Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for November 01, 2009

Back in Nam when the Corps was more integrated than any service, I remember the color of my fellow jar heads, they were green. It was the first place that integration truly worked. My life might depend on that man/woman. No place for racial/ gender/cultural differences. The US Military is the great equalizer.

Two nieces in the military. One enlisted, one officer. Both have served more than one stint overseas. So far as I have heard they were treated no differently than any males in their groups. One niece sniper trained, a “crack shot” and utilized for those abilities no differently than had she been male. Nice to know she was used for her value (vs gender) but hated to know she was in the line of fire so often!

yeah, get it done earlier so we can kill people sooner.

She should be in the Olympics! Note how she kips her feet around, then jumps inside her pivot arm? She’s AWESOME!

Halliburton is no thte US military.

Gimme a break and just let her do her work without all the racial/gender crap. Get over Obama, Haliburton, and all that malarky and enjoy a comic character for pete’s sake. Everything in life doesn’t have to be dramatized, sanitized, and intellectualized (is that a word?)

After 24 years in the military, and having been out of it for 7, I gotta say the military does better on race issues than the civilian world (though far from perfect). On gender issues, it seems to depend on where you work. If she’s in an Intel, Med, or Admin Battalion, where women soldiers are a larger percentage ot the unit, she’ll more likely be judged on merit. If she’s in an Aviation or Maintenance Battalion, or attached to a combat arms unit, she’ll have to work twice as hard to get the same credit - Just my opinion. Contractors - I was one for a short time. They were of mixed quality depending on what your job was, who you worked for, etc. Halliburton had everything from fry cooks to computer programers to “security personnel.” (These are the views of an old white guy)

sigh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gIZt0hE1E0&feature=related

@ Nabuq… IMO, although Mr. Trudeau (born and raised in New York State) hasn’t been in the American military, he has certainly done, and continues to do his research, making his military characters act and speak more authentically than any other current cartoonist I can think of. He has been recognized by the Army for his work on the Wounded Warriors Project, and received awards for public service from the Disabled American Veterans, Vietnam Veterans of America, and others too numerous to mention.

I’ve never been in a unit where women and “other groups” worked less hard and didn’t earn the scorn of their peers, not to mention mediocre EERs/OERs. I’ve met a few women who tried to use their femininity to get men to do their work for them. Those women didn’t last long. Much more often I have come across women who did everything they could to prove themselves, sometimes doing more than the men around them. Sorry to read that your experience was different.

Oh, and while we are on the topic, if anyone here lives near Seattle, there will be a program honoring Women in Service at the Seatac Community Center, 13735 24th Ave S, Seatac, WA on November 11th at 2 PM. There will be women veterans there from WWII, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf Wars. It promises to be a very special occasion.

I know that there have been female soldiers getting killed in the war. But I haven’t heard of many in a while. Does anybody know if women soldiers bite the dirt in the same proportion as the men?

fbjsr was right about making intelligent statements to support a pol. viewpoint. However, et2008 was making a funny about how the clowns who USED to run things are sexist and ran forces when sexual excesses did occur. I’m just glad the GOP is on the run. You can’t talk intelligently to fatheads whose party de-facto leader is a stupid radio-show host and who worship racebaiting and “half-the-facts, please” pundits….that’s a fact, too - deal with it.

slumgully, you’re going to be one of the people that I will be thinking about when your cult leader takes the big dive in ‘12. I am a dyed in the wool libertarian independent and your idiot is just as stupid as the GOP’s idiot of the previous 8 years. In fact, they are almost identical.

Having said my piece about the idiots that slobber politics everywhere, I loved this one. Trudeau captured the true feeling of what every woman AND man in the services wants to feel, regardless of which idiot is the Commander in Chief.

Our family appreciates every one of you folks, thank you for your service!

I was going to go into a long rant about women not having to meet the same physical standards as men in the military, but it’s pointless. Suffice it to say that in my opinion, if women can meet the SAME physical standards as the men have to meet they would be welcome. If not, I don’t want to serve with them. (OIF 2004-2005 vet who had to serve with many who would not have and could not have met the standards that even an old man of 46 had to meet)