3 Service Chiefs Oppose Women in Combat Role : Military: Only Air Force top general tells senators he would back allowing equal access to battle assignments.

Three of the four heads of the U.S. military services told lawmakers on Tuesday they oppose making women eligible for combat.

Despite growing sentiment for letting American servicewomen join men in battle in some situations, all but the Air Force’s top general argued against modifying the prohibitions. In presenting their case, the nation’s top military men warned that allowing women to fill combat roles could weaken the armed forces’ combat readiness and erode the esprit de corps of small infantry units.

Gen. Alfred M. Gray Jr., commandant of the Marine Corps, and Gen. Carl E. Vuono, chief of staff of the Army, argued that women were not interested in jobs in infantry units requiring great physical strength.

“We believe our women understand that you need women and you need men, and they’re different,” Gray said.

Vuono called the readiness of combat units “our paramount business,” and said that including women in those forces would serve as an unnecessary distraction to male soldiers.

In explaining his opposition to dropping the combat ban, Adm. Frank B. Kelso III, chief of naval operations, cited morale problems the Navy encountered integrating women on noncombat ships. “There are things we have to learn” before expanding the military role of women, he said.

The chiefs’ testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee marked the first time the nation’s most senior military officials have aired their views on the subject since a movement to repeal the combat exclusion laws gathered momentum on Capitol Hill in early May. The congressional move was sparked by the performance of the U.S. military’s 35,355 women deployed at the height of the Persian Gulf War.

The chiefs’ comments were echoed by the Pentagon’s senior civilian personnel official, Christopher Jehn, who warned lawmakers that the Defense Department “will be moving into uncharted territory” if the statutory prohibitions to women in combat are torn down.

“At the moment, we have a policy that we understand and that works well,” said Jehn. “We’re not looking to make momentous and important changes” in that policy, he said.

Jehn’s comments marked an apparent reversal of the Defense Department’s earlier support for legislation passed by the House in late May that would repeal the 1948 laws barring women from combat. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney had welcomed that measure as one that would give the Pentagon’s leadership the latitude to implement changes as it saw fit.

But responding to a senator’s question Tuesday, Jehn said that as of now, he would not advocate repeal of the combat exclusion laws. Jehn also appeared to confirm some lawmakers’ suspicions that the Pentagon wants Congress to take the lead in the politically sensitive issue.

“We are looking to the Congress and to the American people for the answers to these complex questions,” Jehn said.

Jehn’s comments, along with his unwillingness to detail for lawmakers the Defense Department’s views on women in combat, left several senators disappointed. “It’s important that we receive recommendations from the Pentagon,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Experts on the issue have said that Defense Department leadership is crucial to overcoming the military services’ traditional resistance to expanding roles for women. Jehn’s lack of enthusiasm for such expansion appeared to signal that the department’s senior officials are not prepared to overrule the reservations of the military leadership.

Those reservations were in full view Tuesday, as the chiefs of staff of the Army and Navy and the commandant of the Marine Corps lined up against repealing the prohibitions on women filling combat roles. Only Gen. Merrill A. McPeak, the chief of staff of the Air Force, told senators that as a matter of policy, he would favor allowing women equal access to combat positions.

McPeak added that he had personal reservations about such a policy. He said he took “great comfort” in the rules barring women from combat and “would like to see (them) stay on the books.”

But he added that it is important “that we reflect the best aspects of our society,” and open all military slots women are physically qualified to fill.

The Marine Corps and Army sent female enlistees before the Senate panel to bolster their leaders’ cases. “We do not wish to carry a rifle and lug a pack around and live the way the grunts do,” said Gunnery Sgt. Jean A. Amico, who served as an electronics maintenance chief in the Persian Gulf.

But women officers from the Air Force and Navy argued that women must be given equal access to combat positions.

Maj. Christine Prewitt, an Air Force pilot, noted that men and women go through identical pilot training and said: “If you make that cut, you should be able to go on and fly.”

Navy Lt. Brenda Marie Holdener warned lawmakers that while Congress has focused on putting women aviators aboard aircraft carriers, it will be difficult to keep lower-ranking women from pressing to fill a wide range of roles aboard such warships.

The strongest criticism of repealing the ban came from a former Marine Corps commandant, retired Gen. Robert H. Barrow, who said women cannot kill in combat situations.

“It’s uncivilized and women can’t do it,” he said.

“Women give life, sustain life, nurture life, they can’t take it,” he said. “If you want to make a combat unit ineffective, assign women to it.”