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From: Lt Col ZYX
Date: 11 Aug 2000
Time: 09:22:33
[Note: Lt Col ZYX is a retired USAF Lt Col]
A few years back (around '95) I was flying back to Nellis from Eglin. On the plane from Atlanta to Dallas, I had the wonderful opportunity of sitting next to an Israeli civilian who had been a tank driver in the '73 war, was still in the Reserves (I don't think anyone over there ever really leaves their services), and was going to Dallas to do some work with TI. Anyhow, I brought the subject of women in the military up to him since I said that his country had tried the "women in the military experiment and especially in combat roles" and yet they had recently gone back to "women in the military are all right, but only in supporting units."
His comments were enlightening. He said it was not that the women could not kill as good as men, but that the men in the combat units were less capable because they were worrying about the women. They worried about what would happen to the women if they were captured, you know, the standard rape and brutalize type of stuff. Since the men worried about this so much they couldn't perform their missions with the reckless abandon (not really true) they had done in the past. Therefore, the combat effectiveness of the units was reduced. Consequently, that is why they, the Israelis, abandoned the experiment of putting women into combat units.