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Article Excerpt
INTRODUCTION
I. CURRENT CONTEXT OF THE DEBATE ON WOMEN IN GROUND COMBAT A. Nature of Current Warfare B. Women's Performance in Iraq and Afghanistan C. Army Transformation D. Recruiting Challenges II. HISTORY OF U.S. LAW AND POLICY AND WOMEN'S ROLES IN THE MILITARY III. ANALYSIS OF THE GROUND COMBAT EXCLUSION POLICY A. Physical Strength 1. Military effectiveness requires that we pick the best qualified person for the job, regardless of gender 2. This argument was used to keep women out of fighter aircraft in the early 1990s and proved to be wrong 3. All relevant qualities should be considered 4. The author's personal experience B. Cohesion 1. Military cohesion is based on people uniting for a common mission or purpose, not based on the group consisting of a common race, creed, or gender 2. Cohesion is a leadership issue 3. This argument was used to keep all women out of fighter aircraft in the early 1990s and was proven wrong 4. The author's personal experience C. Women Just Don't "Belong" In Combat 1. Polls 2. Body bags 3. POWs IV. GENDER ISSUES AND POLICIES THAT DEGRADE COMBAT EFFECTIVENESS A. Pregnancy B. Double Standards 1. Basic Training 2. Uniforms 3. Double standards that demean or patronize female warriors 4. Selective Service registration V. POLICY AND LEGISLATIVE RECOMMENDATIONS A. Rescind the Collocation Policy B. Adopt Gender-Neutral Criteria for Assignments C. Rescind the Ground Combat Exclusion Policy D. Rescind the Policy that Permits Servicewomen to Avoid their Commitments Due to Pregnancy E. Eliminate Double Standards F. Amend the Military Selective Service Act to Include Women CONCLUSION APPENDIX A APPENDIX B
INTRODUCTION
In January 2005, during an interview with The Washington Times regarding the war in Iraq and recent transformations within the Army, President Bush stated: "There's no change of policy as far as I'm concerned. No women in combat." (1) Technically, the policy has not changed, but in reality, the nation's policy has not survived contact with the enemy. As Commander-in-Chief, the President has engaged military power in the war against terrorism on a global scale, and the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have engulfed both men and women in combat.
Operations ENDURING FREEDOM (Afghanistan) and IRAQI FREEDOM (Iraq) are the first major combat operations since hundreds of thousands of new positions in the military were opened to women in the 1990s. Women have deployed and fought as fighter, bomber, attack, and helicopter pilots in all the services, in ground combat support positions, and aboard combat and support Navy and Coast Guard vessels. According to the Department of Defense (DoD), in May 2006, 10,100 women were deployed to Iraq, and 1900 women were deployed to Afghanistan, constituting eight percent of the total force. (2) In total, over 155,000 women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002. (3)
American women have fought and served in every U.S. war, beginning with the Revolutionary War. Today, there are over 198,000 women in the active duty military, constituting 14.5% of the active force. (4) Women are integral members of the armed forces, serving as Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, and they are here to stay. Yet despite women's accomplishments throughout history, and most recently in the War on Terror, DoD policy still prohibits women from serving in approximately 200,000 positions in the military. (5)
In this Article, I will answer the following question: "Should women continue to be prohibited from serving in 'ground combat' units based only on their gender?" The answer I provide begins by placing today's policy into context, summarizing the major laws and policies related to women in the military, and reviewing the history of the expanding roles of women in the military. I then analyze the ground combat exclusion policy and discuss some of the gender-related DoD policies that, in my opinion, hinder the full integration of women into the military as respected warriors. Finally, I provide some policy and legislative recommendations to further increase American military effectiveness.
I had the privilege of being one of the first women to become a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force (USAF) and the first woman in U.S. history to fly a fighter aircraft into combat. In June 2006, I completed a tour as the first woman to command a combat aviation squadron, during which I led my A-10 fighter squadron into combat in Afghanistan in 2005. (6) My assignment as a female frontline warrior and the highest-ranking female combat pilot in the USAF enables me to view this issue from both an experiential and a leadership perspective. My personal experiences as a combat pilot and military commander frame my analysis.
I. CURRENT CONTEXT OF THE DEBATE ON WOMEN IN GROUND COMBAT
DoD's most recent version of the "ground combat exclusion policy" was established in 1994. The DoD policy states:
Service members are eligible to be assigned to all positions for which they are qualified, except that women shall be excluded from assignment to units below the brigade level whose primary mission is to engage in direct combat on the ground.... (7)
The policy goes on to define "direct combat" as
engaging an enemy on the ground with individual or crew served weapons, while being exposed to hostile fire and to a high probability of direct physical contact with hostile force's personnel. Direct ground combat takes place well forward on the battlefield while locating and closing with the enemy to defeat them by fire, maneuver, and shock effect. (8)
The policy then adds these additional restrictions:
These policies and regulations may include the following restrictions on the assignment of women:
* Where the Service Secretary attests that the costs of appropriate berthing and privacy arrangements are prohibitive;
* Where units and positions are doctrinally required to physically collocate and remain with direct ground combat units that are closed to women;
* Where units are engaged in long range reconnaissance operations and Special Operations Forces missions; and
* Where job related physical requirements would necessarily exclude the vast majority of women service members. (9)
This policy translates into the exclusion of women from infantry, tank (armor), and artillery units below the brigade level in the Army and Marine Corps, Navy submarines and other ships with close quarters, and Special Forces units in all the service branches. (10) Additionally, as a matter of policy, women are excluded from serving in support units that collocate with any of these ground combat units. This particular restriction, referred to as the "collocation policy," is one of the most contentious in the current War on Terror. (11)
In Spring 2005, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Cal.), then Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), and Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.), then Chairman of the HASC Subcommittee on Military Personnel, introduced a no-notice amendment to the 2006 Defense Authorization Bill that, if passed, would have codified a ground combat exclusion for the first time in U.S. history and prohibited women from serving in Army forward support companies. This move gained immediate public attention and provoked strong objections from Army leadership, DoD leadership, and many members of Congress. According to The Washington Post, Army Lt. Gen. James L. Campbell, Director of the Army Staff, quickly delivered a letter to ranking Democrat Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) stating that, if the amendment passed, "a total of 21,925 spaces currently open for assignment to female soldiers would be closed." (12) Retired General Gordon Sullivan, former Army Chief of Staff and President of the Association of the United States Army, also wrote a letter to the House Armed Services Committee stating that the amendment would be "confusing" (13) and "detrimental to units." (14) In the end, McHugh and Hunter's efforts were thwarted; the final amendment was a significant compromise. It mandated that the DoD notify Congress of any opening or closing of positions or units under the ground combat exclusion policy that came into effect on October 1, 1994. However, it also mandated notification of any change that opened or closed any career fields related to military operations on the ground after May 18, 2005. (15) This requirement was unprecedented because Congress had previously wanted notification only on changes to ground combat positions, and not on all career fields related to military operations on the ground (which includes essentially all Army and Marine positions). The amendment represented significant Congressional oversight of military personnel matters.
The debate on whether women should serve in "ground combat" continues, and the issue will likely be revisited by Congress and the DoD. Policymakers should take into consideration the nature of current warfare, women's performance in Iraq and Afghanistan, the transformation of the Army, and the challenges of recruiting in wartime for an all-volunteer force.
A. Nature of Current Warfare
In wars like those in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is no "forward area" on the battlefield. Today's battlefield is non-linear and occurs in a 360-degree radius around the troops. Despite the ground combat exclusion policy, women are serving in real ground combat every day. They are vulnerable to being injured, killed, or captured; they are being shot at in ambushes and hit by improvised explosive devices (IEDs); they are employing their weapons and killing the enemy. Indeed, in the words of James Wise, Jr., and Scott Baron in the preface of their new book Women at War, "[t]he insurgency war in Iraq, which has no front lines, has made the debate regarding women in combat irrelevant." (16) Or as Lt. Dawn Halfaker, an Army military police officer who lost her right arm during a rocket-propelled grenade attack while on a reconnaissance mission in Iraq, put it: "Women in combat is not really an issue. It is happening. Everyone pretty much acknowledges there are no rear battle areas, no forward line of troops." (17)
Based on the current policy, women serve as gunners on truck convoys and as security forces or military police on patrol in the streets of Baghdad, but they cannot be assigned to multiple-launcher rocket system positions. They are vital to conducting searches at checkpoints in Iraq, a site of many insurgent attacks, since there would be strategic consequences if American men searched Iraqi women. Yet, they cannot serve in reconstruction efforts as combat engineers. Paradoxically, women fly Apache helicopters and kill the enemy while facing a high risk of being shot down, but they are prohibited from flying special operations helicopters. The policy excludes women from being in ground units that have an offensive capability, but they can be in units that can and do fight in a defensive posture. This is reminiscent of earlier restrictions for women pilots, who could fly helicopters, tankers, reconnaissance, and cargo aircraft into enemy territory at risk of being shot down, but could not fly aircraft that could shoot back.
Trying to restrict women to defensive positions to avoid the risk of combat is ineffective in protecting women from the dangers of war. (18) As of February 12, 2007, seventy-five U.S. military women had been killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan, (19) and two had been captured as Prisoners of War (POWs). (20) As of December 2, 2006, more than 430 women have been wounded in battle. (21) The military is now training all troops in basic combat skills, since recent war experiences indicate that anyone can find himself or herself in close combat, regardless of whether they are specifically assigned to "combat" or "combat support" units. Women are already in ground combat, and they are showing impressive results. (22)
B. Women's Performance in Iraq and Afghanistan
Policy discussions must consider the performance of women in recent conflict. Women are displaying great courage and skill in ambushes, firefights, and battles on the ground. They are not just surviving, but earning medals for valor in combat. On March 20, 2005, Army Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester was in a convoy of twenty-six vehicles that came under enemy ambush by fifty insurgents. (23) Sgt. Hester "led her team through the 'kill zone' and into a flanking position, where she assaulted a trench line with grenades and M203 grenade-launcher rounds. Sgt. Hester killed at least three insurgents" (24) and was awarded the Silver Star for her bravery under fire. In 2003, Army Airborne Capt. Kellie McCoy earned a Bronze Star with a combat "V" for Valor for her actions in Fallujah: (25) "Leading a patrol that got ambushed and took casualties, she hopped up into the Humvee's machine gun turret, killed a couple of the attackers, then led her men to safety." (26) As of December 18, 2006, the Army had awarded women warriors one Silver Star, seven Bronze Stars with Valor, thirteen Air Medals with Valor, and sixty-eight Army Commendation medals with Valor. (27)
C. Army Transformation
The discussion of the ground combat exclusion policy is complicated by a significant transformation in Army organization and warfighting concepts. The Army is now transforming to a modular organization of Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) in an effort to become a lighter, leaner, more agile force. (28) In this new organization, the current combat restrictions for women are harder to comply with without closing a significant number of positions now open to women. The Army is delicately dealing with this issue by assigning all forward support companies (FSCs) to the brigade level in the BCT construct in order to stay within the letter of the collocation policy. This Army decision motivated the 2005 Hunter-McHugh Amendment, elicited criticism that the Army is circumventing the DoD policy and Congressional notification requirements, and sparked the recent debate on the ground combat exclusion policy. (29)
D. Recruiting Challenges
Finally, policy discussions concerning the ground combat exclusion for women must factor recruiting into the dialogue. Maintaining recruiting quality in the All-Volunteer Force during wartime has been a challenge for the Army in particular. New enlisted recruits take an Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) which measures their overall aptitude. Recruits earn a percentile score of one to ninety-nine and are placed into one of six categories: I (scoring 93-99); II (65-92); IIIA (50-64); IIIB (31-49); W (10-30); or V (1-9). (30) Category V recruits are ineligible for service. (31) Since 1991, the DoD capped Category IV recruits at two percent of the total. (32) The DoD also desires that ninety percent of recruits have high school diplomas. (33) Finally, although the DoD accepts recruits with criminal records, medical issues, or drug and alcohol problems via a waiver process, it desires to minimize these numbers.
The Army's recruiting difficulties can be seen in changes to these indicators. In 2004, ninety-two percent of Army recruits graduated from high school, 0.6% were in Category IV, (34) and twelve percent required waivers for criminal offenses, drug or alcohol-related violations, or medical conditions. (35) In 2005, the Army fell short of its recruiting goals for the first time since 1979. (36) In order to meet subsequent goals, the DoD raised the Category IV cap to four percent in 2005. (37) In fiscal year 2006, the Army met its overall recruiting goal. (38) However, only 81.2% of Army recruits graduated from high school, (39) 3.7% were in Category IV, (40) and seventeen percent required waivers. (41) The Army has struggled to recruit adequate numbers of high-quality personnel, which will be more of a challenge if the Army end strength is increased by 65,000 troops, as requested by Secretary of Defense Gates in January 2007. (42) These manpower challenges sparked recent proposals to reinstitute the draft. However, utilizing all volunteers, including both men and women, to maximize flexibility and capability should be considered prior to abandoning the All-Volunteer Force established thirty-four years ago.
The realities of current combat, the performance of women in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army transformation, and the challenges of meeting recruiting goals in an all-volunteer force provide the context for discussing and analyzing the ground combat exclusion policy. In order to fully analyze the current restrictions on women in combat, one must be familiar with how and why relevant law and policy evolved. Laws and policies on women in the military reflect issues of military readiness as well as a complex set of attitudes, emotions, culture, and politics about whether women "could" or "should" serve in certain roles.
II. HISTORY OF U.S. LAW AND POLICY AND WOMEN'S ROLES IN THE MILITARY (43)
During the Revolutionary War, American women served on the battlefield as cooks, nurses, water-bearers, laundresses, and spies. Margaret Corbin and Deborah Sampson were the most well-known women who fought in the Revolutionary War. Corbin took over her husband's artillery position after he was killed in the battle of Fort Washington; she was later wounded herself. She was the first woman in America to receive a military pension for her service. (44) Sampson disguised herself as a man and served for three years, fighting in many battles before she was hospitalized and discovered to be a woman. She was quietly discharged.
In the Civil War, many women fought on both sides by disguising themselves as men. Women also served in the traditional roles as nurses, cooks, and laundresses, and were used as spies, couriers, and saboteurs: "They blew up bridges, cut telegraph wires, burned arsenals and warehouses, and helped prisoners and slaves escape." (45) The most famous military servicewoman of the Civil War was Dr. Mary Walker, who is still the only woman to be awarded the nation's highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Walker, a medical doctor with the Union Army, served in several major battles and was eventually captured and held as a POW.
During the Spanish-American War, Congress authorized the contracting of female nurses to support the war due to typhoid fever epidemics among the troops and the shortage of medical personnel. Although these nurses were not given military status, over 1500 women served in the United States, overseas, and on hospital ships. (46) Twenty women died while serving in the war, mostly of typhoid fever. (47) As a result of the service of these women, Congress authorized a permanent Army Nurse Corps in 1901 and a Navy Nurse Corps in 1908.
In World War I, nearly 23,000 women served as nurses at home and overseas. (48) Women also served as yeomen and clerks on the home front, in addition to serving as contract telephone operators and stenographers in Europe. Thirty-four thousand women served in uniform by the end of the war, (49) and four hundred U.S. women died while serving their country--despite not yet having obtained the right to vote: (50) "Many Army nurses were decorated, including three who received the Distinguished Service Medal, a combat medal second to the Medal of Honor." (51) After the war, all women except nurses were discharged, and laws were passed to prevent their further enlistment. (52)
Women's roles in the military in World War II (WWII) were unprecedented, and their performance laid the foundation for the formal integration of women into the U.S. armed forces after the war. After the attack at Pearl Harbor, Congress established the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and then the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), a Navy auxiliary, (53) but the law forbade women from serving overseas. (54) In 1943, at Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Marshall's urging, Congress passed a law upgrading the WAAC to the Women's Army Corps (WAC), giving women in the Army a full military status, which included service overseas. (55) Women also served in uniform as part of the Women's Medical Specialist Corps (WMSC), Marine Corps Women's Reserve, Coast Guard SPARs (from the motto Semper Paratus meaning always ready), and Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs). (56) Over 400,000 women served in WWII (57)--eighty-five were POWs (58) and more than 500 women lost their lives in service, sixteen of whom were killed in action. (59) Although not trained to fight, be under fire, or be POWs, many women demonstrated courage in all theaters during this war. For example, six Army nurses were killed and four were awarded the Silver Star for extraordinary courage under fire following the bombing and strafing of the hospital tents during the battle at Anzio. (60)
The U.S. struggled with the limits of women's roles in WWII. The country trained the WASPs to fly all aircraft in the inventory as ferry pilots, to train male pilots, and to tow planes for anti-aircraft (AA) gunner training, but the U.S. would not allow women to fly in combat like Russian women did. (61) After the British began to train and utilize women to operate AA guns, Gen. Marshall directed a secret experiment to see if American women could fill these positions. "The experiment stunned the general staff: the mixed gender units performed better than all-male units." (62) The Commander of the experimental units, Col. Timberlake and his superior, Maj. Gen. Lewis, were enthusiastic about the performance of the women and asked Gen. Marshall to allow them to replace "half of the 3630 men in his AA Defense Command with these more efficient soldiers." (63) Gen. Marshall deliberated with his staff and, based on his difficulty in obtaining approval from Congress to upgrade the WAAC to full military status, gave heavy consideration to the prevailing political climate. As a result, Marshall decided to terminate the experiment. "General Russell Reynolds, Director of the Military Personnel Division, summarized the Army Staff's consensus to eliminate the anti-aircraft experiment before Congress got wind of it: 'It is not believed that national policy or public opinion is yet ready to accept the use of women in field force units.'" (64)
Almost all women were rapidly demobilized after WWII. However, the 1948 Women's Armed Services Integration Act (65) formally integrated women into the peacetime military for the first time in history. The Act limited women's service in uniform by capping the number of women allowed (two percent of the total force), the number of officers, and the permanent rank they could achieve (lieutenant colonel). (66) The Act also prohibited women from serving on all Navy ships (except hospital and transport ships) (67) or in "combat aircraft." (68) The Act did not specifically prohibit women from serving in combat positions on the ground, although that was clearly Congress's intent: "Because the Army was unable to come up with an adequate, acceptable definition of combat, Congress elected to leave this matter to be sorted out by the Secretary of the Army so long as he clearly understood the intent of the Congress, which was no combat for women." (69)
Many women who served in WWII hoped that the 1948 Integration Act would serve as a springboard for increased integration and equality for women in the military in the future. Instead, women's roles in the military in the 1950s and 1960s reflected women's struggle to be accepted outside their traditional roles. Physical appearance became an important criterion for selection. Women were expected to uphold a feminine image, and women did not receive weapons training. At the start of the Korean conflict, 22,000 women were on active duty performing mostly administrative, medical, communications, or intelligence work. (70) Some "[s]ervicewomen who had joined the Reserves following...
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