Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: paj@gec-mrc.co.uk (paj) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Re: Combat MOS for Women ? Message-ID: <1991Jun25.024626.27716@cbnews.cb.att.com> Date: 25 Jun 91 02:46:26 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.cb.att.com (william.a.thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 32 Approved: military@att.att.com From: paj The Royal Navy is now putting WRENs (female officers) on combat ships. Some served in the Gulf. Recently a WREN and a male officer were court-martialled for "conduct predjudicial to good discipline". They had been found naked in her cabin. I would have thought that this would be a regular problem in mixed-sex combat units. Danger is well known to be an aphrodisiac, and if you are going to put men and women in a confined space for months on end and then shoot at them, the result seems fairly inevitable. The "baby boom" during the second world war is another example of the same behaviour. What should the Royal Navy do about this? On the one hand current policy is going to result in an awful lot of court martials of good officers for merely being human. On the other hand they cannot condone it, partly because of the moral outcry (the man in the above case was married) and partly because it IS bad for discipline: jealousy is going to be a major problem, especially as there will be far fewer women than men for the forseable future. Maybe women-only units would be a long-term answer. I fully agree with the previous poster who said that women capable of serving in a unit should not be barred simply on grounds of gender, but there are other issues. Incidentally, the navy wives were against the combat WREN program from the start. Paul.