Women in combat: Would you accept the idea of gender-specific combat units, such as all female units and all male units?

SGT Anthony Rossi. All that said . . . I don't want to send any of my sisters in arms home in body bags . . . or in a sense worse yet maimed for life . . . nor am I keen to require our women to be drafted. I believe we should continue to be an all volunteer military where the draft is an irrelevant appendage of the distant past . . . and our armed services present an opportunity to volunteer to serve our country . . . where possible with life long guaranteed medical and psychological care and higher education benefits. Warmest Regards, Sandy

p.s. We often forget the Vietnam war was 2/3 volunteers . . . not entirely clear to me (beyond professional medical practitioners) why we needed a deeply divisive male draft to effectively fight this war. Why didn't we limit our total commitment to exclusively volunteer troops?

Also, when men outnumbered women 1000:1 in Vietnam . . . I felt safer sleeping in a gender segregated unit . . . so there are limited circumstances segregation works . . . however absent this kind of extreme circumstance . . . I am against any segregation on any basis.

Thanks for your perspective. To be completely honest I do like the voluntary military concept but only based on the motivation of patriotism. Unfortunately, during my time in service the majority of my fellow servicemen joined primarily for the benefits. Ever since then the conversation in many soldiers minds has transferred to ones rights and equality. That was the furthest thing from my mind when I enlisted in the U.S. Army so many years ago. I wanted to be apart of the greatest military in the world and was willing to serve my country in whatever capacity the Army thought best. I get really upset when this attitude of trying to tell the military where, "I have a right" to serve. My attitude was, and still is, "WHAT CAN I DO FOR MY COUNTRY?" If they didn't want me to serve in a certain roll than that was fine with me. If the government wants to segregate a unit to make it more combat effective than it should have every right to do so. I don't tell the commander what to do I just get the job done. IT WAS MY PRIVLIDGE TO SERVE NOT MY RIGHT, THANK GOD FOR THE OPERTUNITY TO SERVE THIS GREAT NATION!

Num 1:2 Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;
Num 1:3 From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.

SPC (Join to see) - 1 man can impregnate 1000 women, 1 woman can impregnate no men. It's a primal reflex, survival of the species. Granted it's not currently applicable in today's society, nonetheless it's now intrinsically instinctual in the human race to protect women. Think of it in those terms.

SPC (Join to see) Notice that I said I am not taking sides, my point is what will the reaction of the nation be as a whole? Note is was in the form of a question.

However, none of the female units were ground units. I'm definitely for women as fighter pilots because they are not down in the carnage.

SGT Rossi,

While it is true the US has not fielded female land combat units, this is not the case for the Russians, Kurds or Israelis. They are light infantry and the nice part of the Kurd...really Rojavan...units is that under the ISIS/ISIL soldiers consider their death at the hands of women a reason why they will not be allowed into Paradise.

MSG Brad Sand I see you have meet my wife! Thanks I need a chuckle to get me through that last part of the day!

SGT William Howell

Unless you have pictures, I have never had nothing to do with your wife, if you have pictures...they were Photo-shopped?
Happy I could help lighten the day.

If one is not willing to die for a cause along side their closest friends than they are not really living. The measure of ones life is often judged on what he or she is willing to die for. My commitment to my brothers in Arms is worth my life. It's based on the knowledge they were willing to die for me! Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. -John 15:13

SGT Anthony Rossi. No amount of comradely or sense of belonging is worth the death of a colleague. That said - I understand what you are saying. The Vietnam war was a time when my hands made more difference in triage, pre-op, surgery, and post-op for more patients than any time subsequent in life - and I would do anything I can for my team. My satisfaction comes from being part of a team that made a difference in lives of others. This is still a fundamental part of my identity and sense of self worth today - the memory of when and how we made a difference in so many places over so many years - in both nursing and other fields with no immediate reward but longer term international results. Warmest Regards, Sandy

SGT Anthony Rossi, I'm sorry I didn't notice your response sooner, but you and I definitely have different values. Whether or not I am willing to die for a cause is unrelated to who will be with me while I'd be doing the dying. Nor do I buy into the adrenaline-junkie mantra that you can't be living if you're not willing to die -- that's too much like saying you can't enjoy sex unless you're willing to become celibate.

1LT William Clardy - thanks for responding to my comment. Have a great Mother's Day weekend.