Hoo-AH!!!
When I get into discussions about females in combat units I always point out the lessons learned in Desert Storm.
I have never found any of these statistics published anywhere, but as a radio operator at command level in an Army airborne unit, these are the kind of statistics that passed through my commo equipment, to the company grade staff officers and on to the Colonel's morning briefing.
The facts are:
Females made up around 11-13% of the U.S. presence in Desert Storm.
Females accounted for around 32% of the daily sick call.
In the average week, around 20 females were sent back to home station due to pregnancy.
Now, do females have just as much right to go on sick call as males? Of course they do, but apparently, even in a war where almost all females were in support units, they accounted for 3 times their numbers in need for sick call.
Anyone who has served in a forward or Special Ops type unit can tell you how cleanliness is next to impossible. One question I ask females who get into this topic with me is; Could you go for weeks without washing yourself, without ending up with health problems?
Until women are built differently than men, it should be a given that women and men should not be deployed the same. It's not discrimination, it is basic biology.
