Women in Combat: Women's Lib at Last?

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mjackso6's picture

"Gilberd says there are common phrases in the military that speak to this: “If we wanted you to have a family, there would have been one in your duffle bag.” Or, “If we wanted you to have a wife, we would have issued you one.”- Excerpted from "Soldiers Are Being Forced to Choose Between Their Children And the Military, And They’re Paying the Price In Jailtime"

Yes, Soldiers were routinely told garbage like that back in the '70 and early '80's, maybe. After that, once the waves of 'kinder, gentler military' started around the beginning of the Clinton era, not so much. In fact, that particular phrase was often ridiculed and held up as a stark example of "the wrong thing to do" for most of my two decade hitch with the US Army.

Certainly there are problems with family care plans, single parents being the hardest to deal with, and some commands are more callous than others, but in my experience most leaders did their level best to try to make things work as well for everyone as possible. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of military leaders aren't cold, calculating killing machines, and the majority of us actually cared about our Soldiers and their families.

These days, I no longer believe that anyone should serve in what's become (if it was ever anything else) Uncle Sam's hit-squad, for more reasons than I can or should try to squeeze in here. Even so, I do not and never have favored any 'special' status for anyone in any job, regardless of how many 'X' chromosomes they carry. If a person is going to perform ~any~ job, then they had better be ~able~ to perform it, and if they ~are~ able to perform a job, there should be no barriers to them other than their own ability.

SSG(R) Michael B. Jackson
US Army Military Police (Retired)