Front Lines Of Combat example essay topic

Women in Front Line Combat When it comes to combat assignments and the needs of the military, men take precedence over all other considerations, including career prospects of female service members. Female military members have been encouraged to pursue opportunities and career enhancement within the armed forces, which limit them only to the needs and good of the service due to women being not as "similarly situated" as their male counterparts when it comes to strength or aggressiveness, and are not able to handle combat situations. Women during wartime situations were so determined to participate in the defense of their country and their homes, they went from performing the traditional duties of cooking, sewing, fixing the weapons for the soldiers to serving as soldiers themselves along side the men. They hid fugitives and even became spies.

During World War II and the Vietnam War, women were only allowed to serve as nurses because military leaders did not want to expose women other than nurses to the horrors of combat. Women were not given any form of training and were not permitted to carry weapons which would able them to defend themselves against the enemy. Decisions permitting the deployment of women especially enlisted women, to the combat area was the military habit of over-protection, based on the notion that the women would not be able to cope with the slightest inconvenience without loss of morale and efficiency. It was just this kind of thinking that was continually interjected into the decision-making process when it came to enlisted women, which were often treated as though they were not much brighter than a young child. "The male soldiers, sailors, airmen and hostile wives back home labeled these Nathanson 2 hard working women as whores and lesbians and felt the women on the front lines of combat were only there for the moral support of the male troops. These false accusations humiliated the women and had a huge impact on the attitudes of people and policies regarding women in front line combat for the decades to come" (Moskos 54).

Along with these accusations came the tests of the military manpower and strategies. Manpower strengths now became a major issue, which for the first time caused drafts to play an important role for men. The military designated programs to force a more balanced number of women across all but combat and combat-related fields. The result caused delayed or denied entry for women because the traditional fields were filled.

There were no established standards for measuring the strength and stamina of women, so women were being recruited for jobs that they could not physically perform. Eventually the utilization of women proved to be ineffective and lowered morale. During an interview with Major General Gene Deegan, the Commanding General at the Paris Island Marine Corps Recruiting Depot. Deegan stated to the Presidential Commissioners on Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces, "If I were to maintain the same intensity for women in training as the male recruits, I would have a very difficult time recruiting any females" (Hoar 5). The physical capacity of men and women can be measured by the physical tests military members are required to take annually.

Men are required to do 38 push-ups, while women have to do only 18. Men have to run 1.5 miles under 12 minutes, while women have an extra three minutes to complete the run. "The human body composition favors men when it comes to strength, explosive power, speed and throwing abilities, all these contributes are from Nathanson 3 their sizes, muscle mass, bone mass, fat distribution, structure of elbow joints and pelvis". (Becraft 46) Men have an advantage in physical endurance and heat tolerance by the size of their heart and lungs, oxygen content, oxygen uptake, average hemoglobin content, body temperature and sweat glands. All of these are considered advantages within a very physically demanding ground combat environment. Dr. William Gregor, LTC (rest), military science professor at the University of Michigan stated, "Men have the room to improve physically, whereas women have already reached the upper end of their limits" (Hoar 6).

When it comes to aerobic capacity most women are significantly lower then men, the average 20-30 year old women has the same capacity as 50-year-old men. (Becraft 6) Combat is no place for pregnancy or menstruation. Each situation tends to play a very negative impact on unit readiness, along with morale, hormones can influence aggression and emotions. According to the Roper Poll of the military "56 percent of those who were deployed in Desert Storm with mixed gender units reported that a large percent of women assigned to the unit became pregnant just prior to or while deployed in the Gulf" (Sampley 8). This men while soldiers were deployed within a combat situation, their focus was not on the mission itself, but on their fellow soldiers. During times of menstruation, introducing women into combat units would greatly confuse an already confusing environment and would lessen the aggressive tendencies of the unit.

Aggression would be directed inward, towards sex, rather then outward towards violence. The presence of women captured by the enemy and held as prisoners of war would increase morale problems for male prisoners, as well as their vulnerability if the enemy were to torture these women prisoners to ensure cooperation from the men. Overprotective male prisoners may Nathanson 4 be adversely affected in their judgment because women are present, causing them to take a course of action or to refrain from taking a course of action that they otherwise would have done differently. "Instructors at the SERE school for pilots have observed a protective response among men when a female trainee was threatened" (Dillingham 1).

If a policy change is made, and women are allowed into combat positions, there must be a concerted effort to educate the American public on the increased likelihood that women may be subjected to rape, or could even come home in body bags. The consequences of not undertaking such a program would be a large-scale disillusionment with the military should the United States get in a protracted military engagement. "Many people believe that men will be reluctant to fight if women were in combat with them" (Becraft 26). The primary function of the military is to defend American society, not to change it, to the extent the military is used as a test for social experimentation that might risk the security of the nation. With all the research present and past through the military, many views have been given with women in combat. My view is women do not belong on the front lines of combat; they are generally not as strong or aggressive as men are.

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Bibliography

Becraft, Carolyn J". A Case for Women in Combat". U. S Army Command and General Staff College, June 1997.
Dillingham, Wayne E. "The Possibility of Women Becoming Prisoners of War: Justification For Combat Exclusion Rules?" Joint Services Conference on Professional Ethics XII, National Defense University, Jan. 1999 Hoar, William P.
Case Against Women in Combat". The New American. 08 Feb. 1998 web women combat.
htm. 02 Nov. 2000.
Moskos, Charles. "Army Women". The Atlantic Monthly. 04 Aug. 1995 web 03 Nov.
2000.
Sampley, Ted. "Women Warriors, Can They Hack it in a Real War?" U. S Veteran Dispatch. Aug / Sep. 1997.
web 03 Nov. 2000.