Pentagon to allow women to serve near front lines

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer 9:17 AM Friday, February 10, 2012

The Pentagon said Thursday it will open more battlefield jobs to women, placing them closer to war’s front lines, but two women who have served in the Air Force said female troops have demonstrated that no restrictions are necessary.

Colleen Ryan, a retired base commander of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and state Rep. Connie Pillich, D-Montgomery, said they believe women can do everything men can do in the military, given the same training and equipment. “Women have been serving on the front lines for years,” Pillich said.

“I think it’s long past due for the Pentagon and Congress to eliminate the combat-exclusive policy,” said Pillich, who served eight years in the Air Force as a communications electronics officer and later a recruiter, including duties in support of the Persian Gulf War and the run-up to that conflict.

Ryan, a former Air Force navigator whose 26-year career ended with her retirement as the 88th Air Base Wing’s commander at Wright-Patterson in 2008, said women are equally capable as men in handling military assignments. But Ryan said she isn’t sure that society is comfortable yet with lifting all restrictions on female deployments in war zones.

“I think America still has problems sending our mothers and daughters off to war, knowing that they’re going to be involved in combat,” Ryan said.

The Defense Department said it will open positions to women at the battalion level in select direct ground combat units and specific occupations. The changes take effect late this spring, unless Congress acts to block them.

The changes will most directly affect women in the Army and to a lesser extent the Marine Corps and Navy, opening their access to specialties including tank mechanic and field artillery radar operator, officials said.

All told, it will open an additional 14,325 positions to women, the government said.

The Pentagon said it is changing rules in place since 1994 that prohibited assigning women to units that operate side by side with ground combat units. Women will still be prohibited, however, from assignment to infantry, armor and special operations forces.

Advocates for opening more battlefield assignments to women said that female troops already have been fired on, returned fire and been at risk from enemy bombs as modern warfare has evolved and battle lines have expanded.

The National Women’s Law Center, a nonprofit organization that promotes equal opportunity for women, praised the Pentagon’s decision but said it doesn’t go far enough.

“The Department of Defense should ensure the readiness of the force by establishing once and for all that when the best person for a job is a woman, her gender should not stand in the way,” said Nancy Duff Campbell, the organization’s co-president.

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