DATE: Saturday, June 28, 1997               TAG: 9706280331

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   68 lines

COHEN NAMES TASK FORCE, SAYS HE WOULD NOT ALLOW REDUCED ROLE FOR WOMEN

A Pentagon task force examining gender-integrated training in the military will have a free hand to propose changes in the way troops are prepared for duty and life in the service. But ``the role of women is not to be circumscribed,'' Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said Friday.

Announcing membership of a group he created in response to sex scandals at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground training facility in Maryland, Cohen sought to calm concerns among women's rights advocates that the panel could trigger moves to shut women out of more military career fields.

The 10-member task force will be led by former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker, a colleague of Cohen's in Congress until both gave up their Senate seats in January.

The panel includes retired Vice Adm. Richard C. Allen of Virginia Beach, who headed the Navy's Atlantic air forces when he left the service in April 1996.

Cohen said he is willing to consider any suggestions the panel makes, but that so far he's seen ``no compelling reason to change integrated training.''

And whatever they do about training, the services are not about to step back from moves made in recent years to let women compete for jobs as fighter jet pilots, ship drivers and virtually every other task that isn't in direct ground action, Cohen promised.

In the Navy, virtually all seagoing billets except on submarines are now open to women.

The Army, Navy and Air Force train all troops together; the Marine Corps keeps men and women apart during basic training but has integrated advanced training programs.

The troubles at Aberdeen, apparently including systematic efforts by some drill instructors to have sex with large numbers of female trainees, triggered attempts in Congress this spring to force separate training of men and women. But Cohen's move to create the task force, along with ongoing investigations by committees in the House and Senate, apparently has headed off any congressional action for now.

In a telephone interview, Allen said that at the time of his retirement, he was comfortable with the way women were being integrated into the Navy and with the training male and female recruits were receiving.

``I just felt the Navy had a good plan,'' he said. While his opinion hasn't changed, he said, as a member of the task force ``I may get facts and data that are much different than I was aware of'' while on duty, he added.

Allen said he knows that some naval aviators believe that standards have been lowered to accommodate the movement of women into the fleet. He doesn't share that view, he said.

``It's time that everyone accepts facts for what they are,'' Allen said. ``And those facts are that the country chose to let women serve in a combat role. . . . That's a national decision, and if certain male members can't accept that decision, they ought to seek another line of work.''

Other task force members are retired Army Lt. Gen. G. Robert Forman, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Marcelite Harris, retired Marine Corps Gen. Don Gardner, Stanford University Provost Condoleezza Rice, retired NBC News correspondent John Dancy, University of North Carolina law Professor Marilyn V. Yarbrough, University of Mississippi Associate Provost Carolyn E. Staton and Deval L. Patrick, a Washington lawyer and former assistant attorney general for civil rights. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Defense Secretary William Cohen tapped former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum

Baker to head a 10-member panel studying gender issues.

The task force studying gender-integrated military training includes

retired Vice Adm. Richard C. Allen of Virginia Beach. KEYWORDS: GENDER TASK FORCE

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