... but Comcast had our cable down again (this is the second Friday afternoon in a row). 

 First seen in soldiergrrrl's jourunal.  I posted awhile ago about PFC Monica Brown becoming the second woman since WW2 (and second in this conflict) to recieve the Silver Star here.

And now they're pulling her out of her unit because, oh yeah, women aren't allowed in combat.  Sure could have fooled us.

Silver Star Recipient Removed From Combat

It's a long article, so I'll present some excerpts:

KHOST, Afghanistan -- Pfc. Monica Brown cracked open the door of her Humvee outside a remote village in eastern Afghanistan to the pop of bullets shot by Taliban fighters. But instead of taking cover, the 18-year-old medic grabbed her bag and ran through gunfire toward fellow soldiers in a crippled and burning vehicle.

Vice President Cheney pinned Brown, of Lake Jackson, Tex., with a Silver Star in March for repeatedly risking her life on April 25, 2007, to shield and treat her wounded comrades, displaying bravery and grit. She is the second woman since World War II to receive the nation's third-highest combat medal.

Within a few days of her heroic acts, however, the Army pulled Brown out of the remote camp in Paktika province where she was serving with a cavalry unit -- because, her platoon commander said, Army restrictions on women in combat barred her from such missions.

"We weren't supposed to take her out" on missions "but we had to because there was no other medic," said Lt. Martin Robbins, a platoon leader with Charlie Troop, 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, whose men Brown saved. "By regulations you're not supposed to," he said, but Brown "was one of the guys, mixing it up, clearing rooms, doing everything that anybody else was doing."

In Afghanistan as well as Iraq, female soldiers are often tasked to work in all-male combat units -- not only for their skills but also for the culturally sensitive role of providing medical treatment for local women, as well as searching them and otherwise interacting with them. Such war-zone pragmatism is at odds with Army rules intended to bar women from units that engage in direct combat or collocate with combat forces.

Military personnel experts say that as a result, the 1992 rules are vague, ill defined, and based on an outmoded concept of wars with clear front lines that rarely exist in today's counterinsurgencies.

"The current policy is not actionable," concluded a Rand Corp. study last year on the Army's assignment of women. "Crafted for a linear battlefield," the policy does not conform to the nature of warfare today and uses concepts such as "forward and well forward [that] were generally acknowledged to be almost meaningless in the Iraqi theater," it said.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, noncombat units in which women serve face many of the same threats that all-male combat arms units do and are performing well, commanders say. "Army personnel were consistent in their perception that a strict adherence to the Army policy would have negative implications" and that the policy should be revised or revoked, the Rand study said.

So, she pulled her weight, performed exceptionally well, did her job and saved her buddies.  But she's a girl, so she can't be in danger.  Because that's what the reg says.  Just not what's happening in actual reality,

Never mind that with no clearly defined front lines, this policy isn't so useful.

For the record, I think women should be allowed into combat arms, provided they can meet the physical requirements.  Having a Y chromosome doesn't make you a better fighter, a better soldier.  While it's not a choice I would make for myself, there are women I have worked with who would have done it if they were allowed.

I know, I know - what if the men fail to do what they need to do because they're trying to protect the woman?  Well, I would have to say, THAT'S THEIR OWN FAULT.  They have to work to overcome it.  The women who break into combat units aren't going to be pulling stupid "I broke a nail" BS.  Thye're going to want to be there.  They're going to want to prove themselves.  And they will prove themselves.

To quote soldiergrrrl, "it's still very hard to be treated as second-class because of things we have *no* control over."

Americans may not be ready to see its daughters coming home in bodybags, but THEY ALREADY ARE. 

SPC Lori Piestwa, first Native American woman killed in combat
Marine SGT Jeanette L. Winters - first female Marine killed in a hostile fire zone
1LT Tamara Archuleta, a pilot killed during a medical airlift mission
Chief Warrant Officer 5 Sharon Swartworth, killed in a 2003 helicopter crash in Tikrit
PFC Holly McGeough, 19, killed by an IED
SPC Isela Rubalcava, mortar round
SGT Cari Gasiewicz, IED - The building that houses my husband's unit HQ is named for her, as she was a Vigilant Knight
2LT Emily J.T. Perez, IED - first minority female to be the command sergeant at West Point, first female West Point graduate to be killed in  
  Iraq
MAJ Megan McClung, public affairs, killed while supporting combat operations

These are not all of the names.  There are more, and there will be more as long as women choose to enlist and serve.

Mothers, daughters, wives, sisters - and Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, and Marines.

DV
 
This site is dedicated to our fallen sisters-in-arms : The Women Who Gave Their Lives

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23547346/

Female medic earns Silver Star in Afghan war

19-year-old only second woman to receive valor award since WWII

CAMP SALERNO, Afghanistan - A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second woman since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor.

Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said.

After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said.

"I did not really think about anything except for getting the guys to a safer location and getting them taken care of and getting them out of there," Brown said Saturday at a U.S. base in the eastern province of Khost.

Brown, of Lake Jackson, Texas, is scheduled to receive the Silver Star later this month. She was part of a four-vehicle convoy patrolling near Jani Kheil in the eastern province of Paktia on April 25, 2007, when a bomb struck one of the Humvees.

Treating 'patients' under fire
"We stopped the convoy. I opened up my door and grabbed my aid bag," Brown said.

She started running toward the burning vehicle as insurgents opened fire. All five wounded soldiers had scrambled out.

"I assessed the patients to see how bad they were. We tried to move them to a safer location because we were still receiving incoming fire," Brown said.

Pentagon policy prohibits women from serving in frontline combat roles — in the infantry, armor or artillery, for example. But the nature of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with no real front lines, has seen women soldiers take part in close-quarters combat more than previous conflicts.

Four Army nurses in World War II were the first women to receive the Silver Star, though three nurses serving in World War I were awarded the medal posthumously last year, according to the Army's Web site.

Brown, of the 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, said ammunition going off inside the burning Humvee was sending shrapnel in all directions. She said they were sitting in a dangerous spot.

"So we dragged them for 100 or 200 meters, got them away from the Humvee a little bit," she said. "I was in a kind of a robot-mode, did not think about much but getting the guys taken care of."

No time to be scared
For Brown, who knew all five wounded soldiers, it became a race to get them all to a safer location. Eventually, they moved the wounded some 500 yards away, treated them on site before putting them on a helicopter for evacuation.

"I did not really have time to be scared," Brown said. "Running back to the vehicle, I was nervous (since) I did not know how badly the guys were injured. That was scary."

The military said Brown's "bravery, unselfish actions and medical aid rendered under fire saved the lives of her comrades and represents the finest traditions of heroism in combat."

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, of Nashville, Tenn., received the Silver Star in 2005 for gallantry during an insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq. Two men from her unit, the 617th Military Police Company of Richmond, Ky., also received the Silver Star for their roles in the same action.

****

DV