Cheney Is Urged to Allow Women in Combat Roles

A committee established to advise the Pentagon on the status of women in the military Wednesday recommended that Defense Secretary Dick Cheney seek repeal of laws barring women from serving in combat.

Citing the performance of female GIs in the Persian Gulf War, the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Military Services adopted the recommendation in a 29-4 vote at the conclusion of a three-day closed meeting in Washington.

Leaders of the panel, including Becky Constantino, a Wyoming Republican with close political ties to Cheney who chairs the committee, discussed the recommendations Monday with him and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The proposal marked the first time since the early 1980s that the group has called for the repeal of the 1948 laws, which exclude women from positions in which they could be exposed to combat. Congress must act if the combat rules are to be changed.

The roughly 35-member committee is made up of civilian women named by the White House to three-year advisory positions.

Cheney has resisted efforts to clarify his position on the politically charged issue and it remained unclear Wednesday whether he will act on the recommendation. However, the performance of women in the Panama conflict and in the Gulf War undoubtedly will add new pressure for the change.

Moreover, the recommendation comes in the wake of renewed congressional calls, led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), for Congress and the Bush Administration to change the so-called “combat exclusion laws.”

“It’s an extremely important step,” said Carolyn Becraft, author of a recent study on women’s military roles in Operation Desert Storm, and a consultant to the Washington-based Women’s Research and Education Institute.

“It recognizes the reality of the Persian Gulf War, which is that when we go to war, women will go to war too, and they shouldn’t have these artificial restrictions,” Becraft added.

“These exclusion laws came out of 1948 and they’re based on the old World War II scenarios. In this day and age, it’s quite obvious that the battlefield has been narrowed to an extent where the distinction between combat and support is not meaningful.”

Before 1948 the use of women in combat was not an issue because women served in separate units.

Of 537,000 U.S. troops dispatched to the Middle East, more than 33,000 U.S. military women served in key combat-support positions throughout the Persian Gulf region. Two women soldiers were taken prisoner by Iraqi forces--an unprecedented event in U.S. military history. Five women were killed, both in rear areas such as Dhahran and in forward positions with units moving deep into Iraq.

Women piloted and served as crew members in planes and helicopters, directed artillery and drove trucks in spite of Saudi laws that forbid women to drive. Women also served on supply ships and in construction battalions that provided critical support to combat troops.

“In light of the role played by women in Desert Storm, the policy of excluding women in combat needs to be reevaluated,” said McCain in an April 17 hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “The issue of what is combat and what is not combat has been blurred, as the range of missiles and aircraft and equipment become greater.

“We found several situations where women not only found themselves in combat situations, but to the point where we had the loss of women both as POWs and as casualties of hostile fire. Women have demonstrated again that they can perform any role they are called upon to make.”

Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), the ranking minority member of the Senate panel, added that he too supports a reevaluation by Congress of the laws barring women from combat.

The Air Force has gone the furthest to integrate women into its ranks, opening 97% of its job specialties to them. The Marine Corps, in contrast, allows women in just 20% of its positions, and the Army gives women access to 52% of its job specialties.

After the U.S. military invasion of Panama in 1989, Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.), a leading member of the House Armed Services Committee, proposed that Congress repeal the combat exclusion rule and conduct a four-year pilot program allowing women to serve in combat roles. The measure was never enacted.