The Dark Side of Women in Combat

Pete Hegseth’s nomination to become Secretary of Defense has reopened the women in combat controversy because of the nominee’s views on the subject. Hegseth is a veteran of infantry combat in Iraq, and has expressed concerns about using women in combat roles, particularly in infantry and armor where close combat would be involved.

In the past few decades, women have been increasingly integrated into units such as artillery, military police, and combat aviation. A female fighter pilot was one of those tasked with the kamikaze mission of crashing her fighter into one of the airliners involved in the 9/11 attacks if all else failed, and the Marine Corps now allows women to lead infantry platoons if they can pass the grueling physical and mental challenge of Infantry Officers’ School at Quantico Virginia.

My personal experience with women in a combat role came in 2009 and 2010 in Iraq. As a civilian State Department field advisor, I had a security detachment led by a female lieutenant for a number of months. Several of the soldiers in the detachment were women as well. We went outside the wire nearly every day to inspect building projects and meet with key local leaders. The women were polite, professional, and ready to kill if necessary.

On one mission they were detached to take a group of visiting VIPs to a refugee center. On their way back, they were hit by an Iranian built IED which blew the leg off of one of the male soldiers in the team. The lieutenant did an excellent job of handling the MEDEVAC and in restoring morale in her badly shaken unit. She was subsequently put in for an award for heroism.

Despite all of that, I share some of Mr. Hegseth‘s concerns on the subject, but perhaps for different reasons. Every female member of that that security team was a volunteer. They actively sought the duty. That is fine in the limited wars we have fought since the turn of the century, but there are some politicians — mostly Democrats — so interested in DEI, that they would actually draft women and put them into combat roles whether the females involved want it or not. That might not matter in peacetime, but if we get into a serious shooting war, I believe that  the whole edifice would collapse.

Forced Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Of all the women I know, only one or two might want to be involved in a combat role and most would object strenuously to being forced into such a situation. This concern is not entirely academic. Last June the Democrat dominated Senate Armed Forces Committee approved a proposed bill which would require women along with men to register for the draft at age 18.

If we ever get into a real shooting war with Vietnam-like casualties where a draft is reinstated, we’ll likely see that the Democrats and feminists will be the first to change their tune when the body bags come back with large numbers of women in them.

If there is an analogy, it is the African American experience. In World War II when many black men were kept out of combat roles and largely relegated to being cooks, truck drivers, and other support roles, many complained bitterly. Fast forward to Vietnam with its totally integrated military. By that time blacks were complaining equally bitterly about being used as cannon fodder in disproportionate numbers.

There is a more recent analogy regarding gender equality in military terms. Women were first assigned to serve on warships shortly before the first Gulf War broke out. When they first joined, most expected to serve on shore duty. For some, sea duty was an unpleasant surprise; but feminists cheered. When deployment orders to the combat zone were issued, many women sailors suddenly became pregnant and undeployable. That is a dirty little secret that feminists and their friends in politics quietly swept under the rug.

The Nature of Men and Women

A 1997 Rand Corp. study titled New Opportunities for Military Women found that pregnancies can hurt unit readiness for the simple reason that “pregnancy can affect the availability of women” and that “the effect is greater when the unit has many women.”

And combat readiness may not be the only negative effect pregnancy represents. Behavior associated with the romantic attraction necessary for pregnancies to occur — including jealousy, sexual harassment, and reckless daring or protectiveness associated with male gallantry — may also affect cohesion. The Rand study continues, “When gender negatively affected cohesion, it was generally because gender is one way that people break into categories when conflict surfaces … or because dating occurred within a unit.”

Some experts believe that these and other problems — e.g. the particular vulnerability of captured female soldiers to rape and sexual torture — can be managed with competent leadership and preparation. My own view is these kinds of problems are unlikely to overwhelm the services because the number of women who seek combat roles and meet the physical qualifications will be low.

But keep in mind, if women are forced into combat units involuntarily in large numbers, it will be a very different situation. DEI is unattractive when standards are lowered to include the unqualified. But it looks even worse when the DEI commissars are prodding you into a foxhole.

READ MORE from Gary Anderson:

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Gary Anderson is a retired Marine Corps Colonel. After retirement, he served as a Special Advisor to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and later as a civilian field in Iraq and Afghanistan.