Combat Zones: Women on the Front Lines

Several stories in the last couple of days have folded into single thread of thought for me. The trail began when I came across this bit of sensationalist journalism from Sean Hannity where he speculates that the effort to capture Osama Bin Laden might have succeeded had female soldiers not been training with their male counterparts who would otherwise have been deployed in a more timely fashion. My blood began to boil, and the situation got worse when a next report of rockets hitting nearby training grounds came in from my Tommi.

“On the books” female soldiers are barred from serving in units involved in direct combat or with units “collocated,” those units directly supporting front-line combat. Mike at Everybody’s Crazy counters from five years of service experience with the 82nd Airborne Division:

Every single person in that unit is a paratrooper, and they are all dropped into battle in the same place — right on an enemy airfield (usually). Cooks, mechanics, technicians, commanders, clerks — doesn’t matter. They all jump. And since they are quite a few women in the unit, effectively, every one of them is a front-line troop by default, already. So, the Army is violating its own policies about women in combat — because if you’re a female mechanic, dropping into a hot DZ, you’re in combat no matter what. By the way, there are quite a few women MPs in the 82nd, and the MPs usually see almost as much combat engagement in modern conflicts as infantry troops.

Molly Ginty reports for Women’s Enews that so far in Iraq a record number of U.S. female soldiers have been killed in combat, due in great measure to the 1994 change of rules that opened 90% of the jobs in the military to women. Women aren’t on the front lines? Former Congressional Rep. Pat Schroeder, D-Colo.House Armed Services Committee 1973 to 1996, had this to say of service in Iraq: "The whole place is literally a front line." Listen here to the stories of three women who live now with the aftermath of battle on the front lines.

Do I think that the sons of a nation should bear greater risk at times of war than do a nation’s daughters? No! The rules are wrong for so many reasons, but the old rules aren’t holding in 21st century warfare anyway – at least not in the field, even if they do throw a thin veil of comfort over reality for those who would rather think in terms of grand and elevated notions of war. What disturbs me in this lineup of stories is not an issue of gender equality but one of deception.

On Tuesday last David McSwane, a high school student from a small community just outside Denver, received national media attention when he recorded two recruiters advising him about how to cheat his way into the Army. The military calls it “recruitment improprieties,” and reports nearly 1,200 cases on record last year alone. According to Damien Cave reporting for the NYTimes, five out of every ten recruiters were found to have committed such improprieties as falsifying diplomas, drug-check records, criminal background checks, or medical records. Last September a 21-year-old man only three weeks discharged from a psychiatric ward was enlisted and shipped for training. His parents’ search for him led them to the recruiters who had signed him up, and though sympathetic, they denied ever having seen them. The father’s tenacity outed the story, but the recruiters are still on the job.

From the security of anonymity, two recruiters shared consistent accounts and records to back up their stories.

The recruiter who had fought in several conflicts including the current war in Iraq, said one in every three people he had enlisted had a problem that needed concealing or a waiver. “The only people who want to join the Army now have issues,” he said. “They’re troubled, with health, police, or drug problems.”

The father of the psychotic young man mentioned above was able to secure a cancellation of his son’s enlistment, but only with the help of court-appointed lawyers and a sympathetic judge. Of the recruiters he said, “They were willing to put my son and other recruits at risk. It’s beyond my comprehension, and appalling.”

When Tommi enlisted with the Minnesota National Guard, the recruiter sat at our dining room table and assured her (and me) that she would never see a combat situation. “Women are not allowed to serve in combat,” he said. “It has never happened, and it never will.”