Women play key role in airstrikes By DAVE HIRSCHMAN Cox News Service

ATLANTA -- Just eight years after being allowed to fly military jets in front-line squadrons, women are so thoroughly integrated throughout the military that few Americans seem to notice they are at the controls of some of the warplanes hitting targets in Afghanistan.

Women are among the most senior Navy pilots on U.S. aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, and some have patrolled the 'no-fly zone' over southern Iraq and dropped bombs on Bosnia. Several female pilots are stationed aboard the USS Carl Vinson and have participated in air strikes against the Taliban.

In South Carolina, a spokesperson for Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter said Thursday the 20th Fighter Wing has female pilots but couldn't immediately say how many.

Attempts were unsuccessful late Thursday to reach spokespeople at the McEntire Air National Guard Base near Columbia and the Beaufort Marine Corps Station. Sumter and McEntire pilots fly F-16 jets. Beaufort is home to F/A-18 jets.

Tom Draude, a retired Marine general and member of a 1992 presidential panel that studied allowing women in combat, said they are an essential part of U.S. forces.

"Women are a critical component of our war fighting capabilities -- and the American public recognizes and respects their contributions," said Draude, a Vietnam and Persian Gulf war veteran. "I remember being told before (the Persian Gulf War) that Americans would never tolerate women coming home in body bags -- and they tolerated it. I was told Americans would never tolerate women becoming prisoners of war -- and they tolerated that, too."

About 40,000 American women and 500,000 American men fought in the Persian Gulf War. Thirteen U.S. women were killed and two became prisoners.

Today, women comprise about 14 percent of all active-duty personnel. The Navy's first female combat pilots went to sea in 1994, a year after the law was changed to allow them to fly in combat, and participated in their first air strikes in '97 against Iraq.

Draude said female pilots flying over Afghanistan face brutal treatment if captured by the Taliban, an extremist regime that prohibits Afghan women from attending schools or having jobs. Taliban fighters routinely tortured and executed male Soviet prisoners during a 10-year war in Afghanistan. "A woman POW is going to receive especially horrific treatment," Draude said. "But they know the risks and accept them."

Missy Cummings, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and former Navy pilot, said female fliers have overcome hostility and resentment from some of their own male shipmates. But animosity has diminished in recent years as women have proven themselves on the job.

"It's better now because women have been there longer and gained more trust," she said. "But women are still a small minority in tactical aviation. They still have a hard time gaining acceptance."

The fact that American women are flying jets and working aboard combat ships is also a source of tension for U.S. allies, such as Saudi Arabia, that prohibit women from driving cars or baring their shoulders. Military experts say American military personnel keep out of view as much as possible in Arab countries. And when U.S. women venture out in public, they abide by local customs.

American women serve in all U.S. military branches, but they are prohibited from ground combat units likely to play prominent roles in the fight against terrorism.

Lucas Carpenter, an Emory University professor and Vietnam veteran, says those exclusions, too, are likely to be challenged in the future. "That discussion is still open."

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