Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)
December 3, 2006
By Sharon Cohen, Associated Press
A goodwill mission to deliver kerosene heaters to Iraqi schools erupts into the fiery chaos of a roadside bombing — and Maj. Mary Prophit shields a comrade so he can rescue a critically burned Iraqi soldier.
A convoy outside Baghdad is ambushed by machine-gun- wielding Iraqi insurgents — and Spc. Ashley Pullen races down a road to help an injured sergeant.
A Black Hawk helicopter is struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq — and co-pilot Tammy Duckworth, bloody and severely wounded, struggles to stay conscious until the damaged aircraft is down and her crew is safe.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, women warriors are writing a new chapter in military history, serving by the tens of thousands, fending off enemy fire and taking on — and succeeding in — high-profile roles in the battlefield and the skies as never before.
"The American public is beginning to realize that women are playing an equal part in this war and that they are facing the same risks," says Duckworth, who lost both legs in the 2004 insurgent attack.
More than 155,000 women have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002, according to the Pentagon, nearly four times the number during the Persian Gulf War. Females now account for 15 percent of the active duty force.
The number of women casualties — 68 dead and more than 430 injured — represents a tiny fraction of the total.
Still, by one estimate, the deaths exceed the number of military women who lost their lives in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War combined.
There is no shared experience that binds together the women of war. Each has a different story, a reason why they're in uniform, an explanation of how their lives have changed.
Few have been high profile
Almost all serve anonymously, though a few have captured headlines back home, most notably Jessica Lynch.
The former prisoner of war rocketed onto the nation's TV screens when she was portrayed as a guns-blazing, all-American heroine — a depiction she herself disavowed.
But Lynch's job — Army supply clerk in a maintenance company — illustrates one reality of the war: No place is safe.
As the insurgency took hold, that became even more apparent. Front lines don't exist.
Combat troops still face the heaviest losses, and although women are mostly in support roles, a mortar or bomb can strike anywhere.
"I don't think the general public really sees what females are doing over there," says Capt. Mary Caruso, who served two tours in Iraq, one as a platoon leader in the 194th Military Police Company. "We don't have a linear battlefield anymore. The enemy's everywhere."
Women are barred from units assigned to direct ground combat — the infantry, armor and artillery, for example. While many remain in traditional jobs, such as health care, they've also served as translators, commanded companies and flown jet fighters.
They've been heroes, too.
In the Kentucky National Guard's 617th Military Police Company, Army Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester became the first woman since World War II to win the Silver Star for her heroism in a battle against insurgents.
Spc. Ashley Pullen, also in the company, received a Bronze Star for valor, risking her life to help save a wounded soldier in the same incident.
"We now know women can hold their own, they're brave, they do have the physical and mental stamina to face combat-like situations," says retired Navy Capt. Lory Manning, director of the Women in the Military Project at the Women's Research and Education Institute in Washington, D.C.
Some still question their role
Though women are widely viewed as essential with the nation's fighting forces stretched thin and they perform jobs off-limits to men for cultural reasons — searching Iraqi females, for instance — there still are critics.
"Engaging the enemy in this uncivilized thing we call war is a job for men, not women," Kate O'Beirne, a conservative pundit and Washington editor of the National Review, said in a radio interview this spring.
The Center for Military Readiness, a conservative think tank, contends the Army has ignored its rules that prevent female soldiers from being in units that "physically collocate and remain with" ground combat troops.
Elaine Donnelly, the center's president, says that creates the potential for romantic involvement, morale problems and physical hazards. "Cohesion is what lives depend on," she says.
Last year, some members of Congress tried to curb the role of women in combat zones but retreated after running into opposition from the Pentagon and lawmakers from both parties.
Capt. Christine Roney was tangled in the debate in 2004 when she was about to take command of a forward support company that would accompany a combat battalion.
She says she was told several male captains fired off e-mails to members of Congress and the Center for Military Readiness opposing the move.
When plans changed and a man took command, Roney says she was disappointed at first, then reconsidered. "I probably did think having a female would have been disruptive in some sense," she says.
Roney, who ended up commanding a logistics company that conducted more than 500 missions in the streets of Baghdad, thinks gender walls will crumble as more women and men work together.
"Sometimes," she says, "they need to get females in the unit to see they have some of the same abilities, the same competencies as the male soldiers."
That already has happened.
Capt. Tara Stiles was a platoon leader in the 194th Military Police Company supporting the First Marine Expeditionary Force. She says that after some initial reservations, "they'd rather have my platoon versus one of the others led by males. … They needed their backs covered and we were there. And vice versa."
December 3, 2006
By Sharon Cohen, Associated Press
A goodwill mission to deliver kerosene heaters to Iraqi schools erupts into the fiery chaos of a roadside bombing — and Maj. Mary Prophit shields a comrade so he can rescue a critically burned Iraqi soldier.
A convoy outside Baghdad is ambushed by machine-gun- wielding Iraqi insurgents — and Spc. Ashley Pullen races down a road to help an injured sergeant.
A Black Hawk helicopter is struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq — and co-pilot Tammy Duckworth, bloody and severely wounded, struggles to stay conscious until the damaged aircraft is down and her crew is safe.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, women warriors are writing a new chapter in military history, serving by the tens of thousands, fending off enemy fire and taking on — and succeeding in — high-profile roles in the battlefield and the skies as never before.
"The American public is beginning to realize that women are playing an equal part in this war and that they are facing the same risks," says Duckworth, who lost both legs in the 2004 insurgent attack.
More than 155,000 women have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002, according to the Pentagon, nearly four times the number during the Persian Gulf War. Females now account for 15 percent of the active duty force.
The number of women casualties — 68 dead and more than 430 injured — represents a tiny fraction of the total.
Still, by one estimate, the deaths exceed the number of military women who lost their lives in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War combined.
There is no shared experience that binds together the women of war. Each has a different story, a reason why they're in uniform, an explanation of how their lives have changed.
Few have been high profile
Almost all serve anonymously, though a few have captured headlines back home, most notably Jessica Lynch.
The former prisoner of war rocketed onto the nation's TV screens when she was portrayed as a guns-blazing, all-American heroine — a depiction she herself disavowed.
But Lynch's job — Army supply clerk in a maintenance company — illustrates one reality of the war: No place is safe.
As the insurgency took hold, that became even more apparent. Front lines don't exist.
Combat troops still face the heaviest losses, and although women are mostly in support roles, a mortar or bomb can strike anywhere.
"I don't think the general public really sees what females are doing over there," says Capt. Mary Caruso, who served two tours in Iraq, one as a platoon leader in the 194th Military Police Company. "We don't have a linear battlefield anymore. The enemy's everywhere."
Women are barred from units assigned to direct ground combat — the infantry, armor and artillery, for example. While many remain in traditional jobs, such as health care, they've also served as translators, commanded companies and flown jet fighters.
They've been heroes, too.
In the Kentucky National Guard's 617th Military Police Company, Army Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester became the first woman since World War II to win the Silver Star for her heroism in a battle against insurgents.
Spc. Ashley Pullen, also in the company, received a Bronze Star for valor, risking her life to help save a wounded soldier in the same incident.
"We now know women can hold their own, they're brave, they do have the physical and mental stamina to face combat-like situations," says retired Navy Capt. Lory Manning, director of the Women in the Military Project at the Women's Research and Education Institute in Washington, D.C.
Some still question their role
Though women are widely viewed as essential with the nation's fighting forces stretched thin and they perform jobs off-limits to men for cultural reasons — searching Iraqi females, for instance — there still are critics.
"Engaging the enemy in this uncivilized thing we call war is a job for men, not women," Kate O'Beirne, a conservative pundit and Washington editor of the National Review, said in a radio interview this spring.
The Center for Military Readiness, a conservative think tank, contends the Army has ignored its rules that prevent female soldiers from being in units that "physically collocate and remain with" ground combat troops.
Elaine Donnelly, the center's president, says that creates the potential for romantic involvement, morale problems and physical hazards. "Cohesion is what lives depend on," she says.
Last year, some members of Congress tried to curb the role of women in combat zones but retreated after running into opposition from the Pentagon and lawmakers from both parties.
Capt. Christine Roney was tangled in the debate in 2004 when she was about to take command of a forward support company that would accompany a combat battalion.
She says she was told several male captains fired off e-mails to members of Congress and the Center for Military Readiness opposing the move.
When plans changed and a man took command, Roney says she was disappointed at first, then reconsidered. "I probably did think having a female would have been disruptive in some sense," she says.
Roney, who ended up commanding a logistics company that conducted more than 500 missions in the streets of Baghdad, thinks gender walls will crumble as more women and men work together.
"Sometimes," she says, "they need to get females in the unit to see they have some of the same abilities, the same competencies as the male soldiers."
That already has happened.
Capt. Tara Stiles was a platoon leader in the 194th Military Police Company supporting the First Marine Expeditionary Force. She says that after some initial reservations, "they'd rather have my platoon versus one of the others led by males. … They needed their backs covered and we were there. And vice versa."