The decision to formally allow women to serve in combat is a well and hard-earned recognition of their abilities, patriotism, and courage.
I admit to being a late convert. But stories like Captain Linda Bray's (during the Panama war) proved the point:
Bray and 45 soldiers under her command in the 988th Military Police Company, nearly all of them men, encountered a unit of Panamanian special operations soldiers holed up inside a military barracks and dog kennel.
Her troops killed three of the enemy and took one prisoner before the rest were forced to flee, leaving behind a cache of grenades, assault rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition, according to Associated Press news reports published at the time. The Americans suffered no casualties.
(From a story about her in today's Washington Post.) More information here. And even more (a master's thesis) here.
There have been many others since. In actual fact women have been serving in combat situations now for considerable time; they just haven't gotten credit for it.
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