<p>WOMEN IN LAND COMBAT<br>
11/18/2004 10:50:00 AM </p>
<p>Presidential Commission </p>
<p>Women in Land Combat </p>
<p>Following the first Persian Gulf War in 1990-91, Congress considered legislation that would permit women in the military to serve in combat units, starting with combatant aircraft. Following a Senate hearing in July 1991, Congress repealed womens exemptions from combat aviation, and established a $4 million commission to conduct a study of what that would mean. </p>
<p>Then-President George H. W. Bush appointed fifteen members to serve on the Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces, which was charged to study all aspects of the issue of women in combat from March through November 1992. The panel gathered and published a wealth of information on all aspects of the issue by receiving testimony and detailed documents from representatives of the Department of Defense, all service communities, officers and enlisted men and women, family support professionals, combat veterans, religious and cultural leaders, training instructors, physiologists, military historians, and active duty men and women who spoke to commissioners during numerous field trips. </p>
<p>At the conclusion of the commissions fact finding process commissioners approved findings for publication with its official report, which was published on November 15, 1992. (ISBN0-02-881091-0) Among other things, a majority of commissioners voted against the assignment of women to combatant aircraft, land combat and special forces units, and most combatant ships. Congress did not have hearings to receive the commissions findings, and the incoming Clinton administration began assigning women to combat aircraft in April 1993. </p>
<p>The law exempting women from combatant ships was repealed in 1993. There is no statute specifically exempting women from land combat, but there are Department of Defense (DoD) regulations that have that effect, and a law requiring prior notice to Congress if the DoD wishes to change those rules. </p>
<p>The selected commission findings (CFs) below primarily focus on the issue of land combat units. Although they were adopted in 1992, most are still relevant to the issue of whether female soldiers should be assigned to land combat units today. Members of the commission also published an Alternative Views section in the Commission Report, which presented a consistent case against the assignment of women to combat units. The Executive Summary of that section is posted here. For more background on current regulations regarding women in land combat, please see the April 2003 edition of CMR Report. </p>
<p>Selected Findings of the 1992 Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces </p>
<p>COMBAT, COHESION, AND INVOLUNTARY SERVICE </p>
<p>The definition of combat is key to an understanding of the issue of women in combat. </p>
<ol>
<li>Official definitions of combat for all the services make it clear that direct combat is more than the experience of being shot at or being in danger. All of the definitions stress physical proximity to and violent conflict with the enemy, combined with an inherent risk of capture in contested territory, waters, or airspace. </li>
</ol>
<p>■ The Department of Defense currently defines "combat mission" as "A task, together with the purpose, which clearly requires an individual unit, naval vessel or aircraft to individually or collectively seek out, reconnoiter and engage the enemy with the intent to suppress, neutralize, destroy or repeal that enemy." (CF 1.5) </p>
<p>■ The Army definition adds: "Direct combat takes place while closing with enemy by fire, maneuver, or shock effect in order to destroy or capture, or while repelling assault by fire, close combat, or counterattack. " (CF 1.6) </p>
<p>■ The Navy definition adds: "The normal defensive posture of all operating units is not included in this definition." (CF 1.7) </p>
<p>■ The Air Force definition of aerial combat adds: "Delivery of munitions or other destructive material against an enemy, or aerial activity over hostile territory where enemy fire is expected and where risk of capture is substantial." (CF 1.8) </p>
<p>CMR Note: The element of substantial risk of capture was eliminated from the definition of close combat when revised regulations were set forth by then-Secretary of Defense Les Aspin in 1994. For more details, please see the April 2003 edition of CMR Report. </p>
<ol>
<li>In military history, personal accounts, and testimony before the Commission, repeated emphasis was on the extreme physical demands and violent nature of combat. </li>
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<p>■ "Closing" with the enemy often means traveling over difficult ground, under debilitating loads, while exposed to the harshest climatic and environmental conditions, with little or no personal privacy, under the duress of mortal danger. (CF 1.11) </p>
<p>■ Physical contact with the enemy is a probable condition of combat and risk of capture is inherent at all times when in proximity to the enemy or conducting air or sea operations in contested airspace or waters. (CF 1.11) </p>
<p>■ Modern weapons technology has made combat more lethal, not less so. War continues day and night, environmental hardships remain unchanged, and close coordination between cohesive units is essential for victory. (CF 1.12, 1.14) </p>
<ol>
<li>Currently, women are barred by law from serving on combatant ships, except for temporary duty. Until recently, they were also barred from Air Force and Navy combatant aircraft. (CF 1.18) </li>
</ol>
<p>■ In 1991, the Air Force restriction (Title 10, USC 8549) was repealed. The Navy restriction (Title 10, USC 6015) was amended at the same time, removing the restriction on female aviation officers and authorizing their assignments to combatant ships as part of the air wing or other air element. (CF 1.18) </p>
<p>■ The intent of Congress that women not be used in land combat has been implemented by various systems to determine which Army MOSs are most likely to involve direct combat with the enemy: (CF 1.18) </p>
<p>-- The Army uses a Direct Combat Position Coding (DCPC) System to determine the probability of engaging in direct combat for every position. According to AR 600-13, P1 indicates those positions to which women may not be assigned and P2 is used for all other positions. (CF 1.20) </p>
<p>-- The DOD Risk Rule, developed in 1988, is designed to reduce risk to women serving in non-combat units. (CF 1.16, 1.17) </p>
<p>The Army also cites Title 10, U.S.C. 3012 with regard to making assignment policies which exempt women from direct combat. (CF 1.19) </p>
<p>CMR Note: The DoD Risk Rule was repealed by then-Secretary of Defense Les Aspin in 1994. For more details, please see the April 2003 edition of CMR Report. </p>
<ol>
<li>Military service is substantially different than civilian employment, including police forces that preserve order close to home. (CF 1.31) </li>
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<p>■ Civilian society forbids employment discrimination, but because lives and combat missions might be put at risk by service members who cannot meet the demands of the battlefield, the military must be able to choose those most able to survive, fight and win. (Alt. Views, p. 44) </p>
<p>■ The military service is not a corporation, and being a soldier, sailor or airman is more than just a job. While civilian workers operate on a "9 to 5" schedule, units in combat operate 24 hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. </p>
<p>■ For the deployed American fighting man, there is no home and family waiting at the end of the day. The home is where the soldier stands to face the enemy. Good order and discipline are crucial for morale, survival and victory in battle. </p>
<p>■ Demands upon service members include the surrendering of a great deal of personal freedom and identity, the obligation in many cases to deploy worldwide on short notice, and the ultimate risk of injury, capture or death in the line of duty. </p>
<p>■ Civil society protects individual rights, but the military, which protects civil society, must be governed by different rules. </p>
<p>■ Congress and the courts, in no less than seven major Supreme Court decisions, have held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not apply to the military profession. (Alt. Views, pp. 44-45) </p>
<ol>
<li>Cohesion is the relationship that develops in a unit or group where </li>
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<p>a. members share common values and experiences </p>
<p>b. individuals in the group conform to group norms and behavior in order to ensure group survival and goals </p>
<p>c. members lose their personal identity in favor of a group identity </p>
<p>d. members focus on group activities and goals</p>