Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 50

(U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. William Greer)

Spc. Rebecca Buck, a medic from 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, provides perimeter security 30 March 2008 outside an Iraqi police station in Tarmiya Province, Iraq .

Women in the Infantry

Understanding Issues of Physical
Strength, Economics, and SmallUnit Cohesion
Col. Charles E. Rice, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Retired

O

n 24 January 2013, Secretary of Defense
Leon Panetta rescinded the 1994 rule prohibiting women from assignment to combat
units. Panetta cited the “great courage and sacrifice” by
women on today’s battlefield and the goal of finding the
“best-qualified and most capable people, regardless of
gender” to perform the mission as justification for this
48

change.1 Under the previous rule, women were barred
from assignment to units below brigade level that had a
primary mission of direct ground combat.2
Today, only 7 percent of Americans have any direct
military experience.3 Understandably, many civilians,
including members of Congress, view this issue in the
context of equal job opportunity rather than military
March-April 2015  MILITARY REVIEW