[Vision2020] Female Grunts

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the April 18, 2011 edition of the Army Times.

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YourArmy
A woman’s place — in combat?

Rules that limit female soldiers’ careers likely to change
By Lance M. Bacon

Ten months after she graduated from West Point, 1st Lt. Maxine Gourley was
in Afghanistan.

During numerous route-clearing missions in the dangerous Pech and Konar
valleys, her engineer platoon was hit at least 30 times with direct-fire
engagements, indirect fire or improvised explosive devices. Most
engagements were not the typical hit-it-and-get­it. The area was lit­tered
with the profes­sional and well-armed Haqqani network, and firefights
lasting more than 10 hours were not uncommon. As ground commander, she had
to communi­cate with higher head­quarters, call for indi­rect fire and
maneu­ver her soldiers into defensive perimeters and to repel assaults.

“I was platoon leader of an all-male platoon and I had zero issues,” said
Gourley, who served with the 161st Company, 27th Engi­neer Battalion, 20th
Engineer Brigade, XVII Airborne Corps, and is soon to receive the Bronze
Star. “No one ever questioned my authority, and I never questioned the way
they looked to me as a leader.” Despite her accomplishments and her West
Point pedigree, under today’s rules Gourley will always be a second-class
combatant.

While the Army has long encouraged soldiers to “be all that you can be,”
it has institu­tionally prevented women from reaching new heights as it
restricts the career fields in which they can serve — namely, the combat
arms community and direct-contact units.

Those restrictions seem destined to change as military and congres­sional
leaders give careful consideration to softening — if not eliminating —
combat exclusion rules.

“I’m confident that this is an area that is going to change,” Defense
Secre­tary Robert Gates said during an April 7 visit to the U.S. Division
Center Camp Liberty in Bagh­dad. “Time scale of the change, I have no
idea.” Congress in the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act re­quired
the defense and service secretaries to review policies “to deter­mine
whether changes 
 are needed to ensure that female members have an
equitable oppor­tunity to compete and excel in the Armed Forces.” That
report is due to Congress on April 15.

The Military Leadership Diver­sity Council and the Defense Department
Advisory Committee on Women in the Service in the past month have
submitted reports that call for an end to combat exclusion rules.

The reports say these “unneces­sary barriers” are detrimental to the
careers of women serving in uniform, prevent deployed women from getting
necessary combat training and keep capable and qualified women from
contribut­ing to the strength of these units.

Damaging careers

The Army opened most jobs to women more than a decade ago. But
combat-exclusion policies still prohibit women from serving in cer­tain
tactical and operational career fields, such as infantry and armor. Today,
9 percent of Army and 8 per­cent of Marine Corps occupations are closed to
women. In compari­son, 6 percent of Navy, 1 percent of Air Force and no
Coast Guard occu­pations are closed to women.

Women serving in the remaining career fields often lose key assign­ments
because they can’t be assigned to the units or jobs most likely to see
direct offensive ground combat. When this restric­tion is added to the
mix, only 70 percent of Army positions and 62 percent of Marine Corps
positions are open to women, according to the Military Leadership
Diversity Commission’s March 15 report, “From Representation to
Inclu­sion: Diversity Leadership for the 21st-Century Military.” These
lost opportunities have a lasting effect. Today, 80 percent of general
officers come from the tactical and operational career fields that are
closed to women. Just one female soldier was selected for brigadier
general in 2010, out of 100 military officiers chosen in all the services.
Only 24 of the Army’s 403 general offi­cers — or 6 percent — are female,
though women represent roughly 15 percent of the force.

And these effects are felt all the way down the chain of command.

“I know a lot of medics who are concerned about promotions,” said Spc.
Stacy Dickey, a line medic who recently returned from Afghanistan with a
Combat Action Badge. “Combat time and experience play such a big part, and
we’re being cut out of a lot of those opportunities. To me, that is pure
discrimination.”

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1st Lt. Maxine Gourley led troops in combat as a platoon leader in
Afghanistan.

http://armytimes.va.newsmemory.com/newsmemvol2/virginia/armytimes/20110418/0418_arm_dom_00_022_00.pdf.0/img/Image_0.jpg

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By the Numbers . . .

- 14.5 percent of active duty are women (203,000 of about 1.4 million).

- 17.8 percent of the 853,000 service members in the Guard and Reserve are
women.

- 25,000 women are deployed in support of Operations New Dawn and Enduring
Freedom (10 per­cent of deployed troops).

- 259,000 women have deployed in support of operations Iraqi Freedom, New
Dawn and Enduring Freedom (11.6 percent of those who have deployed).

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to
changeand the Realist adjusts his sails."

 - Unknown