Quote:
Originally Posted by SGT RJ
My opinion is that anyone who is physically capable of doing the job should be allowed to do the job.
I don't really buy that women and men can't work together because of sexual tension or whatever or that men would do stupid things being over protective of female soldiers in the field. When the **** hits the fan everyone is another soldier.
So, as I said, I think there should be a set of physical standards for any given job. If you can meet the standards you should be able to do the job. If you can't you shouldn't. This would naturally exclude all but the strongest women from certain jobs, and that's okay (IMO).
Makes sense to me.
I was in the army infantry for three years. We didn't have any women. There is no reason that it couldn't happen now. There might be stength issues in some positions, for example, if you have someone going down the line handing out ammo, it would be nice if he/she could carry a lot of it. Also, some crew-served weapons are very heavy, and pieces can weigh over 50 pounds. But in general, there is no reason why at least some women couldn't be a rifleman, armorer, cook, or supply sergeant in an infantry unit.
I was in an army band for 20 years. It was about 40% female. There were all kinds of different relationships in the band: siblings, father and son, dating relationships, hook-ups, and two couples who met in the band and got married. Guess who provided music for the weddings?
Having a high percentage of females in the band did not adversely affect either unit cohesion or the mission. In fact, people stayed in the unit for a long time, we traveled all over the world together, and unlike my infantry unit, the band felt very much like a family. I'm glad that I was able to stay in the band long enough to see two children of band members join the band and play along with a parent.