Women in combat roles?

I have been in the Army (Active and Reserves) for 30 years, and I am currently a mobilized Reservist serving in Iraq for the past five months. All MOSs are combat related: a Truck Driver spends time on the road; a Supply Specialist can come under fire on a FOB or COB. My two MOSs are in Military Intelligence, and one of them could put me so far forward during Conventional War that I would look behind me to see my own Ground Forces. There are many Combat Arms jobs that females can do, but we are precluded because they have more direct contact with the enemy. I believe that females are as capable as males in jobs that do not require a great deal of strength, such as Artillery and Scouts. However, of the hundreds of female Soldiers I have known, only two were strong enough to have gone on an Infantry mission. Males often point out that our PT standards are lower, but that’s not the only thing the military needs. When I originally enlisted, females made up about 9% of the Army, but 40% of the Defense Language School that I attended. The next argument is that we could be d if we are captured, but so could the men. In Iraq, we are constantly told that women are for babies and men are for . This is often followed by the argument that we need to take time out for hygiene when we are menstruating, but it isn’t hard to deal with in the field; I found that brushing my teeth was more of an ordeal. Other hygiene debates: I was usually the only female on a 4 person team, and I often showered in the open while wearing a bathing suit top and lightweight shorts. I currently do manned aerial surveillance in the back of a small airplane on missions that last 4 hours or longer; males bring an empty water bottle and females bring a “piddle pack.” I haven’t used one yet, but I know that I will; I cannot count how many times a man hunched next to me and peed in his bottle. During Desert Shield/Desert Storm, my biggest fear was that one of the guys in my Company (I was the only female in a 1000 Soldier Squadron, by the way) would put himself at risk in order to save me; I told them that if they did, I would shoot them myself. Twenty years later, the mindset is that women are just as capable and that we don’t need to be protected. The military now has Female Engagement Teams which will put them much closer to the enemy, potentially in harm’s way. If I were younger, and not broken, I would absolutely try to do that. It is exciting and frustrating to me that so many jobs are opening to females; exciting because our contributions are being taken seriously, and frustrating because I would have liked to have been a Fire Support Specialist.