Posted on May 27, 2015
Women in combat: Would you accept the idea of gender-specific combat units, such as all female units and all male units?
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I personally like the special comradiery that comes in all male / all female units. My wife still talks of her all female basic training unit and how great it was.
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 21
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SGT Anthony Rossi.
COME ON . . . REALLY NOW . . . YOU WANT COMRADERY . . . DON'T FORCE SEGREGATION ! ! !
The argument sounds a lot like the arguments made to enforce racial segregation in the military.
Warmest Regards, Sandy
COME ON . . . REALLY NOW . . . YOU WANT COMRADERY . . . DON'T FORCE SEGREGATION ! ! !
The argument sounds a lot like the arguments made to enforce racial segregation in the military.
Warmest Regards, Sandy
I know the Russians formed all women battalions in the First World War that were so ruthless that the opposing German units feared so much that some men refused to fight if they thought they were facing these women.
I know the Kurds are fielding all women units in their fight against ISIS/ISIL to great effect.
Being the only boy with four sisters, I think we should tread very carefully with this subject. War is terrible enough without unleashing all women unit on the World.
I know the Kurds are fielding all women units in their fight against ISIS/ISIL to great effect.
Being the only boy with four sisters, I think we should tread very carefully with this subject. War is terrible enough without unleashing all women unit on the World.
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SGT Anthony Rossi
However, none of the female units were ground units. I'm definitely for women as fighter pilots because they are not down in the carnage.
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MSG Brad Sand
SGT Rossi,
While it is true the US has not fielded female land combat units, this is not the case for the Russians, Kurds or Israelis. They are light infantry and the nice part of the Kurd...really Rojavan...units is that under the ISIS/ISIL soldiers consider their death at the hands of women a reason why they will not be allowed into Paradise.
While it is true the US has not fielded female land combat units, this is not the case for the Russians, Kurds or Israelis. They are light infantry and the nice part of the Kurd...really Rojavan...units is that under the ISIS/ISIL soldiers consider their death at the hands of women a reason why they will not be allowed into Paradise.
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SGT William Howell
MSG Brad Sand I see you have meet my wife! Thanks I need a chuckle to get me through that last part of the day!
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MSG Brad Sand
SGT William Howell
Unless you have pictures, I have never had nothing to do with your wife, if you have pictures...they were Photo-shopped?
Happy I could help lighten the day.
Unless you have pictures, I have never had nothing to do with your wife, if you have pictures...they were Photo-shopped?
Happy I could help lighten the day.
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Military units do not exist to create camaraderie, nor to provide a "great" experience.
They exist to persuade, by force of arms if necessary, unfriendly folks to accept our definition of How Things Should Be.
Units which are consistently successful at accomplishing that purpose tend to have high levels of self-esteem and camraderie. They also tend to produce a lot of filled graves and broken bodies.
For a historical example of the cost of becoming a "Band of Brothers", 52 members of the now-famous E Company 2/506th PIR were reported as killed in action during the 11 months between D Day and VE Day. That's a pretty stiff price to pay if all you're looking for is a sense of belonging.
They exist to persuade, by force of arms if necessary, unfriendly folks to accept our definition of How Things Should Be.
Units which are consistently successful at accomplishing that purpose tend to have high levels of self-esteem and camraderie. They also tend to produce a lot of filled graves and broken bodies.
For a historical example of the cost of becoming a "Band of Brothers", 52 members of the now-famous E Company 2/506th PIR were reported as killed in action during the 11 months between D Day and VE Day. That's a pretty stiff price to pay if all you're looking for is a sense of belonging.
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SGT Anthony Rossi
If one is not willing to die for a cause along side their closest friends than they are not really living. The measure of ones life is often judged on what he or she is willing to die for. My commitment to my brothers in Arms is worth my life. It's based on the knowledge they were willing to die for me! Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. -John 15:13
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Suspended Profile
SGT Anthony Rossi. No amount of comradely or sense of belonging is worth the death of a colleague. That said - I understand what you are saying. The Vietnam war was a time when my hands made more difference in triage, pre-op, surgery, and post-op for more patients than any time subsequent in life - and I would do anything I can for my team. My satisfaction comes from being part of a team that made a difference in lives of others. This is still a fundamental part of my identity and sense of self worth today - the memory of when and how we made a difference in so many places over so many years - in both nursing and other fields with no immediate reward but longer term international results. Warmest Regards, Sandy
1LT William Clardy
SGT Anthony Rossi, I'm sorry I didn't notice your response sooner, but you and I definitely have different values. Whether or not I am willing to die for a cause is unrelated to who will be with me while I'd be doing the dying. Nor do I buy into the adrenaline-junkie mantra that you can't be living if you're not willing to die -- that's too much like saying you can't enjoy sex unless you're willing to become celibate.
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SGT Anthony Rossi
1LT William Clardy - thanks for responding to my comment. Have a great Mother's Day weekend.
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p.s. We often forget the Vietnam war was 2/3 volunteers . . . not entirely clear to me (beyond professional medical practitioners) why we needed a deeply divisive male draft to effectively fight this war. Why didn't we limit our total commitment to exclusively volunteer troops?
Also, when men outnumbered women 1000:1 in Vietnam . . . I felt safer sleeping in a gender segregated unit . . . so there are limited circumstances segregation works . . . however absent this kind of extreme circumstance . . . I am against any segregation on any basis.
Num 1:2 Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;
Num 1:3 From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.