Should Women Be Allowed into Combat?

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Introduction

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Overview

In time of war, the United States has always sought to shield its young women from the brutal experience of combat. That burden has been borne by men—men like former Secretary of the Navy James Webb, who served as a young Marine officer in Vietnam.

“It was nothing,” Webb recalled, “to begin walking at midnight laden with packs and weapons and ammunition and supplies, 70 pounds or more of gear, and still be walking when the sun broke over mud-slick paddies that had sucked our boots all night. We carried our own gear, and when we took casualties we carried the weapons of those who had been hit.