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From: amoss@cs.huji.ac.il (Amos Shapira)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Combat MOS for Women ?
Message-ID: <1991Jun21.015307.15957@cbnews.cb.att.com>
Date: 21 Jun 91 01:53:07 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.cb.att.com (william.a.thacker)
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From: Amos Shapira <amoss@cs.huji.ac.il>
In article <1991Jun20.021602.2623@cbnews.cb.att.com> pierce@bcstec.boeing.com
(Greg Pierce) write:
| needless loss of life on the battlefield.  I know that some
| years ago the IDF abandon the policy of women in combat.

It's not "some", it was more than 40 years ago, the idea of women in combat
was abandoned immidiatly after the War of Independence.

| What was this based on, and what other military force has
| pursued this doctrine?

The reason, as far as I know, was simply that the desicion-makers ware
afraid of what can happen to the women if they were captured
(the Arab armies and paramils where never famous for their good treatment of
POW's, except maybe the Jordanian Legion).

However, there are now demands to re-incorporate women into combat or
para-combat jobs. Women fulfil many of the instruction jobs (tank, sniper,
CBE, arty, etc). Some of the women serve as para assistants (parachute
handlers and folders). This is not combat, true, but maybe soon. There ARE
women pilots in the RPV squadrons :-).

Cheers,
Amos Shapira, Cpl. (Res.! at last)
Marc A. Volovic, Sgt. (Res.)
amoss@cs.huji.ac.il