23 October 2007

Combat “V”


I was going to try to be forthright and say something meaningful on the issues of gender this week, but I guess I ought to just give up on that. If there is someone out there that understands either men or women, please speak up.

America at large seems to be settling into the same sort of self-indulgent enjoyment of comfort that has transformed the population of Europe and Japan. The industrialized nations are failing to reproduce. I managed to team up and do my part, contributing two new taxpayers to the rolls, but without continued immigration, the nation would be sinking below replacement.

France, Slovakia, and Russia are on glide slopes to decline in population by a third in this next generation. I don't know if that is good, or bad, but it amounts to handing over the keys to the house to someone else. That is why I am curious about who is manning the ramparts these days, and why I was so struck by the women warriors I met the other day.

A friend nudged me yesterday, saying that the three Bronze Stars on the row of ribbons on the young woman's breast did not include the “V” device that signifies “valor.”

That is a significant distinction in the hierarchy of military awards. A former Army Colonel who was a stickler for the truth, once the need for it was done, hounded Chief of Naval Operations about the little bronze letters that were on the ribbons he wore. To the Colonel, the difference in the “V” for valor was a matter of the highest honor, even if the bulk of his countrymen don't know that there is a difference.

The CNO was prone to depression, apparently, and being a man of considerable integrity, took the aspersions against him to heart. That is where Admiral Mike Boorda shot himself in the garden near the Chief's official residence at the Navy Yard.

I did not want to stare at ribbons, and there was a question about how long the deployments to The Show had been. Some of the Special Operations campaigns were not as long as the ones that are being mandated to support The Surge.

I had to back off, since the relative hardship of deployment is real but quite subjective. In my time in the machine, I was asked to do some unpleasant things, but I never had snipers and IEDs on the daily menu of things to worry about in intense but purely staff assignments.

Even talking about it honestly is fraught with all sorts of PC peril. I managed to get promoted in the Navy that was turning itself inside out over the Tailhook Scandal, and realize there are perfectly obvious things that we are not supposed to notice, and perfectly absurd things we are expected to believe.

I am a feminist because my Mom is the smartest and most capable person I know, and it is absurd to think that she could not do anything she put her mind to, except perhaps a career in the NFL. Consequently, I support women being able to do whatever they can do, and want to, and now that we are beyond the immediate integration issue in the force, it is not surprising that women are excelling in non-traditional combat support jobs.

The issue of time in combat is one that has so much nuance in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. American troops in some units are on their fourth rotation in the Zone, and they include support units with women.

It is a curious thing, the reported reality of the conflict.

The death rate for American forces in Iraq is lower- in fact, much lower- than it was in Vietnam. It is, interestingly enough, only about twice that of American males of the same age who simply live in the US and go about their business.

The level of danger also depends on location. Take Philadelphia. 2002 statistics compiled by the health department, controlled by age, indicate that the chance of dying for African American males was 11% higher in the City of Brotherly love than it was for an equivalent military unit in Iraq.

But as I have observed before, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

The women warriors have accomplished something quite remarkable, but it is in the context that they succeeded in jobs in which intelligence folk of any of the six genders were expected to excel. They got where they were in elite units because of their sheer talent.

That is not true for many of the combat support units, which is where pegs, square and round, are jammed regardless of shape. That is where things get fuzzy for me.

The war in Iraq has not been an unmitigated success story for the integrated force, far from it. The lower casualty rates notwithstanding, some of the horrific wounds provided by IEDs and snipers would have killed in earlier conflicts, and have affected men and women alike.

While the exclusion rules continue to assign women only to "combat support" units, and theoretically not direct ground combat units, the nature of the war is such that there is no front. Women are serving as pilots, gunners and drivers in situations that are in direct contact with insurgent units.

Sexual misconduct, overwhelmingly male but not exclusively, has been a continuing problem in the force. There is no reliable information yet on the mental health issues that our people are bringing back with them. Anecdotal information suggests that PTSD rates are higher than previously observed (or perhaps better said, recognized) in veterans of earlier conflicts.

There is nothing definitive regarding how this is manifested in men and women. It will take years for the data to be compiled, and my take is that it will be different, just as has been demonstrated in analysis of historical medical trials which normed women as "small men."

They are not, any more than males are "large women."

Talking to one of the women with the distinguished record, she said she would like to have a life, and leaving the military is the only means to do so. The OPTEMPO does not appear to be friendly to her needs to find a mate and stability to have a family of her own. My words sounded hollow as I reminded her that she was nearly half-way to the pension; after all, that would put her past the rest of her statistically successful child-bearing years.

Trying to research the issue, it is almost impossible to find anything objective. Bitter partisans are still fighting the battles of the 1990s; the Jessica Lynch story is a lightning rod for both sides, and I refuse to join either, since there is no revealed truth.

Having lived through the change in the Navy after Tailhook '91, I know how hard it was to get to this point in our national culture, and I know that there will never be agreement until the generation that lived this experience is gone from the scene.

There has been no national recoil from the body-bags that are coming home with young American women in them, not the way it was said it would be. That may be a simple reflection of the fact that the nation has not gone to war at all, only it's military.

The consequence of that is plain. The machine needs people, and Uncle Sam is going to be looking for a few good men and women to keep the ranks filled, regardless. That is the imperative of this conflict.

That is also an imperative for who is moving and who is moving out of the neighborhood adjacent to Big Pink. I have a feeling I will not have any answers on that, either.

Copyright 2007 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com

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