Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

No Going Back

"If you tried to pull women out of the equation, this country could not fight a war." -- Lory Manning, a retired Navy captain and director of the Women's Research and Education Institute

Although women have served in one capacity or another in every major war in U.S. history, Iraq has easily become the largest deployment of women to a combat zone: one out of every seven is female. As their numbers have increased, so have their responsibilities. No longer relegated to being spies or nurses, they now find themselves in the heat of battle.

As Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Wilma L. Vaught puts it:

"You've got more women carrying weapons with the possibility that they'll use them to fight or defend themselves," Vaught said in a phone interview. "That's one of the big differences between this war and others. Women haven't done this type of war before."

They are serving admirably and proving their metal daily. Because of the nature of the Iraq war, the policy preventing women from serving in combat positions doesn't shield them from stressful combat situations.

For example, in the opening days of the war:

1st Lt. Adrien Thom prepared for the journey toward Baghdad.

It was the day before the ground offensive on the city and she would lead a platoon of 15 Marines on a support mission for advancing troops. The mission required that she travel alongside ground combat divisions; a move that was against Marine Corps policies that prohibit women from participating in direct ground combat operations. But Thom said her commander told her to go ahead and that she was just as capable as any man.

Thom, a 26-year-old combat engineer from Louisiana, sat in the passenger seat of the front truck, a map in one hand, a phone in the other and a radio next to her as the convoy rolled past burning buses, abandoned military vehicles, big pits of burning oil. ...

During the next few days, frequent fire fights broke out between Iraqi insurgents and the combat Marines with whom she stayed. Incoming mortar rounds could be heard from every direction. It was a chaotic scene.

Current federal law is meant to shield women from armed conflict. As such, females are technically banned from serving in any of the following groups:

• infantry
  
  
• tank, artillery and armored vehicle units
  
  
• coastal patrol boats and submarines
  
  
• special operations units such as Army Rangers and Navy SEALS

Althought President Bush has determinedly stated, "no women in combat," the Pentagon has begun relaxing their ban, placing women in more dangerous roles in the combat zone.

In February, the Army's 3rd Infantry Division acknowledged it has assigned women to units in Iraq that directly support combat troops by providing food, equipment maintenance and other services. The process, called "collocation" - literally to place side by side - is at odds with an 11-year-old Army policy that bans women from serving in front-line support groups.

"This is an incremental change that will gradually lead to a more direct deployment of women in combat," said Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness.

Listen to an NPR interview to hear another female veteran's experience on the front lines here.

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The First Female Casualty of War

Although the names Jessica Lynch and Soshanna Johnson are more commonly recognized in most homes across the country, their friend who perished that day in Nasiriyah is not. Army Private Lori Piestewa, the first female to lose her life in Iraq -- and the first Native American woman to die in combat on foreign soil -- has been mostly forgotten. When their support convoy wound up lost on the third day of the US invasion, it was picked off by Iraqi soldiers. The course error was fatal and costly: 11 American soldiers dead and nine wounded.

In the end, policy or no policy, women are in the thick of things, right along with our men. Of the ambush, the military later described it as a "torrent of fire" that had rained down on the unsuspecting unit of clerks, cooks, and repairmen. [For more on this incident, please read the excellent Rolling Stone piece, A Wrong Turn in the Desert by Osha Gray Davidson.]

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Women and PTSD

PTSD affects women at twice the rate of men. Furthermore, studies show that their symptoms are more striking and incapacitating.

In a July 2005 article, Newsweek reported that:

• 20 years ago, only 2% of patients at VA hospitals were women
  
  
• Today, 14% of VA patients are women
  
  
• About 85,000 OEF and OIF vets have sought VA medical care
  
  
• 11% (9,688) have been diagnosed with PTSD (current figure: 16,000)
  
  
• Of these 9,688 with PTSD, 1, 277 are women

To better understand how to successfully treat deployed women returning with combat-related PTSD, the VA has launched a first-ever $6 million study focusing on female veteran PTSD.

"PTSD is a very real problem for women who serve in the military," said Paula Schnurr, one of the study's lead researchers and the deputy executive director of the VA's National Center for PTSD in White River Junction, Vt. "This study is specifically addressing that, and we hope it will not only help us treat women coming home from Iraq, but all those who have ever served and struggled with PTSD in any conflict before."

The study's findings are not due until the end of the year, but researchers already have made some startling discoveries that are illustrative of the nature of PTSD among female veterans and of the U.S. military.

Male and female physiology being what is it, not surprisingly each has a unique way of coping with the demons they may have brought back with them from war.

Men, for example, are more prone to pick up drinking or drugs as a way of self-medicating themselves, attempting to numb their pain. Women, conversely, are more likely to seek help. This difference may be one reason for the larger percentage of women who have been identified suffering with PTSD; however it's not the only factor.

From a March, 2005 piece in the Chicago Tribune:

"[D]ata indicate that female military personnel are far more likely than their male counterparts to have been exposed to some kind of trauma or multiple traumas before joining the military or being deployed in combat. That may include physical assault, sexual abuse or rape.

The speculation is that many of them are joining the military to get away from adverse environments," said Schnurr, also a professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth College. ...

The implication of such a finding on PTSD research is considered significant. Because most research indicates that a person is at greater risk of developing PTSD--or developing more severe PTSD--when he or she has had past traumas, many female troops are deploying to war zones already heavily predisposed to react adversely to the intense fear, killing and loss routinely encountered there.

"The evidence is conclusive," said Rachel MacNair, an expert in the psychological effects of violence and PTSD. "The greater the trauma in your life, the greater the symptoms of PTSD."

An additional factor that has some bearing on female veteran PTSD is the added reality of rape and sexual intimidation from her fellow troops.

Since PTSD is slow to show itself, we have no way of knowing how grave a problem this will be for our soldiers, their families, their communities, and our nation.

Only time will tell.

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Resources for Women Dealing with PTSD

To cope with PTSD, female soldiers have formed Internet support groups (MSN Group Sisters Bound by Honor, for example). They've also begun using a book on PTSD called Why Is Mommy Like She Is? to help them when they transition back to family life after being deployed.

See also:

• US Army's Soldier's Guide to Female Soldier Readiness [54 pp pdf]
  
  
• PTSD in Women-VA-DOD Cooperative Study No. 494 information.
  
  
• Patience Bookstore: lots of free pamphlets/newsletters on PTSD
  
  
• Good medicine: A collection of humorous military stories by women.
  
  
• VA: Traumatic Stress in Female Veterans and PTSD in Men and Women: Understanding Some of the Differences