#combat action

Tampons are indeed lighter than bullshit, not to mention a great deal more sanitary...and more effective at plugging bullet holes, too.

Creating visibility to discussions of this nature is important to counteracting the Good Old Boys Club attitude that is in its death throes but still clinging on where it can. I seem to recall this same argument being employed against the impending revocation of DADT.

Disappointingly, I think the comment about lifting dead weight is a derogatory reference to the scene in GI Jane. Here's a real life scenario that's evidence to the contrary, however:

16 JUN 2006: Pte Michelle Norris, British Army, saves the life of her sergeant by climbing out of a vehicle and pulling him from the turret of the Warrior Patrol Vehicle that they were in while under heavy gunfire. She is eventually awarded the Military Cross for her actions, and is the first woman to receive one. (Source.)

As for the whole "country being emotionally prepared to confront the death of females in combat action" argument...(the following list sourced here):

The Korean Conflict 

Ensign Constance R. Esposito, Navy Nurse Corps Lt.jg. Alice S. Giroux, Navy Nurse Corps Lt.jg. Calla C. Goodwin, Navy Nurse Corps Lt.jg. Constance A. Heege, Navy Nurse Corps Lt.jg. Margaret Grace Kennedy, Navy Nurse Corps Ensign Mary E. Lijegreen, Navy Nurse Corps Lt. Wilma Ledbetter, Navy Nurse Corps Ensign Eleanor Beste, Navy Nurse Corps Ensign Marie Boatman, Navy Nurse Corps Lt.jg. Jeanne E. Clarke, Navy Nurse Corps Lt.jg. Jane L. Eldridge, Navy Nurse Corps Ensign Edna J. Rundell, Navy Nurse Corps Lt. Wilma Ledbetter, Navy Nurse Corps, USS Benevolence Hospital Ship Captain Vera M. Brown, Air Force Nurse Corps Major Genevieve Smith, Army Nurse Corps.

Vietnam US Army2nd Lt. Carol Ann Elizabeth Drazba ~~~~~~ 2nd Lt. Elizabeth Ann JonesLt. Drazba and Lt. Jones were assigned to the 3rd Field Hospital in Saigon. They died in a helicopter crash near Saigon, February 18, 1966. Drazba was from Dunmore, PA., Jones from Allendale, SC. Both were 22 years old. Capt. Eleanor Grace Alexander ~~~~~~ 1st Lt. Hedwig Diane Orlowski Capt. Alexander of Westwood, NJ and Lt. Orlowski of Detroit, MI died November 30, 1967. Alexander, stationed at the 85th Evac. and Orlowski, stationed at the 67th Evac., in Qui Nhon, had been sent to a hospital in Pleiku to help out during a push. With them when their plane crashed on the return trip to Qui Nhon were two other nurses, Jerome E. Olmstead of Clintonville, WI and Kenneth R. Shoemaker, Jr. of Owensboro, KY. Alexander was 27, Orlowski 23. Both were posthumously awarded Bronze Stars.2nd Lt. Pamela Dorothy DonovanLt. Donovan, from Allston, MA, became seriously ill and died on July 8, 1968. She was assigned to the 85th Evac. in Qui Nhon. She was 26 years old. 1st Lt. Sharon Ann LaneLt. Lane died from shrapnel wounds when the 312th Evac. at Chu Lai was hit by rockets on June 8, 1969. From Canton, OH, she was a month short of her 26th birthday. She was posthumously awarded the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm and the Bronze Star for Heroism. In 1970, the recovery room at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, where Lt. Lane had been assigned before going to Viet Nam, was dedicated in her honor. In 1973, Aultman Hospital in Canton, OH, where Lane had attended nursing school, erected a bronze statue of Lane. The names of 110 local servicemen killed in Vietnam are on the base of the statue.Lt. Col. Annie Ruth Graham, Chief Nurse at 91st Evac. Hospital, 43d Med Group, 44th Medical Brigade, Tuy Hoa.Lt. Col. Graham, from Efland, NC, suffered a stroke in August 1968 and was evacuated to Japan where she died four days later. A veteran of both World War II and Korea, she was 52.U.S. Air ForceCapt. Mary Therese KlinkerCapt. Klinker, a flight nurse with the 10th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, Travis Air Force Base, temporarily assigned to Clark Air Base in the Philippines, was on the C-5A Galaxy which crashed on April 4 1975 outside Saigon while evacuating Vietnamese orphans. This is known as the Operation Babylift crash. From Lafayette, IN, she was 27. She was posthumously awarded the Airman's Medal for Heroism and the Meritorious Service Medal.

Desert StormMajor Marie T. Rossi was killed 1 March 1991 in Saudi Arabia in Operation Desert Storm. She was flying a CH-47D CHINOOK Cargo Helicopter when it crashed into an unlit Microwave Tower in bad weather. Major Rossi was 32 and a native of Oradell, NJ. US ArmyPFC Pamela V. Gay, 19, Surrey, VirginiaPFC Cindy D.J. Bridges, 20, Trinity, AlabamaPrivate Dorothy Fails, Taylor, ArizonaPrivate Candace DanielSergeant Tracey Brogdon, Bartow, Florida2Lt Kathleen M. Sherry, 23, Tonawanda, NYSpecialist Cindy Beaudoin, 19, Plainfield, Conn. Specialist Christine Mayes, 22, Rochester Mills, Pa.Specialist Beverly Clark, 23, Armagh, Pa. Specialist Adrienne L. Mitchell, 20, Moreno Valley, Calif. Staff Sergeant Tatiana Khaghani Dees, Valley Cottage NY Sergeant Cheryl LaBeau O'Brien, 24, Racine, Wisc.Lt. Lorraine LawtonNavyAG1 Shirley Marie Cross

They gave their lives in the Pentagon attack:Petty Officer Jamie Lynn Fallon, USN, 23Specialist Chin Sun Pak, USA, 24Staff Sergeant Maudlyn A. White, USA, 38Lt Col Karen J. Wagner, USA, 40Petty Officer Marsha Dianah Ratchford, USN, 34Petty Officer Melissa Rose Barnes, USN, 27Sergeant Tamara C. Thurman, USA, 25

In the event that those numbers are insufficient, or not "current" enough, because "combat and warfare tactics change and evolve" or something:

During a decade’s worth of conflict, more than 283,000 women were deployed to [Iraq and Afghanistan]. Hundreds of them served in harm’s way, according to casualty figures.

 More than 800 female service members have been wounded in either Afghanistan or Iraq, and at least 139 have died from combat- and non-combat-related incidents. Of these, 110 died as a result of serving in Iraq, however the last thirteen have all died in Afghanistan. (Source.)

To be blunt, I'm uncertain what these men who are vocalizing resistance are afraid of. After all, a woman served as a Navy SEAL for the past twenty years, and deployed eleven times. I have yet to hear any negative comments from Kristin Beck's comrades about the quality of her performance in the field, or the professionalism of either her behavior or their relationships with her. That she didn't come out as transgender until after her retirement only shows how greatly in need of an overhaul the current physical requirements and restrictions truly are. Gender neutrality in physical standards, as well as hygiene and uniform standards, will pave the way for acceptance of transgender and genderqueer personnel serving openly in the military without fear of discrimination or adverse repercussions.

SOLDIER STORIES: Embrace the challenge.

US Army Major Marci Hodge, second from the left, with fellow female service members at Afghanistan's First National Women's Shura hosted by International Security Assistance Force Joint Command in March 2012.

(Photo and article by Lieutenant Colonel Patty Brewer, 16 MAR 2012 & 20 JUN 2014, via DVIDS.)

(Article by Donna Miles of American Forces Press Service, 6 JAN 2014. Source.)

WASHINGTON - The idea germinated shortly after Navy Reserve Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Bernardi returned from a 10-month deployment to Iraq.

A professor and chair of San Francisco State University's cinema department, Bernardi found a distinct disconnect between the Special Forces soldiers whose operations he had spent much of his deployment documenting and the civilian community he had re-entered.

"I was honestly disturbed by the fact that people in the general population are not connected to these wars," he said. "You can watch the news, and you wouldn't even know that we are in Afghanistan." The disconnect ran particularly deep in academia, where Bernardi said he found that many of his colleagues carried deep and often negative stereotypes about service members and veterans.

Bernardi's concern was two-fold. A public detached from the men and women in uniform can't fully understand or appreciate who they are, what they do and how their service shapes who they are. From a national standpoint, that insulation from the realities and ultimate cost of war might make people less averse to jumping into future conflicts, he said.

So leveraging his decades of experience in the film and documentary field and his position as director of San Francisco State's Documentary Film Institute, Bernardi launched the Veteran Documentary Corps. He called on the industry's most accomplished filmmakers and a pool of mostly volunteer labor for an ambitious, first-of-its-kind project to capture the veteran experience on film.

The concept, he explained, was to produce an online library of professional-quality short films about veterans, their time in the military and their experience returning to civilian life.

Bernardi recognized from the start that a few personal stories wouldn't fully capture the breadth of the veterans' experience. So he set out to tell it through documentaries of 100 veterans of every U.S. service dating back to World War II. Ultimately, he hopes to expand it to include veterans of other countries' militaries as well -- perhaps a Chinese veteran and a Russian veteran who served in the Chechnyan conflict.

"Part of my goal was to educate people about the profound diversity of veterans ... and to help them understand the whole range of veterans' experience" – the hopes and dreams, the pride, the horrors, the disappointments, the challenges of redeployment, Bernardi said.

So far, seven documentaries have been completed and are posted on the project website athttp://veterandocs.org. Several more are in production and are expected to be added soon. After that, Bernardi's goal is to release one documentary each month, and, if the funding comes through as hoped, one every two weeks until all 100 are completed.

The stories, each averaging seven to 10 minutes, capture vastly distinctive combat experiences and how they affected the veterans.

"These are not just testimonials. They aren't just patriotic. They are gritty. They communicate the diversity, and the impact of war and military service, both positive and negative," Bernardi said.

"When people press the button to watch one of these, they think they are going to see a news piece of a 'rah-rah' piece," he continued. "And what they see is something that is really real. It moves them."

Jack Lyon, a Marine Corps captain who served in Vietnam, talks in his documentary about the spiritual aspect of a "hideous" wartime experience, and the unshakeable bond that forms among comrades whose lives depend on each other.

"That unconditional love is what we search for for the rest of our life," he said, and what led him to cofound the Veterans Village of San Diego that serves wounded Marines. "I can't not do this," Lyon said of the new calling, which he said has brought the Marine Corps and its motto, Semper Fidelis, or "Always Faithful," back into his life.

David Gan, an Army staff sergeant during World War II, still struggles to accept the loss of his fellow soldiers after he was medically evacuated to a hospital in France when rendered unconscious by an enemy round. A Chinese-American who enjoyed the bond among the troops that transcended their social and cultural differences, Gan recalled his desperation to return to his unit. "I feel so guilty," to this day, he said, choking back the sobs of survivor's guilt. Today, Gan said he lives through his seven children for what his fallen comrades will never experience. "In a way, I kind of lived for them for what they have missed," he added.

Bobby Hollingsworth, an Army staff sergeant who served in Iraq with Army Criminal Investigation Command, shared in his documentary the numbness and emotional detachment he felt after returning home. He recalled the horror of investigating a soldier suicide, and the sleeplessness and torment that haunted him long after its conclusion.

"I kept everything inside," he said. Today, strengthened by therapy provided through the Department of Veterans Affairs and excited by his newfound love of screenwriting, Hollingsworth said, he feels like his life is on a positive trajectory. Part of human nature, he said, "is to survive and struggle and to endure and to come out on a better side at the end of it."

John Heroux joined the Air Force to be a fighter pilot, and was among the first to fly F-16 bombing runs over Iraq during the opening days of the Persian Gulf War. He recalled in his documentary his first combat mission, and how calm he felt within the safety of his cockpit as he applied the tactics he had trained to conduct.

More than 20 years later, Heroux said, his military experiences have "helped make me who I am." As a commercial airline pilot, he said, he doesn't get flustered when faced with poor weather conditions or occasional instrument failures. These situations "really [don't] raise the stress level of the average military pilot, because they have been through so much more," he said.

Julie Mendez, who joined the Army at 17, said her deployment to Iraq quickly transformed her from a young, naïve girl into an adult. "It was like somebody snapped their fingers and said 'Grow up today, right now,'" she said. Returning home from the conflict, she described herself as a different person, quieter, more serious and battling intense depression about her wartime experience. Today, Mendez is healing herself as well as others by pouring herself into graphics design projects that promote dialog between veterans and the civilian community.

Casey Conklin was a platoon medic with the elite 75th Ranger Regiment, and remembers questioning when he deployed to Iraq, "Can you do the one job you are expected to do?" Today, as a student at San Francisco State University, he is studying health education with the dream of applying it during disaster relief operations. Conklin said he sees that calling as being "part of a bigger picture, an overall mission that you know you will get done" – something he experienced with the Rangers in combat but has found it difficult to recreate in the civilian world. "In disaster relief, I feel that's the closest thing I can do to being a Ranger without a rifle," he said.

 Scott Castle served three combat tours in Iraq with the Marine Corps, and said nothing can fully prepare someone for what they encounter in war. "Combat is hell," he said. That hell followed Castle home in the form of insomnia, flashbacks, anger issues and social anxiety. Just as when he was in Iraq, Castle found respite at the gym, where he took up weightlifting and now dreams of one day going pro. To help get there, he said he's applying the discipline and determination the Marine Corps instilled in him. "The Marines have changed me," he said. "It definitely gave me a new sense of drive in life I didn't have before. Leadership, accountability, a sense of purpose, discipline – and that translates definitely to the civilian world."

The initial documentaries have been received positively through the website, social media outlets at and film festivals, Bernardi reported. Hoping for a broader audience, he is in discussions with several cable TV networks that are considering running the entire series once it is completed.

"We'd like people to walk away from watching these with a greater understanding and a greater respect and appreciation for veterans, without vilifying them and without painting them as wounded," Bernardi said.

In telling their stories, Bernardi wants to help to empower veterans. "We want veterans to see that they're not alone."

(Follow Donna Miles on Twitter: @MilesAFPS)

"Veterans need to share the moral burden of war."

(Opinion editorial by Sebastian Junger, originally published in the Washington Post, 24 MAY 2013.)

Sebastian Junger is an author and documentarian whose works include the book “War” and the film “Restrepo,” which tell the story of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan.

Recently I was a guest on a national television show, and the host expressed some indignation when I said that soldiers in Afghanistan don’t much discuss the war they’re fighting. The soldiers are mostly in their teens, I pointed out. Why would we expect them to evaluate U.S. foreign policy?

The host had made the classic error of thinking that war belongs to the soldiers who fight it. That is a standard of accountability not applied to, say, oil-rig workers or police. The environment is collapsing and anti-crime measures can be deeply flawed, but we don’t expect people in those fields to discuss national policy on their lunch breaks.

Soldiers, though, are a special case. Perhaps war is so obscene that even the people who supported it don’t want to hear the details or acknowledge their role. Soldiers face myriad challenges when they return home, but one of the most destructive is the sense that their country doesn’t quite realize that it — and not just the soldiers — went to war. The country approved, financed and justified war — and sent the soldiers to fight it. This is important because it returns the moral burden of war to its rightful place: with the entire nation. If a soldier inadvertently kills a civilian in Baghdad, we all helped kill that civilian. If a soldier loses his arm in Afghanistan, we all lost something.

The growing cultural gap between American society and our military is dangerous and unhealthy. The sense that war belongs exclusively to the soldiers and generals may be one of the most destructive expressions of this gap. Both sides are to blame. I know many soldiers who don’t want to be called heroes — a grotesquely misused word — or told that they did their duty; some don’t want to be thanked. Soldiers know all too well how much killing — mostly of civilians — goes on in war. Congratulations make them feel that people back home have no idea what happens when a human body encounters the machinery of war.

I am no pacifist. I’m glad the police in my home town of New York carry guns, and every war I have ever covered as a journalist has been ended by armed Western intervention. I approved of all of it, including our entry into Afghanistan. (In 2001, U.S. forces effectively ended a civil war that had killed as many as 400,000 Afghans during the previous decade and forced the exodus of millions more. The situation there today is the lowest level of civilian suffering in Afghanistan in 30 years.) But the obscenity of war is not diminished when that conflict is righteous or necessary or noble. And when soldiers come home spiritually polluted by the killing that they committed, or even just witnessed, many hope that their country will share the moral responsibility of such a grave event.

Their country doesn’t. Liberals often say that it’s not their problem because they opposed the war. Conservatives tend to call soldiers “heroes” and pat them on the back. Neither response is honest or helpful. Neither addresses the epidemic of post-traumatic stress disorder afflicting our veterans. Rates of suicide, alcoholism, fatal car accidents and incarceration are far higher for veterans than for most of the civilian population. One study predicted that in the next decade 400,000 to 500,000 veterans will have criminal cases in the courts. Our collective avoidance of this problem is unjust and hypocritical. It is also going to be very costly.

Civilians tend to do things that make them, not the veterans, feel better. Yellow ribbons and parades do little to help with the emotional aftermath of combat. War has been part of human culture for tens of thousands of years, and most tribal societies were engaged in some form of warfare when encountered by Western explorers. It might be productive to study how some societies reintegrated their young fighters after the intimate carnage of Stone Age combat. It is striking, in fact, how rarely combat trauma is mentioned in ethnographic studies of cultures.

Typically, warriors were welcomed home by their entire community and underwent rituals to spiritually cleanse them of the effect of killing. Otherwise, they were considered too polluted to be around women and children. Often there was a celebration in which the fighters described the battle in great, bloody detail. Every man knew he was fighting for his community, and every person in the community knew that their lives depended on these young men. These gatherings must have been enormously cathartic for both the fighters and the people they were defending. A question like the one recently posed to me wouldn’t begin to make sense in a culture such as the Yanomami of Brazil and Venezuela or the Comanche.

Our enormously complex society can’t just start performing tribal rituals designed to diminish combat trauma, but there may be things we can do. The therapeutic power of storytelling, for example, could give combat veterans an emotional outlet and allow civilians to demonstrate their personal involvement. On Memorial Day or Veterans Day, in addition to traditional parades, communities could make their city or town hall available for vets to tell their stories. Each could get, say, 10 minutes to tell his or her experience at war.

Attendance could not be mandatory, but on that day “I support the troops” would mean spending hours listening to our vets. We would hear a lot of anger and pain. We would also hear a lot of pride. Some of what would be said would make you uncomfortable, whether you are liberal or conservative, military or nonmilitary, young or old. But there is no point in having a conversation about war that is not completely honest.

Let them speak. They deserve it. In addition to getting our veterans back, we might get our nation back as well.

Irwing Lazo, USMC OIF veteran.