I just watched a PBS show Independent Lens - Lioness, about five female troopers of the 1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, and I am almost sick to my stomach that the US Military will use females in combat environments yet still will not allow them into Combat Arms MOSs. Political correct thinking is an impediment to filling combat slots with the best of both genders, women after all are not all fragile and shrinking violets.
As a matter of fact females can be down-right vicious and vengeful (two qualities that make for a fearsome opponent), they have fine motor-skills (making very good pilots, technicians, and shooters), and in this current conflict they even set an example of feminine strength that those poor repressed females in that forsaken armpit of the world can look to with hope for a better lot in life.
I feel a special kinship to these five female warriors, not just because they are veterans of the US Army, but because they are all Diehards (if you have not read my piece on the 1st Engineer Battalion, please do so). Here are a few comments from each of the Lionesses - my sister Diehards:
Major Kate Guttormsen - Company Commander
Q: How do you think your experiences in combat as a woman differ from those of men?
A: I don't think my experiences were any different than my male counterparts. I think some of my coping mechanisms were different. For example, I'm sure I cried more than my male counterparts—behind closed doors.
Q: What is it like being a female in command?
A: Challenging. But, command is challenging for every officer regardless of gender. In order to be successful, the higher-level chain of command has to be supportive. I had a superb all-male chain of command that didn't discriminate. This empowered me to be as successful as I wanted to be.
Captain Anastasia Breslow - Signal Officer
Q: How do you think your experiences in combat as a woman differ from those of men?
A: It is my experience that people interact differently with female soldiers, whether it is other soldiers or the civilian population, hence our value on the Lioness missions. To me it's the outside reactions that shape the difference more than any disparity in training, mentality or perspective.
Q: What most surprised you about your time in Iraq?
A: That when I got home I wanted to go back; it was great to be home, I appreciated everything so much more. But everyday life seemed so average and there was still more work to be done over there.
Staff Sergeant Ranie Ruthig - Mechanic
Q: How do you think your experiences in combat as a woman differ from those of men?
A: From my experience with the 1st Engineer Battalion, our experiences were the same. Although I know our experiences were the exception and not the rule.
Q: What most surprised you about your time in Iraq?
A: How close you can get to people that have no relationship to you. You have to depend on the people that sit to your left and right, no matter how you feel about them.
Specialist Shannon Morgan - Mechanic
Q: How do you think your experiences in combat as a woman differ from those of men?
A: I think women differ because they are more nurturing than men. We deal differently with the mental and emotional aspects of combat, but that isn't to say that we're not just as tough.
Q: What most surprised you about your time in Iraq?
A: How the Iraqi women are treated there. They are the heads of the household, in my opinion, but are not allowed to ride in the front seat of their cars… or even walk side by side with their husbands
Specialist Rebecca Nava - Supply Clerk
Q: How do you think your experiences in combat as a woman differ from those of men?
A: We did more then our jobs on a daily basis, we also went on patrols with them in which we participated in raids and other combat missions, which included TCPs (Traffic Control Points) and Lioness missions. During those Lioness missions we (females) searched the woman and children and tried to hold conversations with them.
Q: What most surprised you about your time in Iraq?
A: When we started doing Lioness missions, I never thought I would be doing something of the sort, or doing any type of ground combat work.
To buttress my contention that females are as capable of doing their duty and operating efficiently in combat as a male trooper, I will pull a few examples of women warriors from the history of my people - The Vikings.
Freydis, the sister of explorer Leif the Lucky, led an attack against natives in Vinland (now Newfoundland) and overpowered her two other brothers for control of the Viking colony. Apparently not one for competition, she even used her axe to kill all the women in their settlement. (source "Women in the Viking Age" - Judith Jesch - Boydell Press - 0 85115 278 3)
Rusilla fought against her brother Thrond for the thrones of both Denmark and Norway. (source "Women in the Viking Age" - Judith Jesch - Boydell Press - 0 85115 278 3)
Sela was "a warring Amazon and accomplished pirate" (source "Women in the Viking Age" - Judith Jesch - Boydell Press - 0 85115 278 3)
Stikla ran away from home "preferring the sphere of war to that of marriage" (source "Women in the Viking Age" - Judith Jesch - Boydell Press - 0 85115 278 3)
Alvid also ran away from home and became leader of a group of male and female pirates. (source "Women in the Viking Age" - Judith Jesch - Boydell Press - 0 85115 278 3)
Auðr was divorced by her husband, Þórðr, on the grounds that she wore breeches like a man. She attacked him with a sword in revenge. (source "Women in the Viking Age" - Judith Jesch - Boydell Press - 0 85115 278 3)
Hervor learns to use bow, shield and sword while living in her maternal grandfather's house. In her youth she dresses as a man and mugs people for their money. She decides to avenge her father's death, then joins a band of Vikings, calling herself 'Hervardr' and has a variety of warlike adventures before finally marrying and having children. (source "Maiden Warriors and Other Sons" - Carol J. Clover - Journal of English and Germanic Philology (JEGP), 85 (1986):35-49)
In Hrolfs saga Gautrekssonar, the only child of King Eirikr of Sweden is Thornbjorg, who "spends her girlhood pursuing the martial arts". Her father provides her with men and lands; and she adopts male dress and name (Thorbergr) and is known as king. (source "Maiden Warriors and Other Sons" - Carol J. Clover - Journal of English and Germanic Philology (JEGP), 85 (1986):35-49.)
Freydis Eiriksdottir who took part in an expedition to Vinland, defended herself from Skraelings using a sword while heavily pregnant, and personally murdered several "inconvenient" people later in the expedition, is described in Erik the Red's Saga
"There were once women in Denmark who dressed themselves to look like men and spent almost every minute cultivating soldiers' skills." (source Saxo Grammaticus "History of the Danes")
OK getting off my soapbox now.