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Female troops in Iraq exposed to combat
Despite ban on women in combat, the front line in Iraq is everywhere
Saturday, June 25, 2005; Posted: 10:29 a.m. EDT (14:29 GMT)
(CNN) -- The Pentagon's policy banning women in combat is being tested in Iraq, where the lack of a defined front line and insurgents' guerrilla tactics expose female troops to deadly situations.
On Thursday night, a suicide car bomber struck a U.S. convoy in Falluja. The attack killed at least four Marines -- including three women, U.S. military sources said.
Of 13 Marines wounded in the attack, 11 were female, the sources said. A Marine and a sailor remain unaccounted for. Their genders were not disclosed.
The bombing marks the highest number of female U.S. military casualties in a single day in the Iraq war. (Full story)
A female Marine killed in the attack has been identified as Lance Cpl. Holly A. Charette, 21, from Cranston, Rhode Island.
A military news release in May profiled Charette who served as a mail clerk at the Marine Camp Blue Diamond in Ramadi.
The profile included a photo of her carrying an M-16 rifle and a mail bag. The profile quoted her as saying she planned to join the U.S. Postal Service after leaving the military next year.
The Marines were attacked while traveling to Camp Falluja after working at entry control points in the city, according to a Marine Corps statement.
Thirty-nine female U.S. troops have died in Iraq and three female Defense Department employees have been killed while working there. Six female troops have died serving in Afghanistan.
Pentagon policy prohibits women from serving in front-line combat units, such as infantry, armor or artillery. But in Iraq, female troops are participating in close-quarters combat more than in any previous war.
The Marine Corps says that female Marines are helping the military respect cultural sensitivities in Iraq, where men and women do not mix as much as in Western countries.
"Female Marines play a vital role providing security at the entry control points in the city," according to the statement.
"They search female Iraqi citizens moving through the checkpoints. Female Marines are employed in this role in order to be respectful of Iraqi cultural sensitivities. Their assignment to this mission is in full accordance with Department of Defense and Marine Corps policy."
CNN's Jane Arraf, embedded with a Marine unit in western Iraq, says the military is struggling with the cultural issue of using female troops to search Iraqi women during raids or at checkpoints.
"It's one of the things that the Marines and the Army feel they're lacking right now, particularly the Marines, which have very few women in those roles," Arraf said.
Arraf reported that several weeks ago, a Marine was shot and killed by a woman who opened fire on him. The woman was killed by return fire from Marines.
"But when we go into houses with the Marines and with the Army, there is almost never a female along who can search women to see if they have weapons on them. It's something they are grappling with in this ever-changing insurgency and the ever-changing tactics of the insurgents and the foreign fighters."
Female soldiers and Marines are usually assigned to support units, like logistics or transportation. But even those units are exposed to the same dangers as combat troops because of the guerrilla tactics of the insurgents.
"They're in convoys, taking the same risks as the male solders and Marines," Arraf said, reporting from the region of Iraq near the Syrian border.
"The biggest risk here at the moment are those roadside bombs, the explosive devices. They're getting increasingly sophisticated and increasingly powerful. And there seems to be almost a never-ending supply of suicide bombers, all of them said to be foreign fighters still coming through here."
**IMHO, women want to everything equal, then they should also be able to be in a combat MOS in the military. Then again, they should also be subjected to pass the same physical fitness tests that the males are to perform, kinda like a "G.I.Jane" thing. IMHO**
Despite ban on women in combat, the front line in Iraq is everywhere
Saturday, June 25, 2005; Posted: 10:29 a.m. EDT (14:29 GMT)
(CNN) -- The Pentagon's policy banning women in combat is being tested in Iraq, where the lack of a defined front line and insurgents' guerrilla tactics expose female troops to deadly situations.
On Thursday night, a suicide car bomber struck a U.S. convoy in Falluja. The attack killed at least four Marines -- including three women, U.S. military sources said.
Of 13 Marines wounded in the attack, 11 were female, the sources said. A Marine and a sailor remain unaccounted for. Their genders were not disclosed.
The bombing marks the highest number of female U.S. military casualties in a single day in the Iraq war. (Full story)
A female Marine killed in the attack has been identified as Lance Cpl. Holly A. Charette, 21, from Cranston, Rhode Island.
A military news release in May profiled Charette who served as a mail clerk at the Marine Camp Blue Diamond in Ramadi.
The profile included a photo of her carrying an M-16 rifle and a mail bag. The profile quoted her as saying she planned to join the U.S. Postal Service after leaving the military next year.
The Marines were attacked while traveling to Camp Falluja after working at entry control points in the city, according to a Marine Corps statement.
Thirty-nine female U.S. troops have died in Iraq and three female Defense Department employees have been killed while working there. Six female troops have died serving in Afghanistan.
Pentagon policy prohibits women from serving in front-line combat units, such as infantry, armor or artillery. But in Iraq, female troops are participating in close-quarters combat more than in any previous war.
The Marine Corps says that female Marines are helping the military respect cultural sensitivities in Iraq, where men and women do not mix as much as in Western countries.
"Female Marines play a vital role providing security at the entry control points in the city," according to the statement.
"They search female Iraqi citizens moving through the checkpoints. Female Marines are employed in this role in order to be respectful of Iraqi cultural sensitivities. Their assignment to this mission is in full accordance with Department of Defense and Marine Corps policy."
CNN's Jane Arraf, embedded with a Marine unit in western Iraq, says the military is struggling with the cultural issue of using female troops to search Iraqi women during raids or at checkpoints.
"It's one of the things that the Marines and the Army feel they're lacking right now, particularly the Marines, which have very few women in those roles," Arraf said.
Arraf reported that several weeks ago, a Marine was shot and killed by a woman who opened fire on him. The woman was killed by return fire from Marines.
"But when we go into houses with the Marines and with the Army, there is almost never a female along who can search women to see if they have weapons on them. It's something they are grappling with in this ever-changing insurgency and the ever-changing tactics of the insurgents and the foreign fighters."
Female soldiers and Marines are usually assigned to support units, like logistics or transportation. But even those units are exposed to the same dangers as combat troops because of the guerrilla tactics of the insurgents.
"They're in convoys, taking the same risks as the male solders and Marines," Arraf said, reporting from the region of Iraq near the Syrian border.
"The biggest risk here at the moment are those roadside bombs, the explosive devices. They're getting increasingly sophisticated and increasingly powerful. And there seems to be almost a never-ending supply of suicide bombers, all of them said to be foreign fighters still coming through here."
**IMHO, women want to everything equal, then they should also be able to be in a combat MOS in the military. Then again, they should also be subjected to pass the same physical fitness tests that the males are to perform, kinda like a "G.I.Jane" thing. IMHO**
at: :bthorse: :yum:
