Women Infantrymen

Well, almost.

Well, slap me with a feather. Those 12 of you who read my interview over at Jen's place will remember I talked about no major army currently playing around with female combat units in a big way. I was wrong. The Israelis are doing it again. From the Washington Times article by Joshua Mitnick today:

HATZEVA, Israel — Israeli army units with the first female infantry soldiers in 50 years are being upgraded to battalion status, a milestone in the fight of female soldiers to be accepted into combat roles in the Jewish state.

For the past three years, female ground troops from Israel's Carcal company have patrolled the quiet desert borders with Jordan and Egypt, freeing up their male counterparts for duty in more dangerous areas. Now the military is appointing its first female company commander.

Three years? I missed that. It didn't seem to make the mainstream press nor did it get blogged much that I saw. (Which means nothing, there are a LOT of blogs...)

The approach they are taking seems reasonable thus far - though I gotta tell ya, if US docs tried what the Israeli docs said, they'd get crucified by the Mo Dowd and Molly Ivins crowd - both of whom are well-accepted experts on liberal physiology...

Israeli army doctors recommended in October that women be barred from service in combat units on the basis of medical studies showing that they are less able than men to lift heavy objects and carry out sustained, strenuous activities. The doctors, however, said there was no objection to women serving in light infantry units along peacetime borders, as the Carcal company does, or as radar operators in intelligence units, where they have proved themselves on numerous occasions.

Can you imagine the calls to resign from the left if any US Mil doctor were to say something like that publicly? Here's what they have them doing:

Hoping to relieve units stretched thin by the Palestinian uprising, the army created predominantly female companies three years ago to patrol the border for drug smugglers and the rare terrorist infiltrator. Only men served on the more dangerous Lebanese border and in the Palestinian territories. "Every combat soldier aspires to reach the most dangerous areas. That is why we enlisted," said 20-year-old Sgt. Shiran, whose full name cannot be published under Israeli military censorship rules. "I've always known that I wanted to do things in the army that I wouldn't do as a civilian. I didn't think I could get the maximum out of it as a clerk."

While what's going on is not quite what the lead-in to the article suggests, it's still a significant event that bears watching. Now, before I get flooded with comments (yeah, right, my two trolls who visit once a month...) I would point out something.

What the Israelis have these 'infantry' units doing is what we would assign MP units to do, for the most part. And stateside do with the Border Patrol. And our MP units are already integrated. The US is fairly unique in our structure and employment of Military Police, as I discovered while doing doctrinal research and exercise design with the Australian, British and Canadian armies. In most armies, MPs are small units that primarily deal with police matters and traffic control. In the US, MP units do all that AND are largely responsible for rear area security duties - which is what these Israeli units are essentially doing.

So, before you inundate me with "I told ya so's" or "See? See? Wimmin can too hack it!" recognize a few things about what I said.

1. The US ALREADY DOES THIS - and we do it with integrated units.
2. I never said women couldn't hack it - I just said it hasn't worked out well in the past having all-female or mixed MAIN FORCE direct contact ground combat units.

As a final observation - imagine what a blow to the Arab male ego (which is pretty bashed around already) if some islamofascist swine try to infiltrate through these gals and get their asses kicked. One can only savor the possibilities.

I think I could probably get along (in a professional way, in a professional way) with SGT Shiran:

"Every combat soldier aspires to reach the most dangerous areas. That is why we enlisted," said 20-year-old Sgt. Shiran, whose full name cannot be published under Israeli military censorship rules. "I've always known that I wanted to do things in the army that I wouldn't do as a civilian. I didn't think I could get the maximum out of it as a clerk."

The whole article is here.