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Peace at any cost is a prelude to war!
VOICE OF THE GRUNT, 1999-12-15-B
===================================================
ARTICLES 5 and 6 (This week's focus) -- WOMEN IN THE MILITARY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Editor's note: Catherine "Kate" Aspy, our oracle and expert in issues
concerning women in the military sent us these two articles. They clearly
highlight that we are still struggling with this issue mainly for reasons
of political correctness. The truth in the matter seems painful, the cost
in readiness prohibitive, the damage to society irreparable. Kate is an
enlisted veteran of the Army, graduated from Harvard and has published
numerous articles on women in the forces and family issues.
Kate's intro: "These two articles highlight some of the problems with women
and children in the military and present a breath of fresh air for those of
us familiar with the truth. Although the policies recommended are a step
in the right direction, the problems outlined cannot be solved within a
coed military structure. Young women will always get pregnant, especially
given the forced mingling of coed training and housing, and a
single-physical standard is not workable given the enormous biological
differences between the sexes (where the top fifth of women perform the
same as the bottom fifth of men). I am shocked, however, at the news that
soldiers can keep enormous signing bonuses after a mere 180 days of service."
ARTICLE 5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MOTHERS AT SEA -- The Navy's Struggle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
. It appeared in the Wall Street Journal Editorial on 3 December 1999.
************************************************************************
Amid all the flotsam crossing our desk lately came one surprise: a new
Defense Department report on women sailors. The study focuses on families
in which the enlisted mothers of small children are away at sea five or six
months at a stretch. Not surprisingly, small children who spend months
without their mothers do not fare so very well.
As interesting as the findings has been the reaction: zilch. As it happens,
these days a mom at sea is not so unusual. Of the 51,000 women in the Navy,
10,000 serve on shipboard. Many of them are single moms. The study, by
Michelle Kelley of Old Dominion University, compared the children of women
with land jobs to the kids of women who serve on extended tours. Turns out
that half of these Navy women were single or divorced. This meant that when
they were shipped off to sea, many of their children, whose ages ranged
from one to three, had no parent at home.
If you didn't even know this was a problem, you're not alone. The idea
seems to be that to admit even the slightest difficulty with women in the
service threatens to drag women back to the 1950s. So instead of an open
debate we get the movie version. In "Courage Under Fire" actress Meg Ryan
plays a heroic Army helicopter captain who leaves her daughter behind with
grandma as she goes off to die in the Gulf War -- and feels just fine about
it.
Unfortunately, no amount of Hollywood glitz is likely to console the
real-world children of these military moms. And, by the way, it's not just
those children. An earlier Navy study showed that four out of 10
pregnancies of women on sea duty culminated in abortion or miscarriage.
That compares to two out of 10 for women sailors on shore duty. The news
comes in the wake of a controversial 1995 ruling from the admirals saying
that pregnancy was compatible with a Navy career, meaning that pregnant
women could even serve aboard ships up to their 20th week. To put it
harshly, there is a sense here that some babies are being thrown out with
the seawater.
Of course, the problems of the extended tour are by no means confined to
women. Military families have long suffered from the prolonged absence of
fathers. In his memoir, John McCain notes that one reason he found it so
easy, as a child, to idolize his father was that his father wasn't around
enough to mar the golden image. What makes the Mom-Goes-to-Sea story
different is the all-too-frequent absence of any parent.
Could it be that the unwillingness to address this issue signals a belief
that women will suffer from any retreat from the feminist absolute?
Perhaps. Whatever the reason, there is a noticeable slippery-slope effect.
Thus we must have not only a woman in the military, but a mother; not only
a mother but a single one; not only a trip abroad but an extended one, and
so on. As the White House wonk bleats in "Courage Under Fire": "She has to
get the Medal of Honor. She's a woman. That's the point!"
Surely we are beyond that. The late 1990s are not, after all, the 1950s. No
one is talking about keeping women out of the boardroom, or shutting them
out of the officer's club. A little consideration for the realities of
family life can only strengthen the cause of women. Owning up to the
problem will, however, require courage. Maybe there should be a medal for
that.
===================================================
ARTICLE 6
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HOLD WOMEN TO TOUGHER STANDARDS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Source: San Antonio Express-News, December 4, 1999, Saturday, METRO
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Comment; Pg. 7B
****************************************
By: Marie E. deYoung
When Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher, D-Calif., a member of the House Armed Services
Personnel Subcommittee, calls the Pentagon to task over the high attrition
rates of women enlistees, I hope she will call me to testify. I hope she
will listen to the women who have witnessed the failure of the Army's
present personnel policies firsthand. But I know I will never be called to
testify, nor will any woman soldier with the integrity to speak to the root
causes of the Army's dismal morale, personnel shortage and high rates of
attrition.
Therefore, in faith that the American public would remedy the Army's
personnel failures if it only understood, I strongly urge the taxpayers to
consider these policy recommendations:
Stop assigning women to combat and near-combat units. New enlistees,
despite lectures about birth control and safe sex, have a propensity to
puff with pregnancy when assigned to units that have heavy field duties.
Overseas deployments are not the only catalyst for such shortsighted
lifestyle choices. Field problems that involve more than four days without
access to shower facilities and toilet stalls that flush are just as likely
to provoke "unplanned" pregnancies among women who never bargained to be
grunts when they joined the service.
Require one standard of physical fitness for men and women. Attempts to
hold women accountable for work completion or physical fitness is too often
misconstrued as sexual harassment. Women and men should be held to the same
standards of fitness. True, fewer women would qualify for military service.
But why recruit women who are not qualified?
Provide a single standard for compensation of soldiers regardless of family
obligations.
No other industry provides such powerful economic incentives for young
adults to marry or give birth to children out-of-wedlock. Why should
privates be permitted to move out of the barracks and into heated
apartments, compliments of Uncle Sam, just because they marry their squad
mates or bar room dancing partners?
During pregnancy, women soldiers are exempt from deployments and soldiering
responsibilities. In the last phases of pregnancy, their workload is
reduced to half-time, but they are paid full-time until their babies are
born. They receive full maternity leave pay for 45 days after each child's
birth. Other industries wisely grant unpaid maternity leave to women on the
mommy CEO track.
Reinstate single-soldier first enlistment policies. All soldiers should be
required to be free of dependency obligations during their first enlistment
-- or forfeit those $65,000 bonuses and $40,000 college scholarships that
are granted to soldiers who complete a mere 180 days of active-duty service
before quitting due to "dependency obligations."
The Army now acknowledges that 54 percent of white women drop out before
their contracts are completed. Does anyone think the average enlistee is
unaware that she can leave with full GI benefits once she meets the 180-day
requirement?
Personnel shortages and high attrition rates will never end unless the
Pentagon restructures incentives, pay rates and benefits to reward the hard
work and sacrifices of competent service members. The military's failure
to retain qualified women soldiers, or male soldiers for that matter, is
not so much a failure of gender relations. It is more the result of a
gold-plate welfare system that could only inspire otherwise decent people
to strip the mine for all it is worth. That accomplished, what to do but
leave for richer lodes that require less effort?
Marie E. deYoung is director of the Center for Women in "Church and Society
at Our Lady of the Lake University" and author of "This Woman's Army: The
Dynamics of Sex and Violence in the Military."
====================================================
MEDAL OF HONOR ARTICLE 7
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
McGARlTY, VERNON
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Day to Remember - 16 December 1944. The final German counteroffensive
begins at 0530hrs with a massive artillery barrage and an armor
infiltration through the Eiffel Mountains. It was a last, desperate attempt
to cut off the western allies from their vital North Sea ports and to split
the alliance. The courageous efforts of small units, made up of young
American "citizen soldiers," stalled Hitler's plan at landmarks such us
Bastogne, St Vith, and Rocherath/Krinkelt. Our MOH action occurred at
Krinkelt, Belgium. As you prepare to enjoy a "relatively" peaceful world
this X-mas, remember the guys who secured victory in Europe during that
decisive December battle. Had Hitler succeeded, Europe would look quite
different today -- the Russians could have pushed across the Rhine into the
European heartland. If you know a "Bulge" veteran, shake his hand!!!!! ZIMM.
************************************************************************
Rank and organization: T/Sgt., USA, Co. L, 393d Infantry, 99th Infantry
Division.
Place and date: Near Krinkelt, Belgium, 16 December 1944.
Entered service: Model, Tenn.
Born: 1 December 1921, Right, Tenn.
G.O. No.: 6, 11 January 1946.
Citation: He was painfully wounded in an artillery barrage that preceded
the powerful counteroffensive launched by the Germans near Krinkelt,
Belgium, on the morning of 16 December 1944. He made his way to an aid
station, received treatment, and then refused to be evacuated, choosing to
return to his hard-pressed men instead. The fury of the enemy's great
Western Front offensive swirled about the position held by T/Sgt.
McGarity's small force, but so tenaciously did these men fight on orders to
stand firm at all costs that they could not be dislodged despite murderous
enemy fire and the breakdown of their communications. During the day the
heroic squad leader rescued 1 of his friends who had been wounded in a
forward position, and throughout the night he exhorted his comrades to
repulse the enemy's attempts at infiltration.
When morning came and the Germans attacked with tanks and infantry, he
braved heavy fire to run to an advantageous position where he immobilized
the enemy's lead tank with a round from a rocket launcher. Fire from his
squad drove the attacking infantrymen back, and 3 supporting tanks
withdrew. He rescued, under heavy fire, another wounded American, and then
directed devastating fire on a light cannon that had been brought up by the
hostile troops to clear resistance from the area.
When ammunition began to run low, T/Sgt. McGarity, remembering an old
ammunition hole about 100 yards distant in the general direction of the
enemy, braved a concentration of hostile fire to replenish his unit's
supply. By circuitous route the enemy managed to emplace a machinegun to
the rear and flank of the squad's position, cutting off the only escape
route. Unhesitatingly, the gallant soldier took it upon himself to destroy
this menace single-handedly. He left cover, and while under steady fire
from the enemy, killed or wounded all the hostile gunners with deadly
accurate rifle fire and prevented all attempts to regain the gun.
Only when the squad's last round had been fired was the enemy able to
advance and capture the intrepid leader and his men. The extraordinary
bravery and extreme devotion to duty of T/Sgt. McGarity supported a
remarkable delaying action that provided the time necessary for assembling
reserves and forming a line against which the German striking power was
shattered.
====================================================
ARTICLE 8
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FRUITCAKE RECIPE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pre combat check -- great way to start the Holidays! Dick is probably a
WWII veteran. I suspect B17 driver. Back in the big one, the boys knew how
to turn everything into a grand adventure. Bing Crosby came up with *White
Christmas* after trying the recipe himself!
************************************************************************
By Dick Lang (wouldn't want to translate this into German)
HOLIDAY FRUITCAKE RECIPE
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups dried fruit
1 tsp. salt
1 cup brown sugar
lemon juice
nuts
1 gallon tequila
Sample the tequila to check for quality. Take a large bowl. Check the
tequila again to be sure it is of the highest quality. Pour 1 level cup and
drink. Repeat.
Turn on the electric mixer; beat 1 cup butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add 1
tsp. sugar and beat again.
Make sure the tequila is still okay. Cry another cup.
Turn off the mixer. Break two legs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup
of dried fruit.
Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers, ply it
loose with a drewscriver. Sample the tequila to check for tonsisticity.
Next sift 2 cups of salt.
Or something... Who cares.
Check the tequila. Now sift lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one
table. Spoon. Of sugar or something. Whatever you can find.
Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees. Don't forget to beat off
the turner.
Throw the bowl out the window. Check the tequila again.
Go to bed. Who likes fruitcake anyway?
=====================================================
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EDITOR'S NOTE:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First, see references above. Second, brevity where possible.
************************************************
As a rule of thumb, please try to keep article for possible publication to
700 words or less. We do make exceptions and will not turn away an 800 to
900 word piece. Please make every editing effort not to exceed these
guidelines.
If you believe you have a story that is longer than 700 words we will
consider running it in parts or as a SPECIAL. Keep the piece focused on the
story you want to tell, not impress upon the reader.
Thanks to everyone for keeping the communication lines open and the ideas
flowing.
Watch your flanks!!
ZIMM
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
http://www.freeyellow.com:8080/members7/rlmcmahon/
=============================================
HACK'S DEFENDING AMERICA COLUMN:
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like an M-4 Sherman tank.
Thanks,
R.W. Zimmermann
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