THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 2, 1995 TAG: 9505020002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
It's great to see that the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has returned from its first deployment with women aboard and that things apparently went so well. As a veteran of several carrier deployments, I was certainly skeptical.
Those who said women couldn't do the job were ``flat wrong,'' says the captain. We ``can't do the job without them'' and ``there's no turning back the clock,'' says Admiral Murphy. Before we pop the champagne corks, however, perhaps a few points - and a little bit of honesty - should be considered.
First of all, Ike was clearly a showboat from the beginning. The Navy took extraordinary measures - measures it cannot afford to take on every mixed-gender ship - to ensure that all opposition to the idea was squelched and that anyone likely to interfere was transferred. It's also a safe bet that the female crew members were carefully selected and that several senior officers' careers were held hostage to the success of the deployment.
Second, in this era of tight defense budgets, when urgently needed weapons systems are being delayed or canceled altogether for lack of funds, this was an expensive undertaking that produced no military gain. It cost us well over a million tax dollars simply to modify the ship. An all-male crew would have been just as successful without that expense - and without the ``unique'' discipline problems.
Third, this ship experienced no combat and thus proved nothing. The reckless sexual behavior and pregnancies that we have seen on Ike and every other mixed-gender ship would be intolerable in wartime, when a ship must remain isolated on station for months at a time. Pregnant sailors could not be transferred off and would remain aboard as useless liabilities while others would have to carry their load.
Although the Navy insists that women have passed the combat-ship test, this veteran would argue that the jury's still out. I don't recall a situation where women have repaired battle damage, pulled their shipmates from a burning compartment or spent any significant time as POWs. An entire generation of sailors and officers has gone from seaman to master chief and from ensign to admiral, most without any real combat duty.
When Admiral Murphy says that there is ``no turning back the clock,'' our women in uniform - and the members of Congress - had better realize that the admiral's comments apply to the bad as well as the good. Women will be as eligible as men for the draft, should it become necessary; they will have to take the mandatory assignments as well as the voluntary ones.
Yes, someday we'll have to fight a real war with those ships - and homecoming from that kind of deployment will not be as jubilant. Our female soldiers, along with their male counterparts, will come home dismembered or disfigured - and some will not come home at all. Some will experience the sexual abuse and torture of a prison camp. It remains to be seen how this country will respond to its wives, mothers and sisters experiencing that kind of expanded opportunity.
While your liberal-minded staff is celebrating with those front-page stories, remember exactly what you're celebrating. For all those who insist we've done the right thing, God help us.
MICHAEL F. COHEN
Norfolk, April 16, 1995 by CNB