Musing on Gender Integration in the Military with Simone de Beauvoir - War on the Rocks

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel always great to read about, solid share my friend.

Brings back memories of female crewchiefs first sitting SAC Alert. Needless to say an alert facility wasn't set up for females living in them. Took some major procedure changes before the physical accommodations were available. I'm sure you experienced the same in the Navy.

Aside from my own experience in Vietnam over 52 years ago I find it hard to comprehend why a woman would volunteer to engage in the unrelenting horrors of infantry combat. Perhaps women are trying to demonstrate that their capacity for blood curdling violence is equal to that of men. The only females I observed in Vietnam were Vietnamese or American nurses and Doughnut Dollies who visited the 9th ID base camp in Dong Tam. Perhaps women should interview Vietnam combat veterans and catch a glimpse of how emotionally and physically eviscerating close quarters fighting can be and also risk capture and rape afterwards. I have concluded that would be female warriors are attempting to overturn the Darwinian hierarchy by proving they can achieve parity with males and perform as aggressively and proficiently as Audie Murphy. It is hard for me to imagine women on Omaha beach, Tarawa, Hurtgen Forest, the battle of the Bulge, Pellilue, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Ia Drang, Dak To, the Hill Battles and Tet. These female candidates for violent death should read "With the Old Breed" and familiarize themselves with the staggering bloodletting that ensues when combatants are trying their best to annihilate each other. I have met countless young women in my academic career who prefer to carry a stethoscope rather than grenades and an automatic rifle. The helping professions are more suitable for a woman to exercise her altruistic inclinations rather than wasting them on misbegotten battlefields where she will simply be another piece of expendable cannon fodder. SPC Benjamin