One week ago today, it was reported that, at the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the ban on women serving in combat would be formally lifted.  As would be expected, reaction to the news was mixed with authorities on both sides weighing in. We work with a number of combat-veteran authors and esteemed military experts here at Open Road Media—and we were curious to hear their thoughts on the matter.  Turns out, they were mixed, as well. Herewith, some quick takes on the subject from a handful of our seasoned authors. 

A decorated war correspondent, serving from 1965-2006, and co-author of We Were Soldiers Once...And Young and We Are Soldiers Still, Joseph L. Galloway notes:

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's decision to lift the official ban on women serving in combat is long overdue, since American women have been serving in combat since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003. Scores of women have given their lives in combat; hundreds have... been wounded or injured; thousands have pulled tours every bit as dangerous as the ones men serve.

Secretary Panetta's action recognizes the reality on the ground in Iraq and now in Afghanistan, but it will open up several combat occupation specialties to women, as deserved, and clear career paths to easier promotion to high ranks. Most important, this decision levels the playing field so that women who meet both physical requirements and training standards have the same opportunities as anyone else wearing our country's uniforms.

I could name half a dozen military women I have met in recent years who not only meet but exceed those standards, and I would be proud to share a foxhole or bunker with them in any combat zone. West Point and Annapolis and the Air Force and Coast Guard academies turn out a wonderful annual crop of ever-stronger, ever-better women officers.
Those among them who choose a combat MOS (military occupational specialty) and meet the standards have earned the opportunity to serve and be fully recognized for that service.  Bravo!

From Captain Dale Dye, author of Outrage, the award-winning "File Series" and more: 

As a two-decade veteran in both peace and war who has both commanded women in uniform and been commanded by them, I’ve got a dog in the hunt here, but my concerns go beyond the superficial elements of physical demands or qualifications.  Amid all the furor and breast-beating—no pun intended—over the opening of direct infantry combat roles to American women, larger issues are at stake when we use our military services as lab rats for social experiments.

People who enter military service ultimately are products of the society they volunteered to defend. It’s that society that concerns me, and I ask myself disturbing questions like these:  What sort of man sends women off to kill things and break stuff—the ultimate bottom line mission of our military?  What kind of society tolerates that when it is not facing a shortage of qualified males to do the heavy lifting? And what sort of society says on the one hand women are disrespected and can’t recognize on the other hand that respect is predicated on the very specialness of women?

Traditions in the American military and civilian society are damaged if not broken entirely where women are placed in direct combat roles.  If that makes me a curmudgeon, so be it. Part of my very maleness is a desire to defend my mother, wife, sister and other females who are an important part of what makes my country great. Defending them means keeping them out of harm’s way through my own service and sacrifice.

Gene Rackovitch, author of Marines and Renegades, weighs in on women in combat:

If they can sleep together and train together they can fight together—and that’s not going to happen. One of the generals signing the edict said harassment and rape would not happen if women were given combat roles, and that is insane. First, the male soldier carries immunity to justice in relation to women. Ask any women soldier even approached for sexual favors how far they got when the incident was reported, and they will tell you they were the judged—not the offender. My granddaughter was in Iraq for two tours. She was approached by an officer for sexual favors, and reported it to her first sergeant. He told her not to report it and he would take care of it, and that’s where it ended.  He knew that if he took any action on the incident, it would require her to be questioned, and in the long run she would be chastised as though she had made the proposal. 

To put women in harm’s way while on patrol puts the male soldier carrying American ethics in an untenable position. We say that men must protect women at all costs; how then does he justify that under adverse conditions, which in all probability could put the operation in jeopardy? I know the Marine Corps will likely adhere to the decision passed down to them, but will subvert it to Marine Corps standards. Everyone has their place on this earth—but women should not go into combat units. 

John Del Vecchio, author of several critically acclaimed novels including The 13th Valley notes: 

There is a right way and a wrong way to do most anything; and there are systems of thought and pre-established formats on which to project likely ramifications, as well as criteria against which those ramifications ought to be gauged.

The prime mission of our military is national defense; the foremost criteria for this decision must be the effectiveness of our armed forces. Two nations with women in combat roles immediately come to me: Israel and Cambodia. Military service is mandatory for Israeli  women, and 90% of all slots, including ground combat slots, are open to women. Female IDF troops are recognized as amongst the best soldiers in the world; yet understand 10% of slots are restricted to those with greater strength, endurance and speed. In Cambodia in the 1970s the efficiency of Pol Pot’s battalions of neary became legendary. These very capable women soldiers were feared for their aggression, brutality and slaughter--though one might point out their ‘enemies,’ at times, were unarmed civilians. Women are quite capable of atrocities. Another factor: Where speed and strength are required, it might be wise to remind the social engineers in the Pentagon that hundreds of high school boys have run the 100-meter dash faster than Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 1988 Women’s World Record.  At the tip of the spear speed is a component of combat effectiveness—and enemy commanders may fill their ranks with boys.

From Doug Bradley, author of DEROS Vietnam: Dispatches from the Air-Conditioned Jungle [paperback available now; Open Road Media ebook available April 2013]:


Both U. S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and I served our country during the Vietnam War era, when the incongruity of our perspectives about, and treatment of, women could not have been more glaring. During that time, women were seeking more equality at home, and this was increasingly obvious to me, a soldier who both stateside and in Vietnam was under the command of Women’s Army Corps (WAC) officers. True, their jobs in Army information were presumed to be safe and “behind the lines,” but the reality in Vietnam’s guerilla war was that the non-combat distinction was often meaningless. Like Iraq and Afghanistan, there were no front lines in Vietnam, and that knowledge may have helped better prepare our soldiers for what they would encounter in these recent guerilla wars.

Ironically, our combatants at that time – the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong – employed strong, fierce women as fighters. They were equal to the men and helped win the war. But regardless of gender, or nation, combat soldiers lives are never again “normal.” And now that’s a burden both genders will share. Who benefits from that is a question to ask sooner rather than later.

And, from Julia Dye, Ph.D., Warriors Publishing Group, and author of Backbone: History, Traditions, and Leadership Lessons of Marine Corps NCOs [paperback available now; Open Road Media ebook available April 2013]:

I am a pragmatist. If men and women have the same possible physical capabilities—both have to pass the same qualifications, for example—they still are different, or we wouldn't have segregated sports teams. Some women Olympians have even had to take 'gender' tests to prove they were women when they performed above expectation. We still don't allow women to compete directly against men in nearly all sports. But why would this be if a woman could compete equally with men? Sports exist to win games. If having a woman on a team would make winning easier, teams and individuals would be clamoring for the rules to change. They're not.

I think we take professional football more seriously than we do our national defense.

All things cannot be all equal. Basketball discriminates against short people. There are height and weight limits both in the military in general and for specific specialties. We acknowledge that people are different and have differing abilities.

I have sympathy for career military women who do have a harder path to promotion without combat experience. I do not, however, believe the military exists as a career program for anyone. Military assignments should serve the mission of the military and the country...not the satisfaction of the individual service members.

We'd like to hear from you. Do you agree with formally lifting the ban on women in combat?

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I suppose every married couple has something, a certain rhythm to the conversation, a settling of two bodies in the space of the bed. I imagined this happening everywhere, in apartments across the city, shoes dropping, droning synopses of the day’s events. Complaints whispered, kisses, covers flung back, children calling out revelations in their sleep. —Ending, Hilma Wolitzer

At night, Sandy feels the pain of separation most deeply. As she settles into bed, she misses the sounds Jay used to make as he emptied his pockets and undressed. She misses the way a playful nighttime conversation could become significant in an instant. She misses his touch. To fall asleep, she imagines Jay’s voice, imagines their loving exchanges—but she cannot imagine lying in his arms.

Read the entire featured excerpt from Ending by Hilma Wolitzer, below.

Ending by Hilma Wolitzer {Excerpt} by OpenRoadMedia





We're proud to have... just released Ending and several other titles by Wolitzer, in ebook. Learn more about this critically hailed author and her work, here.

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