Having spent 25 years in the Army and deployed to war several times, I feel I can speak with authority on women's roles in the military. I don't believe women should be allowed to serve in combat arms military occupational specialties i.e. Infantry.
Women do not have the upper body strength men do. The body armor we wore while I was in both Iraq and Afghanistan weighs more than 50lbs. Now add to that a ruck sack the Infantrymen wear on their back containing food, water, as well as a lot of ammunition and you are carrying another 65 lbs easy. That's 115 lbs of weight on your upper body.
There's also the hygiene issue. During training exercises where we would stay two weeks or more in the field living in tents and sleeping on the ground; regulations required us to send the women nightly to showering points because they were more subject to infections and illness.
I agree with the statement made Panetta only approved women serving in combat roles to make a name for himself on his way out as SecDef. Though he said women would have to meet the same physical standards as men to be in these combat roles, I see the standards being lowered to make it easier for them to gain entry.
I'm not saying in the least that no women could make it by meeting the same standards established for men; I'm saying way to many would fail in their attempts and politicians (mostly from the left) would force the military to lower the standards to gain votes from women.
There has been instances where women have proven themselves under combat. SGT Leigh Ann Hester of the 617th Military Police Company, a National Guard unit out of Richmond, Ky., received the Silver Star, along with two other members of her unit, for their actions during an enemy ambush on their convoy in Iraq.
SPC Monica Brown, a medic in the Army received the Silver Star for valor in Afghanistan. A vehicle in her convoy was hit with an IED and five soldiers in it were wounded, two of them seriously. She moved to the vehicle under intense small arms fire and moved the two seriously wounded soldiers away from the burning vehicle. She went for one and then returned for the other.
Though I gave two examples of heroism in combat by two women soldiers, they were a rarity, an exception to the rule. I served with lots of women in Desert Storm, Iraq, and Afghanistan and I can tell you the vast majority of them would have never made it as an Infantryman.
Now look at the odds of a male soldier making it through the selection course for Special Forces. Less than 10% of those who go through the selection process make it to be accepted in the Special Forces Qualification Course. The selection process alone is very physically demanding. The Q course is even tougher. If women were required to meet the same physical standards as men to just be accepted into the Q Course, it would be extremely rare for one to succeed and this would look like a failure and unacceptable to those politicians from the left.
In summary, not only was it a mistake for Panetta to open this door for women, but it will eventually lead to the lowering of standards to allow women in.
