Women and the draft

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Apocalypse
The whole argument of this applying only to infantry is pretty meh. Any unit with vehicles might have to be light infantry at any time, especially with all the IEDs right now. You can't put people in jobs like that who cannot do the minimum for a light infantry unit. There are many woman who could function in a light infantry unit, but there couldn't be many. She couldn't be the demo team or aid and litter, but she could point a rifle at someone during an EPW search. She also probably couldn't be on some of the heavier weapons systems, but I know at least a few who have enough leg and back strength to be RTOs.

Excellent point. It's interesting to note that people in non-infantry MOS's are finding that their life is a lot more infantry like in Iraq than their previous training ever suggested. I agree completely that it is unrealistic to look at how a unit operates outside of a combat zone and base your standards on what is done there. It may be more politically expedient, but in the end you have Jessica Lynch and company riding into a battle that they are not equipped, trained or physically suited to fight.

I also agree with Krazy Horse that any sort of emergency draft (as opposed to a policy of permanent national service obligations) is going to be heavy on the infantry. There are a couple of reasons why. First of all in a hot war infantry take a lot of casualties. Secondly, training low level grunts for the infantry is a simple matter and that shorter training time fits in well with the typically short term of service that draftees have traditionally had in the U.S. Finally in any sort of nation building / occupation type operations there is a huge demand for a few MOS's and little need for many others. Among those in need is of course the infantry. Look at all the retraining the U.S. Army is doing in order to get enough infantry in Iraq right now as an example. They'd much rather retain these people as experienced artillerymen (etc.) and train new recruits to serve as infantry, but there simply aren't enough soldiers to do so.

[lord of the mark]

sure people on a convoy may have to fight as infantry. But KH's objection to women serving as infantry was mainly based on their ability to carry the kit associated with being infantry. Someone driving a truck who has to grab a gun in an ambush doesnt have to have the same abilities that a standard infantryman does.

Im still skeptical of an "emergency draft". Look at the emergency drafts in ww1 and ww2. the one in WW2 was actually started in peacetime, several months before Pearl. And it was about a year and a quarter before any considerable numbers of draftees went into combat. In ww1 the draft was implemented on going to war, in spring of 17. US troops didnt arrive in Europe in numbers for a year after that.

The reason - the peacetime army didnt have enough non-coms to BOTH train up a huge new group of recruits, AND fight a war. In ww1 the french and brits fought instead, and in ww2 the Russians mainly, and the USN mainly in the Pacific.

IF tomorrow we had a really big land war, we couldnt spare the trainers for a huge new army. Thats already an issue constraining expansion of the current army, IIUC. You CANT expand the army tremendously overnight, not if you want to fight at the same time.

As for peacekeeping. It seems to me the skills in shortest supply are civil affairs and related, as much as more so than infantry. Id also recall reading that the Army has relied on its female troops to search women, even calling women from other skill areas to join search teams in order to do so. This is a big cultural issue.

[Apocalypse]

As the xo in a forward support unit, yeah you actually have to do more than just grab a rifle during an ambush. You also can't always stay right by the truck in certain situations. This means you have to have something like a 3 day pack. Might only have to carry about 50 lbs instead of 80, but it doesn't make it much easier for most girls.