A captain in Afghanistan asks: Why are we so scared of letting women into combat?

By Capt. Michael Carvelli, U.S. Army

Best Defense guest columnist

The secretary of
defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a memorandum to
eliminate the 1994 Direct Ground Combat Definition and Assignment Rule in
January. I just received a memo today, which was written in April.

The 1994 rule states,
"Service members are eligible to be assigned to all positions for which they
are qualified, except that women shall be excluded from assignment to units
below the brigade level whose primary mission is to engage in direct combat on
the ground, as defined as: direct ground combat is engaging an enemy on the
ground with individual or crew served weapons, while being exposed to hostile
fire and to a high probability of direct physical contact with the hostile
force's personnel. Direct ground combat takes place well forward on the
battlefield while locating and closing with the enemy to defeat them by fire,
maneuver, or shock effect."

Fast forward to
today (or April, since I am behind): The current directed timeline is an additional
6,000 positions in 26 active/National Guard brigades and Special Operations
Aviation will be opened. Last year, over 14,000 positions were opened in
brigade combat teams for women to work in maneuver battalion headquarters.

No later than
December 2015, the secretary of the Army is directing an assessment of the
effects and development of gender-neutral standards, and the effectiveness of
the strategies to integrate women into new career opportunities. The result is
integration not later than January 1, 2016.

Generally speaking,
the waterfall effect will start with field artillery and combat engineers, then
into armor and infantry. Special Forces and Special Operations are yet to be
determined at this point in time.

The Air Force
elevated their sexual assault prevention officer from a lieutenant colonel to a
major general, a switch from male to female included. Brigadier General Laura
Richardson was the first female division deputy commander of the 1st Cavalry
Division. General Ann Dunwoody was the first woman to achieve the rank of general
in the military (among other glass-ceiling breaking achievements). Further
back, the first black female command sergeant major was in 1974.

Interesting to note
that in 1989, Captain Linda Bray led her military police company in Panama
defending a dog kennel. Remember the name Molly Pitcher? In 1778, she was
carrying water when her husband collapsed and she took control of the cannons. Even
Jessica Lynch was a supply clerk when her company drove the wrong way and she
was captured in 2003.

Are we really
incorporating women into combat, or just coming to the realization that they
have been in combat, just not the way in which we envision or define? I have
six women in my engineer company and four of them have performed combat
missions day after day. The definition from 1994 of combat is not completely
in-line with counterinsurgency, but its intent is well received. These four
women conduct route clearance, searching for improvised explosive devices on
routes every day. Three of them signed up to operate horizontal equipment like
bulldozers and dump trucks. The other is an officer, technically not a combat
engineer, but no engineer officer specializes only in combat engineering.
Nowhere in their contract did it say "to perform engineer missions, except
those which involve direct combat." They are out doing the same tasks as their
male counterparts. They drive vehicles, shoot crew-served weapons, and lead soldiers
for every mission.

With these six women
in my company, I have yet to have a sexually related incident and I hope I
never do. We have received a lot of guidance on sexual assault and sexual
harassment in the last few weeks. I never accepted sexually related activities
as part of my company. I do not enforce the standard any harder than I had
before Congress put the spotlight on the military. I have been unwavering in my
stance: It has no place in my life, my soldiers' lives, or in my company.

The male soldiers in
my company have verbalized no issues with any of the women in the company. We
are doing well as an integrated team. Yes, there are men, and yes, there are
women. No one wears blinders or tries to ignore each other's gender. We just
fill the gaps where needed. One of my drivers sits on a foam roll because she
is short. She is not a bad driver, she is just height disadvantaged.

Looking forward to
the next few years, as glass ceilings shatter and the military better
integrates men and women, will the sexual assault cases increase? Will the
incorporation of men and women into all occupations lead them to treating each
other equally? I hope so. I've tried digging into the numbers when the service
academies allowed women through their gates. Maybe someone with that data can
publish it for trending.

Since officers and
non-commissioned officers are grown, will we be waiting until the year 2020 to
see a female infantry company commander, or 2035 to see a female armor battalion
command sergeant major? When will we see a female brigade combat team commander?
2040?

CPT Michael Carvelli is an engineer officer
currently deployed in Afghanistan. This article represents his own personal
views and not those of the engineer regiment, the U.S. Army, the Department of
Defense, nor the U.S. government.