WASHINGTON – Sgt. Myoung S. Fisher, human resources specialist at the Maryland National Guard, has never served in combat, but she’s enthusiastic about the new opportunity for women.
“Women should feel like they can now serve their country in whichever way they choose to serve, which is on the front lines, behind a desk, in a motor pool, etc. There’s no limits,” Fisher said.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, signed a memo Thursday rescinding a 1994 rule banning military service women from holding direct ground combat positions.
“Everyone, men and women alike, everyone is committed to doing the job. They’re fighting and they’re dying together, and the time has come for our policies to recognize that reality,” Panetta said, adding that 152 women have died serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In February 2012, changes to the same 1994 barrier opened up more than 14,000 ground combat positions to women. Thursday’s move begins an incremental process to open all service and special operations command positions to women who meet gender-neutral performance standards.
The new rules will affect the 6,400 members of the Maryland National Guard. The Maryland Army Guard is 16 percent female and the Maryland Air Guard is 18 percent female.
Nearly 20 percent of Army Guard positions, many in infantry, cavalry and Special Forces are closed to women. The Air Guard is more open, with less than 1 percent of its positions closed to women.
Lt. Col. Charles Kohler, public affairs officer at the Maryland National Guard, partially attributes the new policy to changes on the battlefield.
“Today’s modern battlefield is all over the area, it’s not as defined as it used to be. So women are finding themselves in combat,” he said.
At the Maryland National Guard, training schools formerly limited to men will soon become accessible to women, including Army Ranger school, Kohler said.
Under the new policy, performance standards for most positions will be the same for both men and women.
For example, in order to earn a United States Army Expert Infantryman Badge, available only to men, the men at the Maryland National Guard have to receive at least 80 points on a physical fitness test, finish a 12-mile-foot march within three hours while carrying up to 70 lbs. of equipment, and complete a day or night land navigation course.
Lt. Gregg T. Zavadsky, education officer at the Maryland National Guard, sees gender-neutral standards as an important part of the shift.
“If you’re going to have a female soldier that’s expected to do the same jobs as male soldiers, I think they should be willing and able to meet the same standard,” he said.
To Zavadsky that means decision-making on the ground should remain unchanged.
“Decisions are made based on the environment and not the individual soldiers who fall under your command,” he said.
Zavadsky expects the transition for the military in general, and the Guard specifically, to be smooth.
“I really don’t think it will be any issue in the future. It’s going to be a change from what we have now, but obviously as a soldier you’re trained to adapt to change in any environment,” he said.
Maryland representatives also weighed in on the Defense Department’s decision to lift the ban.
“America’s military is the greatest in the world and it has been made stronger today with the promise of equal opportunity for women and men,” Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said in a statement.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Mechanicsville, compared the move to the September 2011 repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy banning gays from serving in the military.
“Our military is made stronger when it welcomes the service of all brave Americans willing to fight for their country,” Hoyer said. “This is another step toward a fully inclusive military, and our nation will be better for it.”
Capital News Service
Joe Diamond says
Uh,
They don’t want to be SEALS. The idea is that the 120 pound female corpsman who stitched a wound in the field gets the CIB and isn’t blocked from promotion because of gender. That degrading of standards crap doesn’t fly. When the military needs people the standards lower to fill the ranks.
Joe
J.M.Blakeney says
Joe, First of all, Corpsman never recieve the CIB(cambat infantry badge). Secend they never do sutures in the field. Corpsman are NAVY, not Army! Third, all enlisted personnel take the same test for advancement, regardless of gender, and those who have a higher test score advance.
Now you are asking how do I know, very simple, I am a Corpsman, FMF as a matter of fact and I wouldn’t try explain any more.
Oh by the way, I served 4 1/2 years with the Marines, ’67-72.
Robert Sweetman says
Yup…What he says….
Joe Diamond says
J.M.
Sorry, I thought I got the terminology correct……I did look. AND I was never in the military. I have some skin in the game….my son is in the USAF as we speak. I attended way too many funerals for friends in the 60s and 70s who went to VietNam. My father and uncles fought in WWII….the CIB was invented for them. One uncle fought at Inchon………..got a medal for what he did with frozen enemy bodies!
So my position, without the illustration, is that the military has blocked various sources of ideas over the years. It has excluded segments of American society until dragged kicking and screaming into taking action. Captain Billy Mitchel suggested warships could be attacked from the air and they court martialed him. African Americans were relegated to ammunition hauling and truck driving because they were not for combat. Then the Tuskeegee Airmen showed this to be less than accurate. Harry Truman desegrated the military desegrate after that.
Since you guys have been in the military………………say you have not met a competent gay service member.
Now come the woman. Some are smart and competent but, as has been pointed out, they can’t haul heavy loads…maybe some can. But strength has never been the only requsit for being an officer or serving in combat. The women just ask for recognition of what has been the reality for these past years……..and to take down the barrier to career advancement related to serving as combat leaders.
Then there is the other thing…………us guys….you guys…..didn’t do so well protecting civilians in the past fifty years. Perhaps what is needed is a woman’s touch: : “Those are civilians and I don’t give a damn about body count…cease fire!” Too few officers in Viet nam said that……MR. J. M. 67-72. If you were there you could not have missed the civilian carnage. We shredded civilains and hid the record . Now we have predators and “collateral damage”. We are again pissing off the people who would ignor us or even help. Maybe women could do better.
Sorry about the terminology,
joe
J.M.Blakeney says
Joe,
First I want to say that I hope your son is not in harms way. I also have a nephew that is a pilot in the Air Force.
Yes there were things that went on back then, and no I did not witness any civilians being shot by Marines. As far as gays, we really didn’t go into who they were or what they did on their time. As far as I was concerned it they did their job they were just another Marine or Corpsman.
Now on to the women in combat. There were women who served in combat back then, even some who were wounded and were awarded medals for actions under fire. Could they do my job back then, I don’t think so, but thats my thought.
Oh, my Command Master Chief was an African American, one of the best I ever served with.
JMB
Joe Diamond says
JM,
The situation mis evolving. Our children and their children will get it right.
The VietNam civilian issue happened all over the country. But it was and still is a big place. People I know and trust were able to say, as you do, that my group was clear. And all would be telling the truth. My summary there is that more maturity and clear vision was required of the officer corp and it just was not present. The My Lai incident was a tragedy. The hero was a chopper pilot who landed and ordered his gunner to shoot Americans whowere firing into civilian groups. A woman could have done tin or an African American.
We were all eighteen and have all been scared……….I was never in the situation of the troops back then. My only point was and is we should not exclude any mature wisdom. When you get heavily armed teenagers without adult supervision bad things happen. I read recent accounts of the period and just shake.
My son does his best to help the pilots. But they go up, down, left right, forward and sometimes backward. He talks to satellites but won’t report what they tell him. He probably will share with pilots so all is well.
Semper Fi,
Joe
Robert Sweetman says
I’m totally against this…It’s nothing to do with Equality….It’s political correctness run amok. I have First hand experience in how all this will unfold…Plus, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently was quoted as saying the main reason that so many Sexual Assaults occur is because women aren’t allowed in combat !!?!?!?!?.. General Dempsey is a Tool…
Joe Diamond says
Good term Robert; ” POLITICAL CORRECTNESS RUN AMOK !
We have seen this before and it just won’t go away. For some reason we continue to confuse equality of status with equality of outcome. Then follows the legalisms that try to paper over physical realities. Instead of leveling of the value of military service it is the physical realities that are exposed to adjustment attempts. It has been done before and we can only hope things will find a balance once this latest adjustment hits the fan..
Also, really, a general officer, a director of military thought and action, found a relationship between sexual assault and women in combat? You are a nice man…..tool doesn’t begin to cover it.
Joe
Robert Sweetman says
Joe;
Back in late 1973 I was in the 1st Paratrooper class that allowed female candidates at Ft. Benning Georgia. We Had CBS news following them (and us) around during the entire 5 week training period. Their Physical Training requirements were watered down to half of what we (the males) had to perform. Needless to say, there was some consternation amongst the troops because of that. I believe today the PT requirements have been “evened” out somewhat.
I do beg to differ with you on your comment about them not wanting to be SEALS..There are some who DO want that, to Be Special Forces, Rangers, SEALS, Marine Recon, and Air Force Para Rescue. If they can abide to the adjustment to that lifestyle and Hardship, then by all means GO FOR IT! But they have to be fully aware & informed of the substandard of living and conduct which occur in active combat areas of operations, it’s not just the PT requirements.
Women can & do operate today in Combat Operations as Snipers, Fighter Jet & Helicopter Attack Pilots, Front line Combat Support and Medical occupations. There is no question as to their performance in today’s theater of Operations. The Question is how will they integrate into situations where they will be out in the “Boonies” for extended periods of time.
If were are going to do this, let it be in full equality, and not to fix some political absurdity. Maybe they need to look at how the Soviet women fared during their service in WWII, or the Israeli Army women of Today.
And Yes, you are right, I was being Nice about General Dempsey. I retired from the Department of Defense and have had the opportunity to serve under a number of the Chairmen of the JCS. Of all of them to date, Dempsey doesn’t climb to high on my “Win-O-Meter”…
Joe Diamond says
Paratrooper eh?….perfectly good airplane and you jumped out of it!
Gotta use the easy ones…..
I think as you correctly pointed out, those snake eaters have rigorous physical requirements because they are necessary. It is still going to be the rare female who can make it through the physical training. And that is as it should be. But as you know better than I, the ratio of combat participants to support troops is what? 30 to 1?
I think all this will go away as the military figures a way to integrate women into the force in ways that use their abilities. We are entering an era of military activity other than war. As the idea of front lines and rear (safe) areas disappears the notion of support troops (182nd Shower & Bath Batallion) being somehow any less important to the effort will also pass.
We can use all the smart people we can get. I don’t think automatic inclusion of any group will be the answer. Giving all access to being sorted couldn’t hurt.
Joe…………………..Poor pilot. How do you think they explained all his passengers jumping?