Why did I put the word "open" in quotes? Because women have already served in combat.
They just didn't get combat pay for doing it.
Female mechanics fixed vehicles while taking fire. They had weapons and they used them to shoot back. Since they were mechanics, they weren't in 'combat' and did not get combat pay. Nor did they get the medals that go with it.
Similar stories happened with pilots, drivers, and other 'non-combat' positions. Not top mention women serving ship board.
During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, more than 800 women were wounded and at least 130 died while in 'non-combat' positions. (source)
It's time to recognize real equality.
American women have consistently proven themselves as deadly soldiers.
Yes, there are problems with sexual harassment in the military. But if the women are willing to risk it, then we should support them.
It will in fact help us create a better army.
All militaries run on discipline. Where sexual harassment is occurring, that is a failure of discipline, which means our military had a secret weakness that we uncovered. When we fix the lack of discipline that led to the harassment, we make our military stronger and better.
In addition, there are heroes out there. Some are male, some are female. By keeping women out of combat, we were preventing these heroes.
One day - and soon - our decision to let women serve in combat positions will save the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of other American soldiers.
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