By Guest Blogger Donna McAleer

The topic of women in combat remains controversial. Conventional wisdom and current law prevent women, no matter how able, from serving in units with direct offensive combat missions—Infantry, Armor, Artillery and Special Forces. The justifications for this exclusion include that women are not fit for combat and battlefield stress because they lack the emotional stability and physical strength. The media has often proffered that American’s would not stand to see their daughters coming home in body bags, missing limbs or badly disfigured. The purported fear and outcry of a women’s violent death from enemy fire has not materialized during the war on terror. The deaths of women soldiers have provoked no more and no less reaction than the deaths of male soldiers. In reality, the strained Armed Forces need women in the fight. Circumstances have eclipsed arguments, and few in the military and government are anxious to rekindle the debate.

The combat exclusion policy was implemented for a linear battlefield with front and rear lines of combat clearly demarcated. Today’s battlefield is asymmetrical, and the soldiers prosecuting the war engage in combat in 360 degrees. The fact is women are everywhere on the battlefield.

Specialist Monica Brown is one of these soldiers. ,

Read More...

Motto of the United States Army Rangers

Years ago I spent nine weeks in the U. S. Army’s Ranger School, undergoing commando-style training in which students are deliberately stressed by food and sleep deprivation, strenuous days-long exercises and the pressure of constant evaluation. We took turns filling the leadership positions, but we were all leaders in training, mostly young officers and sergeants. Since it’s harder to lead miserable, cold, wet and exhausted soldiers than it is to lead well-fed and well rested ones, the thinking goes, practice here and you’ll be better prepared for combat.

Well into our course we got a mission to locate a buried cache of weapons on the vast expanse of Florida panhandle where we trained. When our patrol leader indicated that he found the spot, we set up a security perimeter—a big circle of armed men facing outward for enemy patrols that might have followed us. But we were all thinking the same thing: sometimes these supply drops included food. By this point we were subsisting on one or two rations a day while conducting extremely strenuous training. So even though we were in peak physical condition when we began, every one of us had lost weight: ten, fifteen, twenty pounds. We fantasized about food and sleep, sleep and food. ,

Read More...

Ed Ruggero

In a previous post I wrote about General Norman Schwarzkopf’s two rules for leaders, which he shared with cadets at West Point. Rule Thirteen was, “When in charge, take charge.” Rule Fourteen was, “Do the right thing.” The general made these comments at a formal dinner for some thousand plus cadets and their guests in West Point’s cathedral-like Mess Hall. I watched the young officers-in-training as they listened respectfully, their faces all eagerness and promise, and I thought, “They have no idea how difficult a challenge he is placing before them.”

Many leaders start out with the best of intentions when it comes to making the right choices. The ones who are paying attention quickly realize that often the hard part is figuring out what’s right from a dizzying array of choices that might be right. Young leaders want a world of black and white, but what we get are a thousand shades of gray. ,

Read More...

Ed Ruggero

I once heard General Norman Schwarzkopf speak to a group of cadets at West Point. He summarized, as he put it, everything he had learned about leadership in his thirty-plus years in the Army in two rules, which he called—for reasons unknown and unexplained—rules number thirteen and fourteen.

Rule Thirteen was “When in charge, take charge.” In his remarks that evening he emphasized the second phrase—take charge—encouraging his young charges to think of themselves as leaders, with all that says about their responsibilities to step up. Schwarzkopf urged them to be courageous and reminded them that they were being trained and educated, at great expense to the taxpayer, to lead others. Using stories from his own experiences, especially as a junior officer, he pointed out that some of their opportunities to lead would be mundane, even boring. Some of them, he promised, would face more dramatic circumstances. This was pre 9-11, and both of those predictions came true; many of the young men and women who sat before him that night have served multiple tours in combat. ,

Read More...

by Guest Blogger Charles Ziegler

I was a young Army Officer in Korea in 1981. We had marched most of a cold March night to meet some covered trucks for a ride back to camp. At dawn a raw, wind-driven rain greeted us at the pick-up point, and as the light came up it became apparent that our ride was late. Our leaders were huddled up away from the main body of soldiers, and in radio communication with the trucks. Not a word was passed from the leaders to the soldiers as an hour, then two passed, with the GI’s standing in the rain becoming slowly and completely miserable. Soon a murmur went up from within the mass of tired, wet and hungry GI’s. Someone said we weren’t going to be picked up. That a helicopter was coming for the more senior leaders, and that everyone else would be marching, actually back-tracking our previous night’s route, plus extra miles to boot. Word of these stories reached those in charge, who chuckled and wrote off the rumor-mongering to tired, wet GI’s. With no real information forthcoming, the grumbling in the ranks worsened and morale, already low, sank further. Soldiers swore about the situation, then about specific, individual leaders. The rumors grew more unreasonable, and yet still no word came from our leaders, who were in contact with the outside world and had information that might have squelched the complaining. Finally, around 11AM, the convoy showed up. Soldiers piled in, disgruntled and miserable, morale completely shot for the day. We spent a couple of cold hours, soaked and crammed into the cargo beds as we made our way to warm showers and hot chow. ,

Read More...