Show WOmEN IN THE miLITflRY Marine Girporal Donna Smith: “When you come bark bom a day of leading a squad up through the woods with a 35 pound radm on your back chances are you're going to smell a little funny" Says Sgt Joanne Johnson: "The hair the make-uyou've just got to let it all go” Sighs Trudy GaDetto "I've been told I look like a dog in my fatigues” (continued) cadets to oppose the change openly h was in this climate that Cadet Carol Barkalow a member of the first class to include women remembers the new female cadets greeting male upperclassmen with the required traditional “Good morning sir” and receiving the reply "Good morning bitch” "There was a great deal of hostility some of it quite open and harsh” admits Cadet Kathryn Ann Wildey of West Point's class of 1980 "It seemed I often found myself left standing against a wall when the others had been dismissed listening to a lecture from a male officer about how I was just not living up to the standards of West Point For me the killing remark was: ‘And aren't you sorry now that you lost your femininity' " Some of those who originally spoke out against having female cadets have since moderated their views Lt Col Jere K Fotbus who had felt that having women at the academies was purposeless says “I now believe that there is a purpose H we are going to have women in the military at all and we certainly are then we must have female officers And if we're going to have female officers we must have female cadets at the academies Once you see what these young women can do you have to puB for them and believe in them” At West Point many women of the class of 1980 hold special positions of responsibility They also have compiled an impressive academic record and their basketbaB team "The Sugar Smacks” placed second in the state Despite some initial problems with the academy's physical training the women have proved themselves equal to any endeavor Carol Barkalow was among the four seniors who spent part of this past summer teaching combat engineering to the sophomores The "yearlings” male and female are taught to camouflage Army bunkers build bridges clear mines execute basic techniques and fire p One of the women's major problems has been male hostility especially from older military men Says Edwina Brooks: old sailors made “Some of those it so rough on the women especially when they were first coming into formerly jobs a few years ago that a girl could just give it up They wanted to get rid of the women and beBeve me they got rid of a lot of them that way” Corporal Laura Coscino was one of the first women to enter the Marine Corps’ blatantly virile Military Police force “It seemed God and everyone else had their eyes on me looking for me to mess up” she remembers "There was a lot of: 'She's a girl she’s not going to be able to handle it’ The other cops were hesitant about even riding in the patrol car with me I knew I was going to be walking into a lot of wails So I had to say to myself: Laura any way that you had feelings — you know like being a softie — has got to stop right now" die-har- d le Galetto was the first woman to Trudy heavy equipment — dump trucks back loaders diesel rigs and the like — on her post "My first day the guys didn’t want me digging They thought I had no business being there And here I'd trained for my job and I was better than some of them But I have to admit the remarks got to me I definitely try harder" When it was first announced in 1976 that the service academies (the Military Academy at West Point the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs the Naval Academy at Annapolis the Coast Guard Academy at New London) would accept females many military men responded with fury The superintendent of West Point threatened to resign encouraging “reconhowitzers On three-da- y do" missions they climb mountains and practice night attacks g restriction on The women in the military is that they are still forbidden by law from serving in combat But even this may change: The Defense 2 single-remainin- Department recently asked Congress to repeal the ban The issue may be the military's most controversial Some enlisted women questioned said that if push came to shove they would enter the infantry otherwise the foxhole is a job option they’d just as soon pass up "I wouldn't be worth a dam in combat" says Army Specialist 5 Dixie Jones “And I don't think the American people will ever be ready to see women go to war” Kathryn Wildey of West Pbint explains: “I've been combat-traine- d and I can do anything a man can do but not as well or as consistently especially things that require use of the upper body — like running with a rifle" women feel strongly that they be as obtgated — and as capable — as any man to serve their country and would go to war wlliny I would go in- Other to combat — happily" says Laura Coscino “One of the main reasons I enlisted was to help defend my country" And Army Lt Sherilyn Freeman enthused: "I would rise to the occasion" Statements like Freeman's anger Brig Gen Elizabeth Hoslngton who has said: "If women knew or could even imagine the physical mental and emotional demands of serving in combat they would not blithely — or bravely — volunteer to serve in combat I have no personal experience in a combat unit but my male colleagues tell me — and I believe — War is hell' It is bad enough our young men have to endure this But do we want young women to suffer it too? 1 have never known 10 women whom I thought could endure three months Recent studies show that female recruits are less to go AWOL or require psychiatric aid likely ft 3 bj I FAMILY WEEKLY Nowmbw 4 lift under actual combat conditions" Retired Maj Gen John SinyUih former Chief of Staff of the Eighth Army : in South Korea lias also staled his "It's a silly xiea to put women into combat To say that they are physiologicobitf-tions- ” ally equal to men is to defy reality Aside from the question of whetlier women are physically capable of serving combat much of the male uneasiness about women as infantry soldiers has to do with sex And women share some ol that concern For example the most bitter objections to assigning women to Navy ships came not only from Navy men but from their wives as well One woman wrote to the Navy Times "What right does the Navy have to expect wives to sit at home lonely themselves raising kids while the Navy provides husbands with women?" Some men agree: "If you put men and women together in combat sexual attractions are bound to arise" says Navy 2nd Class Petty Officer Angel Velauceuz Congress may very well soon repeal the law barring females from combat units Even then however the extent to which women are assigned to such units will depend on the effect on national security Pentagon officials are cautious One of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has been quoted as saying: “We must be absolutely sure that the military's basic mission is not compromised by the presence of more females Men have proven themselves effective in combat since the days of caves women may prove to be even more effective more aggressive than men But we do not know this yet” What is clear is that in years to come g women will be filling positions in afl branches of the armed forces d And altliough it will be years before female officers are the norm there are signs that subtle changes are already occurring "The other day a neighbor of mine asked her son if he wanted to be in the Army like me” said Capt Barbara Freebairn "The kid told his motherrm ULi ‘No that's a girl's job'” in policy-makin- high-ranke- Male and female sailors have pulled together little too closely for some Navy wives and a - |