Women in the Military

The following letter was written to and published by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper on Monday, May 17, 2004:

Photos raise concern about women in military

With the photos of how women in the Iraqi prison have behaved, I regard this
as a microcosm of the trend of American society.

Violence committed by women is on the rise, as reflected in the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer on Thursday. How many women are in prison in this state
now for rape of a child? The incidence of stepmothers sexually abusing
stepsons is rising dramatically.

Then, there is the whole issue of women in the military. Our aircraft
carriers and larger ships have become floating houses of ill repute. Any
time a carrier returns from deployment, a significant percentage of women,
both single and married to men not on board the ship, are pregnant. Lyndee
England claims she is now pregnant from her multiple liaisons at the prison,
and that problem of pregnancy exists in high percentage in every military
service. Sexual related issues are at an all-time high in the military.

If the true story of the broad spectrum of sexual escapades as occurred in
Gulf War I were ever published by the press, the American public would
respond in horror. The recurring complaint of men at service academies, boot
camps and field training exercises is that the men have to assist women and
gun-deck the records because the women can't make it physically. Women are
plainly a distraction from the mission of our military.

I have ruefully come 180 degrees around to the conclusion that women have no
place in our military. Some societies can handle women in their respective
militaries; ours cannot. I am retired military and have represented many
women in my law specialty of military and military-related matters.

Rightly or wrongly, women have been historically and presently are the
keepers of the public morals in American society, and they are failing
everywhere in this very special charge. It is something we will have to live
with in other areas of our society, and let us retain the advances women
have made in other fields, but forget the military. Such is plainly is not
working, and this well-intentioned experiment must end.

J. Byron Holcomb
Bainbridge Island

The Thinking Woman's Guide to Politics, Media and Life

Welcome to the Thinking Woman, an exercise in empowering women by clearly explaining what you see and hear on the television, radio, print media, Internet and from the mouths of friends and relatives.

We are two women who could not be more different. One of us is a member of the East Coast Jewish media elite. A single mother and professional writer and editor who commutes from New England to Manhattan every day. The other is a stay-at-home mother of two, wife and transplanted Midwestern Lutheran living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. What we have in common is a publishing background, liberal politics and a growing uneasiness with the disfranchisement of our women friends. They feel disconnected, helpless and often confused.

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