WOMEN NOW OFFICIALLY AUTHORIZED COMBAT ROLES
(…we’re turning all those mama grizzlies loose…so there!)

It was bound to happen sooner or later. President Truman desegregated the Armed Forces back in the 1950’s…President Clinton established Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell so that gays could serve (later set aside by the Obama Administration, for a more open and realistic resolution of that issue). Now, with another Executive Order, American womenfolk now have the same freedom and right to join the ranks of our combat forces as any other macho terminator guy.

Some folks, of course, aren’t too thrilled about it all. And a good many of our military traditionalists have strong reservations about the practical aspects involved with it. For one thing, leaving aside the physiological differences between males and females, their concerns are more about long experience with the American G.I. Joe’s reaction to the proximity of anything resembling a female (so well expressed by the song…there is nothing like a dame… in the musical South Pacific).

But then, our history has had its share of female warrior heroines…Molly Pitcher…in the Revolutionary War…others in the Civil War…and all those unsung ones in all those wagon trains migrating across the wild, wild west…not to mention those who helped defend their homesteads…way out on those great prairies, like Annie Oakley.  So, the idea of having females in combat roles is not unheard of. The Russians in WWII had hordes of them (and from all reports, these were as tough and tenacious as any Ivan). And from ancient times come the legends of fierce Amazons. All of that based on a fundamental view that the female of the species is actually deadlier than the male…or can be. 

I tend to have similar reservations about it all, just like the top brass, not because I don’t believe women couldn’t handle the stresses of combat, but because, for example…I’m not sure what would happen if one of our male G.I’s found himself in a foxhole alongside a female G.I. Where would his focus be if they were under attack? Hopefully it would be towards the enemy…not on his female companion. The offset to that, however, might be a natural male protective instinct regarding a female companion alongside. It’s hard to say, which is what makes the idea so dodgy. The other and greater danger might be how it could affect a combat unit’s cohesiveness, since a mixed male/female combat unit could generate competition for female(s) attention, if not actual preference, and thus division instead of unity.

Nevertheless, there could be some very powerful benefits from having females in combat roles. Picture this… at some future time one of our aircraft carriers is now commanded by a female skipper, armed with a squadron of all-female fighter pilots. At some point, the following might occur: “Now hear this, this is Big Mama speaking. All you wardroom belles…drop those crinolines…grab your flight gear…and I want to see a bunch of screeching Kitty Hawks tearing through my skies in ten minutes. It’s …Tora… Tora… Tora… girl friends! That is all!”  High morale and fighting spirit on that ship…you better believe it!

Or, at a boot camp cycle, a grizzled old Marine D.I. finds himself in charge of a platoon of female Marine recruits, and storming into the barracks, roaring:

“Reveille! Reveille! Rise and shine sleeping beauties! Rise and shine! You have ten minutes to get your booties into those BDU’s, and in formation…for roll call! Move it…move it!” And once in formation, as he looks them over, he continues in the best tradition of D.I. rant: “’Tenshun! Shoulders squared! Chests-racks out! Tummy-tucks in! Y’re goddam Marines.  not a bunch of Alice blue-gowned debutants! Y’re Marines! Show it…or you’ll be singing mean mama blues for a week!”

Well, such scenarios might be a bit extreme, but equality is equality,,, and that’s the way of it if you’re part of the combat arms…there’s little allowance for sensibilities.

And of course there are now also all sorts of nickname, unit, and call sign potentials, and American inclinations for having catchy ones will be sure to come up with some racy and saucy ones indeed… Meanass Mamas, Cougar Belles, BellaDonnas,…and so forth.

GI Joe…meet…GI Jane…and welcome…to a new military order of things.

CENTURION