Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site ihlpl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!whuxl!houxm!ihnp4!ihlpl!zubbie From: zubbie@ihlpl.UUCP (Jeanette Zobjeck) Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Re: Women in combat Message-ID: <175@ihlpl.UUCP> Date: Mon, 24-Jun-85 21:14:38 EDT Article-I.D.: ihlpl.175 Posted: Mon Jun 24 21:14:38 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 26-Jun-85 06:03:26 EDT References: <742@oddjob.UUCP> <388@mtxinu.UUCP> <1041@peora.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 66 > > > {J. Eric Roskos} > > > > >However, I noted with an extreme degree of irritation how many congressMEN > > >made the blatantly sexist remark, "obviously no one feels women should have > > >to go into combat;" and even more, I noted that no women I knew challenged > > >this statement. They generally agreed with it. > > OK, I'll challenge it. I think (subject to requiring a certain level of > physical strength, as we do with fire fighters) that women should have to > go into combat if men do. Of course, I'd just as soon no one had to > go to war at all, at all. > -- > Karen Isaacson I'll challenge it also.! In 1968 (late '68) the decision was made to allow the people of S.Viet-Nam to celebrate their new year (Tet) in a more traditional way then had been allowed for some time. A cease fire was arranged - history shows that it was used by the RVN and the Viet-Cong to build up troops and supplies so that when the offensive began things were even bloodier than before. The year 1969 saw more bloody and useless killing than any single year before or after (most of it occuring in the first 6 months of that year). I was there to see it and I have yet to find a way to justify my contribution to that effort..... (I hope I never do!) I saw women in combat Most were Vietnamese. Some carried weapons and some just fought for survival and subsistance for their families and themselves. No man put out a greater effort and I saw no women in that country unwilling to defend what they valued or believed in. Viet-Nam was an unusual war because of the immediacy (sp) made possible by technology. It is unfortunate that we still (as a world, as a society as a race of thinking beings) have not learned our lesson - and probably never will. I would be the last person to advocate war. I would almost as definitely be first in line too grab a weapon if my loved ones were threatened as the people of that country were. I can't and won't try to reconcile (sp) the vast differences expressed here. It is only inside myself that I have reached a balance. Many of my friends have their names inscribed on a wall in our nations capitol (finally) and but for a lot of luck and the grace of God I might have been listed there also. I carry my own scars, inside, and my own wounds. Perhaps the wish to "protect" women from war is one of the things which has made it such an ongoing item. Succesful cmbat experience makes good line officers who may eventually rise to decision making positions in the government not only in this country but in most others as well. Consider, for just a moment, the prospect of world in which major decisions which affeect the lives of all through military action might be made by women. jeanette l. zobjeck ihnp4!ihlpl!zubbie ================================================================================ All opinions above could be mine All opinions above could be yours I take them as my own. Do you dare? ================================================================================