PONTIFEX HAS SOME THOUGHTS ON WOMEN IN COMBAT:

Let’s be blunt. Co-ed bootcamp is asking for trouble. Lowering standards to accomodate females is wrong.

But its a reality that females are going to play a role in our all-volunteer military for the foreseeable future.

What we saw in this war wasn’t that females were closer to the front-lines; what we’re seeing is the eroding away of the rear echelon. With ballistic missiles and mad-dash supply chains, not to mention the increasing reliance on air supremacy, all kinds of people who aren’t infantry or in direct support of a line unit are still crossing into harm’s way.

The Marines have an answer to that, and in fact they always have: “Every Marine a rifleman.” Toting iron doesn’t make you a grunt, but everyone from cooks to boxkickers are expected to be able to engage the enemy if necessary. That’s our mentality, our ethos. And if you’ve got females kicking boxes or making chow, then damn it, they’re Marines too.

[Boxkickers? Supply bubbas. And if you’ll note, the females who got the most attention in this war were in billets like supply, motor transport, etc. That’s no small thing — the supply chain on the drive to Baghdad was one of the most crucial parts of the war.]

I could go on, but I’d be belaboring the point, I think.

And Sgt. Mom responds to Phyllis Schlafly:

I’d be inclined to take her concerns seriously were she to demonstrate a grasp of the difference between “combat” and “combat support”.

The rise of terrorism has perhaps blurred the distinction slightly, in that cooks, admin clerks and mechanics are slightly more inclined to be casualties than once was assumed. But then we once assumed that civilian status offered some sort of protection. This distinction has been in tatters since 9/11.

The women she is voicing her concern about are soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen. They may be officers or NCOs or junior enlisted. They are volunteers and skilled professionals and to consider them in any other light is infantilizing and demeaning. They have all made choices, and I would do them the honor of assuming they made them freely, and with their eyes open, as I did myself.

If you want to do womankind a service, Phyllis, sweetie, go back to complaining about the unisex bathroom thing. I’ve had to share facilities with guys, sometimes, and believe me; some of them couldn’t hit the ground with their hat, much less the commode with a stream of pee.

Funny — I never heard anyone complain about that on Ally McBeal.