
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 29, 1993                   TAG: 9304290125
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

FEMALE WAR ROLE TO GROW

Defense Secretary Les Aspin's decision to let women fly combat aircraft is but a first step toward allowing women into virtually every combat specialty short of front-line ground combat units, Pentagon officials say.

Aspin announced on Wednesday that he would lift the Pentagon's ban on women in combat aviation slots, effective immediately, and also would ask Congress to repeal a law barring women from Navy combat ships.

He also ordered the armed services to reconsider the continued exclusion of women from other combat jobs outside of front-line infantry and armor units. Pentagon officials said the review almost certainly will lead to the assignment of women to such battlefield jobs as rocket artillery, combat engineering and brigade-level military intelligence, all of which now are limited to men.

"The steps we are taking today are historic," Aspin said. "The results of all this will be that the services will be able to call upon a much larger pool of talent to perform the vital tasks that our military forces must perform. . . . Right now, we're not able to do that."

In the short term, Aspin's decision means that small numbers of qualified female pilots soon will begin making the shift from trainers and transports to high-performance combat aircraft such as the Navy F/A-18, the Air Force F-15 and the Army's Apache and Cobra helicopter gunships. Army officers said female pilots will begin competing for assignment to combat helicopters within a matter of weeks.

The Marine Corps has no female pilots, but Commandant Gen. Carl E. Mundy Jr. promised that will soon change. "We will have applications for women in aviation here starting about day after tomorrow, I suspect," Mundy said. "Their applications will be taken, they'll be processed, they'll go to flight training and they'll compete for aviation slots on a gender-neutral basis in the Marine Corps."

Congress repealed the law prohibiting women from combat aviation jobs in 1991, but the Pentagon had not acted on the legislation until Wednesday.

A law excluding women from combat vessels remains in effect and must be repealed before Aspin can move forward with his plans for the Navy.

"The Navy is . . . ready to go," said. Adm. Frank B. Kelso, the chief of naval operations.

Aspin rejected assigning women to ground combat units. Pentagon officials said that, setting aside questions about women's strength or suitability, they do not believe the public is ready to send women into ground combat.

by CNB