Women in combat -- it's time U.S.

U.S. servicewomen are already serving in war zones. Pentagon policy needs to catch up.

Capt. Zoe Bedell of the Marine Corps, left active-duty service because her career had been limited. She is one of four servicewomen joining a lawsuit filed Nov. 27 challenging the Pentagon's policy excluding women from combat positions. (MCT)

When politicians pay tribute to members of the U.S. armed forces, they almost always refer to our "brave men and women," a recognition of the fact that women now constitute 14.5% of the nation's 1.4 million active-duty military personnel. But even though women are permitted to serve, the nature of their service is limited because Defense Department regulations exclude them from most combat positions, a policy that primarily affects the Army and Marine Corps.

That would change if four servicewomen who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan are successful in challenging the Pentagon policy. Their lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in San Francisco, persuasively argues that regulations barring women from combat violate their constitutional rights. The current version of the policy, with minor changes, dates to a memorandum in 1994 from then-Secretary of Defense Les Aspin that barred women from units whose primary mission was to engage in "direct combat on the ground." The directive also allowed for the exclusion of women from assignments "where job-related physical requirements would necessarily exclude the vast majority of women service members."

For example, one of the plaintiffs, Capt. Zoe Bedell, graduated at the top of her Marine Corps officer candidates class. In Afghanistan, she oversaw "female engagement teams" that accompanied male infantry units into the field. "My Marines supported infantry units," said Bedell, who is now a reservist. "They patrolled every day. They wore the same gear. They carried the same rifles. And when my Marines were attacked, they fought back."

In asking the courts to strike down the Pentagon regulations, the plaintiffs aren't proposing that the military compromise its physical requirements for service in combat or sacrifice readiness on the altar of sexual equality. They are not arguing that women shouldn't meet the same standards as men. But today's blanket exclusion makes it impossible for a woman to demonstrate that she possesses the necessary skills.

Read More: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-women-in-combat-lawsuit-20121203,0,1155484.story
U.S. servicewomen are already serving in war zones. Pentagon policy needs to catch up.
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Capt. Zoe Bedell of the Marine Corps, left active-duty service because her career had been limited. She is one of four servicewomen joining a lawsuit filed Nov. 27 challenging the Pentagon's policy excluding women from combat positions. (MCT)

When politicians pay tribute to members of the U.S. armed forces, they almost always refer to our "brave men and women," a recognition of the fact that women now constitute 14.5% of the nation's 1.4 million active-duty military personnel. But even though women are permitted to serve, the nature of their service is limited because Defense Department regulations exclude them from most combat positions, a policy that primarily affects the Army and Marine Corps.

That would change if four servicewomen who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan are successful in challenging the Pentagon policy. Their lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in San Francisco, persuasively argues that regulations barring women from combat violate their constitutional rights. The current version of the policy, with minor changes, dates to a memorandum in 1994 from then-Secretary of Defense Les Aspin that barred women from units whose primary mission was to engage in "direct combat on the ground." The directive also allowed for the exclusion of women from assignments "where job-related physical requirements would necessarily exclude the vast majority of women service members."

For example, one of the plaintiffs, Capt. Zoe Bedell, graduated at the top of her Marine Corps officer candidates class. In Afghanistan, she oversaw "female engagement teams" that accompanied male infantry units into the field. "My Marines supported infantry units," said Bedell, who is now a reservist. "They patrolled every day. They wore the same gear. They carried the same rifles. And when my Marines were attacked, they fought back."

In asking the courts to strike down the Pentagon regulations, the plaintiffs aren't proposing that the military compromise its physical requirements for service in combat or sacrifice readiness on the altar of sexual equality. They are not arguing that women shouldn't meet the same standards as men. But today's blanket exclusion makes it impossible for a woman to demonstrate that she possesses the necessary skills.

Read More: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-women-in-combat-lawsuit-20121203,0,1155484.story