KABUL, Afghanistan — In the shadow of transport aircraft, rows of helicopters and supply pallets, women in uniform are a well-established part of the fabric of military life on bases and near the front lines in Afghanistan — a minority, to be sure, but one so common on the job that it’s hardly seen as an issue.
For active-duty military women in Afghanistan, the news of the end of the combat exclusion for women seemed far less momentous than it may have back in the United States. Not that it wasn’t seen as good news, and an important moment, but the talk here quickly turned to practicalities: what the change might mean for them, for their friends, for the women who will come after them.
The one thing soldiers wanted to make clear was that women had been there already — doing at least some of the jobs that they will now be able to do as full members of combat units rather than in external groups attached to them. And no doubt there will gradually be more of them making the shift.
“The biggest issue that America needs to understand is that we have been out there in the field, on the front lines,” said Sgt. Natasha Nelson, 23, a signal communications specialist. “There’s one of my best friends, and she’s a medic and she’s been out there on the front lines forever. From my experience, now I’ve only been in for four years, but it’s not new to us, it’s new to them,” she said, referring to the American public.
Capt. Jessica Kirkendall, 32, an intelligence officer, echoed that thought: “To an extent, it’s a reflection of what’s already on the battlefield.”
And, said Sgt. Maj. Micheal Horton, 48, it’s a natural progression. When she entered the military 24 years ago, the job of being a sapper had just opened to women. Sapper, a term popularly associated with demining, actually covers most combat engineering tasks that are done in support of combat infantry units.
“They had just opened up engineering work to females, so I got to be a heavy equipment operator,” she said. Then a few years ago the job of being a bridge crew member opened, and “that was a major thing.”
So the next step – opening all combat units to women – seems logical, especially since the realities of the 21st-century battlefield demand that women work alongside their male counterparts. Sergeant Major Horton pointed to members of “female engagement teams,” who are attached to infantry units and tasked with gathering intelligence from female civilians, among other things, as examples of women who are already in combat situations.
“The female engagement teams are embedded with infantry — they can talk it, they can walk it, they can carry their load,” she said.
Sergeant Major Horton did, however, sound a bit regretful that the exclusion had not been lifted sooner so that she could have risen to be a commander in a combat unit. Will she benefit? “Not at my echelon – I can’t apply for any more jobs,” she said. “I could be nominated probably for some of the positions, but I still wouldn’t have had the experience as a junior commander.”
The change will make the greatest difference for young women who are just now choosing their military occupational field or are still at a fairly junior level and could switch into a combat unit and still have time to build a career.
For Sergeant Nelson, who loves her work as a signal communications specialist, there’s the opportunity to become part of an infantry unit now and go to the front lines. She’s not sure she will do that, but finally it’s at least a real prospect.
These women played down the numbers of women who would be likely to take advantage of the new opportunity. “Do I think the floodgates will open? No,” Captain Kirkendall said.
Lt. Cmdr. Laura Reshetar, 33, who formerly served as a naval surface warfare officer and is now a future operations planner at the International Security Assistance Force headquarters in Kabul, sounded palpably excited about the decision. But she agreed with Captain Kirkendall that only a small number of women would seek combat slots at first.
“Personally I think it’s awesome, but I don’t think there will be tons of women rushing to do those jobs,” she said. “It will be the alpha females: highly athletic, highly motivated.” She added that she would not choose a combat specialty in part because she eventually wants to be a mother and would worry that she would not be able to give her all to the job if she were worrying about a child.
Above all, these women felt that at last, military policy was catching up with women’s aspirations.
“It seems very undemocratic of us to say, ‘Hey you want to serve your country, great, but you can only do these certain jobs because of your gender,’” Captain Kirkendall said. “In a country that espouses this whole idea of choosing your path in life and pursuing that path to the best of your ability, it just doesn’t seem very American to say ‘except for 20 percent of you.’”
She added, “As time progresses, people will see that women are very proficient in these roles.”
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