lost a chance at flight school because of lax standards to let you in???

[Anonymous]

I choose not to dignify your hate, misogyny, and transparent lack of understanding of Naval Aviation with any attempt to answer your venomous rhetoric.

[Anonymous]

A question if you don't mind...where can I find the laws/statutes regarding women in combat? I'd like to know the Court's decisions. Thanks.

[webadmin]

What you are looking for is called the direct ground combat rule. There is no rule keeping women from serving in combat. The direct ground combat rule was first announced through a Memorandum from Secretary Aspin on 13 Jan '94. It was incorporated into the Defense Authorization Act of FY '94. It is further clarified in P.L. 103-160 US Code. This was never a court decision.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your help. I greatly appreciate it.