First Lady Backs Combat Duty for Military Women

First Lady Barbara Bush said Tuesday that women should be able to serve in combat as long as they have the physical strength to match their ability to shoot and fly as well as men.

“Certainly, emotionally and mentally they are more than able to compete with a man,” she said in an interview on an array of subjects.

“If I thought a woman physically could pick up someone who was wounded and carry them to safety, if I thought they could throw a hand grenade as far as a man, then I would say fine . . . .

“They can shoot as well. They can fly as well.”

President Bush has said he would be willing to hear recommendations from the Pentagon about women in combat. The Pentagon’s official policy is that women do not serve in combat roles but women unexpectedly became involved in combat in Panama.

Meanwhile, an Air Force spokesman said Tuesday that the Military Airlift Command has removed restrictions barring women from being crew members on cargo airdrop missions.

Women now may serve as pilots, co-pilots, loadmasters, flight engineers or crew chiefs on C-130 or C-141 transport planes, said Air Force Capt. George Sillia. He said the decision will affect about 100 women among 4,800 pilots and a like number of women among enlisted crew members.

As for the Dec. 20 invasion of Panama, Mrs. Bush said: “I thought it had to be done. . . . It was tragic that we lost the lives we did. I thought it was important.”

She said her most difficult duty has been to attend a memorial service for the 47 seamen killed in the April 19, 1989, explosion aboard the battleship Iowa.

Mrs. Bush said she can “always tell which of my friends have been to the grocery store” when they call to ask about her health after reading dire reports in supermarket tabloids. The tabloids “are so fake,” she said.

With a chiding reply of “nice try,” she shrugged off questions about her position on abortion and gun control.

On other subjects, the First Lady said:

--Her eyes have not improved from the just-completed radiation treatment to combat symptoms of Graves’ disease, but she is cautiously optimistic. “I’m so eager to be better that I think I’m better,” she said.

--She does not know why her soaring popularity consistently surpasses President Bush’s own high ratings. “I don’t threaten anyone. I’m just a nice, fat grandmother,” she offered as an explanation.

--Her son, Neil Bush, “hasn’t done anything wrong” in his onetime role as a board member of Silverado Savings & Loan. Neil Bush has been questioned by federal regulators about the failed S&L.;

--She had been “a little testy” about an avalanche of letters saying it is unsafe for the President to attend the Feb. 15 drug summit in violence-torn Colombia. She said she would prefer the summit be elsewhere, but “I can’t change his mind or make those decisions.”