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The Dallas Morning News: Attack on America
Women changing the face of military
Roles have grown from Gulf War, with 15% of U.S. forces female
11/19/2001
By CAROLYN BARTA / The Dallas Morning News

FORT WORTH – First Lt. Kandi Chapman is the first female pilot in the Texas Air
Guard, but just one of a growing cadre of female pilots in today's military.
She flies C-130 transport planes, and if the 136th Airlift Wing is activated at
the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, she could ferry personnel,
supplies, or humanitarian goods across the Arab world.
Despite different attitudes in Muslim cultures, American women in Operation
Enduring Freedom are performing military jobs that were not allowed 10 years ago
in Desert Storm. They're dropping bombs, flying fighter jets, and serving on
combat ships.
           By the numbers

     The percentages of women by military branch, as of May:

     Air Force – 19 percent
     Army – 15 percent
     Navy – 14 percent
     Marine Corps – 6 percent

But some analysts fear greater risk to military women in countries where women
are afforded inferior status. Others wonder about tensions that their presence
could create among allies such as Saudi Arabia.
But women have become such an integral part of the military – now making up
about 15 percent – that neither leaders nor the women consider their role out of
the ordinary.
In the Gulf War, women weren't in direct combat jobs but proved in support roles
that they could handle combat situations and cultural differences, said veterans
such as Lt. Chapman, who was then an AWACS computer operator in the Air Force.
She said she is proud to see women flying different aircraft, including fighter
jets and strike aircraft. "The training we do provides us with the essential
elements to be good pilots, whether we're male or female," she said.
Nobody will say how many women have been deployed to Central Asia in the war on
terrorism. A Department of Defense spokesman said those numbers aren't tracked
because 90 percent of military jobs are now open to women.
"Women are such a part of the team now that it's unremarkable that women are
flying combat missions over Afghanistan," Lt. James Cassella said.
Restrictions lifted
Thousands of new jobs opened to American military women after changes in federal
law in 1993 and 1994 lifted restrictions in combat aviation and aboard Navy
ships and the Pentagon modified its policy on exposure of women to hostile fire.

Even so, the Air Force has only 16 female bomber pilots out of 759 and 43 female
fighter pilots out of 3,500. The Navy has fewer than 10 female fighter aviators.

And there are roles that women aren't permitted to fill in the war on terrorism.
Defense policy prohibits women from being assigned to units that engage in
direct ground combat, including infantry, field artillery, and armor. They are
excluded from special operations units, such as the Rangers, Green Berets, and
Delta Force troops.

Some say that is appropriate. But others say women should be permitted to serve
wherever they meet qualifications.
The services continue to grapple with questions about women in combat arms,
along with the potential cultural clashes.
The Gulf War resulted in major breakthroughs for women, but their presence in
desert states "stirred things up," said Dr. John Spero, a former civilian
strategic planner in the Pentagon who teaches political science at Merrimack
College in North Andover, Mass.
"One of the reasons Osama bin Laden is so angry is because [U.S.] troops
remained deployed in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War. It reinforces in his mind
the infringement of the West. To his thinking, women in the military is an
affront. It represents the disrespect of the West," he said.
Elaine Donnelly, who heads the Center for Military Readiness, a military
personnel issues policy group, fears that any military women in Afghanistan
could "work against U.S. objectives."
"I'm not excusing the attitude of that part of the world toward women, but
changing that is not our mission. Female soldiers may be counterproductive
through no fault of their own," she said.
Afghan soldiers, she said, "will not respect men who take orders from women."
'More equal now'
Some analysts say gender sensitivities were addressed in Saudi Arabia during the
Gulf War and continue to be.
"Our military people on the ground over there are quite attuned to that and very
careful," said Dr. Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist
University.
Women credit their performance in the Gulf War with the policy changes that
opened up new career fields.
"We're treated more equal now because they've seen we can function in a wartime
situation," said Staff Sgt. Patricia M. Alberter, 43, who was called up from the
Army Reserves to serve in Saudi Arabia.
"When we were Scudded, we had to don our mask and MOPP [chemical-protection]
gear just like the males did. It wasn't a problem," said Sgt. Alberter, who now
serves in the Texas Army National Guard in San Antonio.
Maj. Gen. Marianne Mathewson-Chapman of St. Petersburg, Fla., the first female
two-star general in the Army National Guard and deputy surgeon general, was sent
to the Persian Gulf a decade ago to organize hospitals in five Muslim countries.

"We tried to follow the customs the best we could. We tried not to offend
anyone," she said.
Saudi women are not allowed to drive, or bare their arms or heads in public. But
American women in uniform – with sleeves rolled down and hat on – drove military
vehicles. Outside military compounds, they also wore uniforms – or, in some
places, were expected to wear an abaya , the traditional black robe women wear.
Staff Sgt. Martha James, who maintains Army National Guard helicopters at the
Dallas Army Aviation Support Facility in Grand Prairie, served five months in
Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis, she said, "were very courteous as long as I had a weapon on me. They
wanted us to go with their rules, and we did. We didn't have to cover ourselves.
We weren't allowed in places women weren't allowed in. We never traveled without
a male."
Gulf War influence
About 37,000 women and 500,000 men from the United States served in the Persian
Gulf War. According to the Defense Department, 15 women were killed in hostile
and nonhostile situations in Desert Storm, the war, and Desert Shield, the
buildup. Two became prisoners.
"Before the Gulf War, Americans were not ready for women to come home in body
bags or to be taken captive. Both happened, and the American people didn't
freak. And it didn't lessen the credibility of women with their comrades," said
Dr. Linda De Pauw, a historian who founded the Minerva Center, which studies
women in war.
Others suggest there wasn't an outcry because of the low number of casualties in
the war.
Since then, military women have released bombs over Iraq and Kosovo and have
enforced no-fly zones north and south of Baghdad.
"We've shown as women that we can accomplish the same thing as our male
counterparts as long as we're given the same training," said Technical Sgt.
Michelle Kirkland, who enlisted in the Air Force 19 years ago and now serves in
the D.C. Air National Guard.
Women today go into their career fields knowing the risks, she said.
"A lot of warfare now is technological," she said. "You don't always now have to
send in foot soldiers. You used to have to have troops on the ground in places
you now can see with infrared light."
But Sgt. James said women are not physically suited to some jobs. "I've been in
the military long enough to know there are jobs I can't do," she said.
Opening more areas
The Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services continues to try to open
more areas to women, including submarines; Multiple Launch Rocket System crews,
which operate at the rear of combat areas; and special-ops helicopter crews.
"It is not our goal to push for women to be in the foxholes or the trenches or
be allowed to fill every single slot," said Vickie McCall of Ogden, Utah,
chairwoman of the committee of civilians that makes recommendations to the
Pentagon.
Female officers say combat jobs must be available to women so they can move to
the highest ranks. Some conservative groups object.
"You don't deploy people based on career decisions. The needs of the military
come first," said Ms. Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness.
She wants the Pentagon to resist "feminist pressures" to allow women in ground
combat and has reservations about women in combat aviation – particularly in
Afghanistan, where women are treated brutally by the Taliban.
Dr. De Pauw, however, said: "They torture the men they capture. They sodomize
and kill them. There's nothing they can do to the women that they don't do to
men."
Ms. McCall of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women acknowledges that physical
limitations will keep women from some career fields, and she doesn't expect the
American culture to support women in hand-to-hand combat.
"We are suggesting that we utilize the talents of everyone where it makes
sense," she said. "If it contributes to the mission, why not?"

© 2001 DallasNews.com

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