Women in Combat Roles

Today I read an article which stated that women might be allowed to attend the US Army's Ranger school. This follows closely on the announcement that the Marine Corps will allow a few good women to attend the Infantry Officers Course.

Whether or not women should be allowed in direct combat has been a matter of discussion for quite some time. Women have, of course, taken part in combat actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of them have been seriously injured or killed. Quite a few have received extremely well-deserved awards for valor. Seriously, read this.

I've attended neither Ranger school nor the Infantry Officers Course; my hat is off to any person, man or woman, who successfully completes either one. I have, however, served in a small unit while deployed which had female Soldiers. Much like their male counterparts, there were good ones and bad ones. Although I was 19 and longed for the day when I would no longer be sleeping in close proximity to a bunch of dudes, I primarily evaluated the female Soldiers on whether or not they could do their jobs, not whether they would turn heads at the dining out when the unit redeployed, or any other factor.

All of the current signs point to an inevitable integration of females in infantry units, which, with the possible exception of special operations forces, would be the final step in the decades-long overall integration of women in the military. I thought I would voice my own opinions on the subject, which, as always, I try to keep to the practical as opposed to the emotional. The subject is, however, emotional, and I will address those common concerns first.

Emotional Arguments Against Women in Combat

Several arguments I have heard against allowing women in combat involve emotions - that women will be too emotional to participate in day-to-day combat operations, that men will grow emotionally attached to women in their units and become distraught at the sight of their serious injury or death (or vice versa), and so on.

I have never seen a seriously injured (in combat) female; I have not been present for the death (in combat) of a female. I have spoken with a fellow Corpsman who had become friendly with female Marines that were later killed in Fallujah. A very tough man, but he became very quiet when he mentioned the death of "the girls." It was obvious that it had been troubling him, and would continue to do so for a long time.

I have also seen the reaction of Corpsmen and Marines immediately after the death of a comrade. These emotions vary from hard-faced stoicism to becoming completely distraught. The bonds that form between men in combat have been written about by others and should need no special description from me, but I cannot really imagine a greater level of emotional pain than that which I saw on the face of a line company Corpsman who had just had a Marine friend die while the Corpsman was desperately working to save him.

I was aware of relationships between men and...men while I was deployed, and they did not seem to cause any problems that could not be solved at the NCO or SNCO level. I am sure that the first (safety?) briefs on professionalism and avoiding personal relationships to an integrated infantry company will be extremely entertaining.

As to whether women are too emotional to participate in combat - I cannot provide any specific facts to counter this, but I just don't think that a determined woman, dedicated to whatever mission was at hand, wouldn't be able to put emotions aside and get the job done. I am also certain that there are women who couldn't do so (as well as a number of men).

Mental Arguments Against Women in Combat

I have been told that women just cannot do the job, mentally - that they are not tough enough for it. This may not be a very different argument than the emotional one, but I thought I would address it anyway.

In my life I have been privileged to know a number of extremely tough women. I have no doubt that they would doggedly continue to fight until they could physically no longer do so, and then they would summon the strength to fight on anyway. If you have any doubts about this, read the article I linked above about the female Army sergeant who kept flying medevac missions after breaking her leg when she put her body between an injured Soldier and a tree. Naturally, she downplayed the injury.

There are also women who cannot handle the stress of such a situation. While treating an injured Marine in a non-combat situation, my only trained assistance was in the form of a female Corpsman who quite literally got up and quickly walked away from the casualty, saying something along the lines of, "I can't handle this." Needless to say, I was not impressed with her performance. However, I've known men who would have done pretty much the same thing she did. In fact, I've worked with men who failed in a similar fashion. The women are simply in more of a spotlight when they do so.

I have heard second and thirdhand stories of poor performance on the part of female engagement teams (FETs) in Afghanistan, and I am sure they would be mentioned by someone in some comment on this article, which is why I bring them up. However, I have not seen them firsthand and cannot say whether they are mostly true or mostly false. I do not wish for this discussion to devolve into an exchange of anecdotes, although I have brought forth many of my own so far.

Weeding out the emotionally and mentally weak is a job for instructors at various points in the training pipeline, as well as NCOs at the small unit level, who are already used to identifying those who need to pull duty instead of participating in dismounted combat patrols.

Physical Arguments Against Women in Combat

The crux of the issue for me is whether or not the job can be done. There are not many factors which have more of a bearing on completing a task in combat than whether the Soldier or Marine can physically pick up their armor and weapon and ammunition and gear and water and food and make it to where they need to go in a physical condition that allows them to fight for an undetermined period of time and then make it back to wherever they need to go.

In addition, carrying a wounded comrade to safety requires a lot of physical strength. Part of my Field Medical Service School training involved dragging and/or carrying a 180lb dummy through an obstacle course, which I quite enjoyed, and, I think, excelled at. I was disappointed to see that many of the females in my class chose to let their male teammates drag the dummy for the entire evolution - then again, my two male teammates were perfectly happy to let me drag the dummy for the entire thing, too.

To this end, the differing physical standards for men and women in the military would, quite simply, have to go. Physical standards for men shouldn't be lessened - women should be held to the same standards that men are for their particular branch of service. In addition, it wouldn't be fair to have different physical standards for "combat" women and "non-combat" women, for promotions are often determined by physical fitness test scores.

This would have a definite effect on the women who wanted to join the military, but not the infantry. I have certainly known women who were strong enough to wear body armor, sling a 240, and carry a ruck. They are few and far between. Those women who want to be in the infantry but could not currently meet the physical requirements would have to work hard to do so - and those women who just want to be in the military and actually want to be promoted would also need to work harder.

Practical Arguments Against Women in Combat

Some of the arguments against allowing women in combat center on the logistical requirements and additional costs that would be required in order to properly train women - for example, that separate schoolhouses would have to be built, and so on. My answer to this is simple - if men and women are to fight together, they need to train together.

I would go so far as to suggest that latrines should be integrated, if not in a garrison environment, then definitely in the field. Basic levels of privacy and respect should be maintained, but this is a responsibility for individuals.

The bottom line here is that integrating women into infantry units needs to be something that is done to enhance (or at least maintain) the fighting capabilities of the military - not weaken them.

Challenges Faced By The First Women in Infantry Units

The very first women to enter an infantry unit will have to prove themselves at a level which I would go so far as to say no group of military women has ever had to face. They will, no doubt, be carefully selected, and entirely capable of the tasks they will face. My main concern is whether or not the women to follow them will perform at the same level.

The first female carrier-based fighter pilot, LT Kara Hultgreen, was killed in a crash that was determined to be the result of pilot error. I do not have enough information to determine if she was pushed beyond her capabilities into a role which she was unable to fulfill, but I do not want any American servicemember to die as a result of a political desire to have complete equality in the uniformed services.