Women in Military Service & Combat (not just USA)

[tequila]

A shame that so many know PFC Lynch's story but not SGT Leigh Ann Hester's.

[SWJED]

A shame that so many know PFC Lynch's story but not SGT Leigh Ann Hester's.

The rule or the exception to the rule?

[tequila]

Undoubtedly the exception. Most soldiers and Marines don't win Silver Stars for valor in close combat action.

[SWJED]

Undoubtedly the exception. Most soldiers and Marines don't win Silver Stars for valor in close combat action.

Yep. Some get medals and some don't. We've all known people who were deserving...

[Jimbo]

Not enough drama, I mean come on who would play the bad guy. At least in the Lynch story there is the default bad guy of an incompetent chain-of-command angle. (sarcasm)

In Hester's case you would have to show the fighting will adn spirit of the American soldier triumphing in a really bad situation. Hell, the E-6 got the DSC. Nobody is covering this or making a movie.

[Jedburgh]

RAND, 6 Sep 07: Assessing the Army's Assignment Policy for Women

The current U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) policy for assigning military women dates to a 1994 memorandum from then–Secretary of Defense Les Aspin. During the ensuing years, the U.S. military has undergone significant technological and organizational transformation, which has resulted in changes in how the military organizes and fights. Specifically, the Army’s recent transformation to modular brigades, as well as the differences between military missions in Iraq, and the global war on terrorism (GWOT) more generally, and military missions fought on linear battlefields during past military engagements, prompted concern among some members of Congress about the role of women in military operations in Iraq. Reflecting that, Section 541(b) of Public Law 109-163 requires the Secretary of Defense to submit a report on the current and future implementation of DoD policy for assigning military women.

This monograph is intended as input in DoD decisionmaking and focuses on Army operations in Iraq. In particular, it focuses on the Army’s brigade combat teams (BCTs) that deployed to Iraq in a modular configuration, paying specific attention to the new organic relationships of these BCTs with brigade support battalions (BSBs).....

Complete 186 page report at the link.