Maisha Elonai Elonai is finishing her
last quarter as an English student at UCLA. Like a good columnist,
she’ll stick her nose in anybody’s business. Feel free to return
the favor at [email protected].
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In a blast off the coast of Yemen last month, 17 U.S. sailors
aboard the USS Cole were added to the ranks of patriots who have
died in the service of their country. However, there was something
unusual about these casualties: two of them were women.
Seaman Lakeina, Monique Francis of Woodleaf, N.C., and Seaman
Apprentice Lakiba, Nicole Palmer of San Diego are considered the
first women permanently stationed aboard a U.S. Navy combat ship to
be killed in an attack, according to a statement confirmed by the
Navy.
These women’s deaths were as untimely and tragic as all
casualties aboard the USS Cole. But they have a greater
significance than the disaster would indicate, per se.
Francis and Palmer were not merely victims of a suicide bombing;
they are among the few notable women who died for the United States
in a close to combat situation.
In the military, equal rights for women seem to be just around
the corner, yet there are some opportunities rarely granted to
women that men experience regularly.
One of these is the right to sign up, be drafted, enter combat
and possibly die for the United States.
Illustration by JASON CHEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Arguments
against women serving in combat have been discussed many times:
women are sexually distracting to men and can disrupt troops; women
do not have the same upper-body strength that men have and are
therefore at a natural disadvantage in combat; and female hostages
might be more cruelly treated by an enemy and therefore, should not
be exposed to that additional danger.
But Francis and Palmer were stationed with men aboard a combat
ship operating routinely before the blast occurred. Regardless of
any upper-body strength or sexual advantages men might have had,
the explosion tore through the women as thoroughly as it harmed the
men on board.
The lives and deaths of Francis and Palmer are indicative of
just how outmoded the idea is of keeping women out of combat.
The Navy, like other branches of the Armed Forces, is already
integrating both sexes in service. Women might even see combat
““ the U.S. Army and Airborne Division has two female
intelligence officers assigned to an infantry regiment, according
to a brief by the Scripps Howard News Service.
The presence of women in the Armed forces has never and still is
not an open invitation for male troops to engage in sexual activity
with them. It is simply a serviceable presence.
If women have successfully worked aboard combat ships and have
been assigned to infantry regiments, why is it that women are still
not drafted and assigned to combat positions the same way men
are?
Granted, women and men might have anatomical differences giving
men disparate advantages in physical combat. But, as was the case
with the USS Cole bombing, American troops today rarely see that
kind of fighting. More frequently, troops are exposed to
long-distance combat and are injured by explosives or toxins.
Even in the rare occasions that soldiers do see hand-to-hand
combat, the physical differences between women and men are not
solely a woman’s disadvantage. Men might have greater
upper-body strength than women, but female troops might have
greater lower-body strength, speed or agility.
Proper combat training could teach female troops to use those
advantages to overcome their opponents, eliminating the possible
disadvantage of lesser strength of force. Greater endurance,
traditionally ascribed to women, could give them a substantial edge
over their male counterparts in long-term survival situations.
A woman’s different strengths are not an excuse to keep
her from military action.
In fact, those differences in strength have never successfully
excluded women from the Armed Forces at all.
Francis and Palmer were examples of how women are soldiers, too,
and they can be exposed to the same risks as men.
Their names belong to a roster of women who should be remembered
for their largely forgotten sacrifices in and around combat.
They should be remembered along with the 38 women Air Force
service pilots who lost their lives ferrying bombers, cargo planes
and pursuit fighters during World War II.
They should be remembered along with the hundreds of female
journalists and nurses, who risked their lives to work near front
lines. Workers such as Jurate Kazickas, a researcher for
“Look” magazine who in 1968 was permanently scarred by
a rocket blast in Vietnam, have already braved dangers to be
involved with troops.
Women have and will continue to die for their chosen causes
““ the love of their country being one of those causes.
Men and women will not attain social equality until they are
regularly allowed to participate in the same roles and are equally
commended for their sacrifices.
As a woman myself, I have no desire to fight in a war ““
but fight for equal opportunities? You can draft me for that. Women
should have the right to serve and die for their country, too.