Discussion on Women in Military Combat

I want to begin by making it very clear where I stand on the subject of gender equality. I will always be someone who fights for equal opportunity between men and women in almost every aspect of our modern lives. However, there is one area that I must be very transparent about what I believe. The United States military crossed the line when gender equality in combat operations became more important than human life.

I joined the Army in February of 2007. After basic training, I attended Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia, where I received the Enlisted Airborne Honor Graduate Award along with the William Red King Award. Throughout the majority of my service, I was assigned to the 2-321st Field Artillery, 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division and served two tours of duty in Afghanistan supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. During my deployments, I fought alongside Army and Marine Special Operation units and received several medals for excellence in combat. After almost seven years of service, I was medically retired due to injuries received overseas.

Please understand that my intentions are pure, and it is not my desire to boast; I have known many others who have achieved much more than myself. My intent is to use my first hand experience and explain throughout my blog why I believe allowing women to serve in military combat roles is a dangerous choice made by our government.
Thomas Brennan accounts, “When my squad arrived at our outpost in Afghanistan in 2010, one of the first things we did was outfit our living quarters with trash bags, cardboard and salvaged wood to ease the vicious winds…We urinated into a metal pipe fed through a Hesco barricade filled with dirt and burned our feces in a metal drum. There were no showers or water for showers, so, after each day’s long and grueling foot patrols we pulled on new socks and used baby wipes and body powder. It was miserable, but we endured the misery together.”

You have heard it said many times; “War is Hell.” Day after day you are faced with the choice to take someone else’s life before they take yours, and it is far more gruesome and disgusting than any Hollywood depiction of war you have ever seen.

There were times we had to be in our vehicles for three or more days. When we needed to relieve ourselves it would be in plastic bottles or bags. With women in the vehicle the patrol would have to stop. All doors would be open for a tarp wall to be constructed no matter how dangerous the situation is. This exposes the troops and makes them vulnerable for ambush.

This can’t be a matter of equal opportunity or political correctness.It has to be about operating at max efficiency and speed to ensure that there are no casualties.
A man is biologically programmed to be a protector, a provider, and a fixer. That is not new knowledge, and neither is the knowledge that failure to carry out these desires is internalized by most men.

During combat there is an immediate kinship developed between soldiers. They become like brothers. Sacrificing their own life would be done without hesitation if it meant saving the lives of their brothers. With women in combat it is only natural that our biological instincts would take over, and we would immediately assume the role as their protector. Therefore, it should be no surprise that a woman dying under our care would affect us differently than if it were a man. Both are equally tragic, but the thoughts would begin pouring in. “I should have protected her. I should have been there.” Yes, these are thinking errors, but that does not stop a man from having these thoughts in a horrible situation like this. Mentally, the scenario would get much worse if she had a husband and children at home.

I can not imagine the horror I would feel if someone sexually assaulted my wife, sisters, or my mother. That is why this topic is very difficult for me to discuss, but it is so very important. The numbers do not lie. The Department of Defense has claimed that “tens of thousands of unwanted sexual contacts occur in the military every year, yet only a fraction of those get reported.” Another report showed that in 2012 there were 3,374 sexual assaults recorded that were directly related to the military. In 2013, there were 5,061 reported. You may wonder why there would be such a drastic climb in numbers. As I mentioned in a previous post, the 1994 ban keeping women from combat was lifted in January of 2013. That means the number of women in combat positions has steadily been increasing since the ban was lifted. In the past you would have had roughly twenty men in one platoon. Now you may have eighteen men and two women.There are many issues that this can cause, but the one that concerns me the most is the likelihood of there being an unwanted sexual encounter. It is true that men need to be respectful, accountable, and self-controlled, but if all the men in this world were perfect there would be no need for this conversation. The harsh reality is this world is not perfect, and combat overseas is far from normal civilian life. Take a bunch of immature eighteen-year-old boys, and add in some anger and rage caused by ten-twelve months of war. Combine that with little to no contact with women for almost one year, and you have a situation that can quickly get very nasty.
We live in an age where the push for equal opportunity in this nation has crossed the line of fair and downright absurd. I don’t understand how and when it became “sexist” to say that men are physically stronger than women. Lately I have heard, “Women are not stronger because men don’t want them to be stronger” or “Women face many more challenges than men, which makes them stronger”. This list could go on and on. I am not saying that women should be barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen. I believe it would do us all some good if we could relax a little and stop being so sensitive. It is commonly accepted in the medical field that men have 50% more brute strength and upper body strength than women. “Men naturally have a higher percentage of lean muscle mass than women… ‘Men not only have more muscle, but pound for pound, their muscle is slightly stronger than a woman’s — about 5 to 10 percent, says Lou Schuler in “The New Rules of Lifting for Women.’ ”

It appears as though this is a concept that even the United States military understands and accepts as truth. In the Army, men ages 22-26 must be able to do 40 push ups, but for women in the same age bracket, they are only required to do 17. Likewise, men must be able to run two miles in sixteen minutes, thirty-six seconds, yet women are allowed three extra minutes to compete the same distance. This is only a small portion of the different physical requirements between men and women. I once had to carry an unconscious man on my back down an incredibly steep mountain to get him to a medic. How is a woman going to carry me down a steep mountain when she weighs less than me and is required to perform much less than I am on a physical fitness tests? In that situation she would definitely perform at her full efficiency, but it would not be the efficiency needed to ensure her safety and the safety of those around.

“So righteous women are devoutly obedient, guarding in [the husband’s] absence what Allah would have them guard. But those [wives] from whom you fear arrogance – [first] advise them; [then if they persist], forsake them in bed; and [finally], strike them.” (Quran 4:34 A.M. Sahih International Translation)
Throughout my research of this religion I continued finding more strict rules that the women of Islam must follow. A woman can not deny her husband of his sexual needs, and she must make herself available whenever he calls for her. (Read more here)Basically, Islamic women are the property of other men. An eight year old boy holds a higher social status than a woman in her thirties or even an elderly woman.

1.6 billion Islamic believers occupy this earth, which makes it the second largest world religion next to Christianity. You may be questioning why all of this information is important, but I can assure you that this information is vital for our military and for their success in these countries.

Did you know that since 1970, the majority of our military interventions have been in Muslim countries? Contrary to popular belief, we are not only in these countries to subdue an enemy; rather, much of our job revolves around winning the hearts and minds of those around and creating more friends than we create enemies. We must be able to earn the respect and trust of the local leadership before they will ever be comfortable about giving us information that will lead to what we need. We must be able to communicate effectively and learn what their needs are. We build mosques, schools, wells for clean water, and more. Allowing women to serve in these roles would be detrimental to the military’s success in Islamic countries. Most native men refuse to even look at a women if her head and face aren’t covered, much less allow them to have any type of authority or leadership. They would find it humiliating and disrespectful, and we would be creating more hostility than we would be building the quality relationships we desperately need. If a Muslim man doesn’t even look at his own wife as if she is equal, how will he look at someone he has never met as if she deserves respect as an authority figure? It is the senior officers and those in combat positions who are carrying out these tasks, and these duties just can not be done by women in these countries. I do not agree with the social standards muslim women are held to nor do I believe it is acceptable, but my belief does not make this reality go away. We are not in these countries to force a different belief. We are in these countries to carry out the missions set forth by the U.S. government, and we need to be able to do so as effectively as possible.

Thanks for the video, I've been wanting to see a full on discussion like this for some time. Big fan Lt. Col. Germano's work while she commanded 4th RTB. Also will be checking out Ackerman's book when I can get my hands on it. All around I was impressed with everybody's experience and how ell they arguments. I hope they'll do more of these.