Military Moms Breastfeeding in Uniform Stir Controversy

[sarge43]

270. Oh hell, let's go all the way

Automatic pregnancy discharges. Glass ceiling on promotions and assignments. Back when, women officers were capped at O-5 and you could count on one the number of bases where women could be assign.
Whole corps and major air commands were off limits and of course sea duty. Career fields were strictly limited. When I started the long march in '62, only five were open to women -- comm, supply, admin, personnel, medics. Not exactly fast track. Just some of the official restrictions. The unofficial or gentlemen's agreements kind were twice as many and three times nastier.

Two things wrong here: Terrible waste of abilities and resources. Spend thousands, sometimes hundreds, training an individual, then boot her out because of a temporary medical deferment and a dependent (she's married by the way.) As noted in another thread, no service man was ever discharged because he had a temp med def or dependent children. I had a super high score in electronic area of the AQE. I would have been an excellent avionics spec, but no, "girls can't do that kind of work". Honest, that was the explanation.

Second, I wish I had a dollar, hell ten cents, for every time I heard variations on "You wimmins don't pull your weight. Us mens hava do the shit duties, remote assignments, sea duty, combat, blah, blah, blah." So, now we are and somebody is still pissed off.

Oh yeah, the draft -- simplistic non answer to a complex situation. And if someone out there thinks service women aren't necessary, fine. However, that means all of us, including the women members of the Nurse Corps and in case of another unpleasantness (there will be) we don't come back. We're out and we stay out.

Finally, if the sight of a woman nursing her child is upsetting, here's a radical thought, don't look.