Army changes put female GIs at front
By Bryan Bender
The Boston Globe
Washington - The Army for the first time is placing women in support units at the front lines of combat because of a shortage of skilled male soldiers available for duty in Iraq and is considering repealing the decade-old rule that prohibits women from being deployed alongside combat forces, according to Pentagon officials and military documents.
The Army's 3rd Infantry Division has added scores of female soldiers to newly created "forward support companies" that provide maintenance, food service and other support services to infantry, armor and Special Forces units that commonly engage in combat.
Army officials acknowledge that the changes will increasingly place women, who make up about 15 percent of the armed forces, in combat situations, but they believe they are following federal law, which prohibits female soldiers from serving in units that engage in direct combat.
The Army maintains that it has not changed the overall Pentagon policy regarding women in combat, which limits them to serving on surface ships and in attack aircraft. But internal Army documents indicate the service is ignoring a 1994 rule barring women from serving alongside units that conduct offensive operations.
The change made by the 3rd Infantry Division was prompted by a shortage of trained troops caused by the length of the Iraq war. It has set off a quiet but highly charged debate within the Army over the role of female soldiers.
As a practical matter, the guerrilla tactics used against U.S. troops during the Iraq occupation also have blurred the lines between combat and support functions and are expected to prompt a wholesale White House review of the definition of ground combat.
"After this operation is over, the question of how they define combat has got to be raised," said Lory Manning, a retired Navy captain who heads the Women in the Military Project at the Women's Research & Education Institute.
Female soldiers have found themselves in the line of fire more often in Iraq and Afghanistan than in any previous wars. Since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003, about 30 women have been killed, most of them in hostile action.
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