Cohen Keeps Sexes Integrated During Military Basic Training

Denying that he was making a decision based on what was “politically correct,” Defense Secretary William S. Cohen announced Monday that the military will continue to train men and women together despite sexual-harassment problems.

Only the Marine Corps will continue the tradition of separating the sexes during training, he told a Pentagon press conference. The Army also will train men separately for front-line combat units.

Cohen said he accepted pleas from the services to continue joint training despite last year’s recommendation of a Pentagon panel to separate some basic training. The panel, headed by former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker, was named during last year’s Army scandal involving rape and sexual harassment of female recruits by male drill sergeants.

And in March, a military court martial jury acquitted Sgt. Maj. Gene C. McKinney, formerly the Army’s highest-ranking enlisted man, of all sexual misconduct charges but found him guilty of obstruction of justice.

Some commentators have charged that returning to separate training for the sexes would be a setback for the rights of women in the armed forces.

Cohen noted that the House, but not the Senate, recently voted to house men and women in separate barracks throughout their training. He feels that tightly policing young recruits in common barracks is sufficient, he said.

He noted that it would cost the military $168 million to build separate barracks for men and women, and added that he hopes Congress would provide that money if it mandates such an arrangement.

Male and female recruits are quartered separately by all services, although many now live in common barracks. But Cohen warned in March that the separation must be policed better to keep young men and women from distracting each other “socially.”

The secretary noted that he followed virtually all of the recommendations made by the panel, including increasing the number of female recruiters and trainers to provide women recruits with more role models of their own sex.