Not to keep beating a dead horse...

Standard Disclaimer on a military post: For those of you who may not know or remember, I was IN the military, MET my husband while working together and saw numerous other women meet their spouses/ex-spouses there. I also saw LOTS of marriages being destroyed by women and men working together in those environments. I am not just giving an opinion, I am stating facts that I witnessed and experienced first-hand. That being said, let's continue on, shall we?

*Sigh* When is it going to stop being a surprise that women returning from combat or military duty ARE NOT DOING WELL?? Remember when I wrote about this one? Well, here's another article...

"Back from combat, women struggle for acceptance."

"The Defense Department bars women from serving in assignments where the primary mission is to engage in direct ground combat. But the nature of the recent conflicts, with no clear front lines, puts women in the middle of the action, in roles such as military police officers, pilots, drivers and gunners on convoys. In addition to the 120-plus deaths, more than 650 women have been wounded.

Back home, women face many of the same issues as the men, but the personal stakes may be greater.

Female service members have much higher rates of divorce and are more likely to be a single parent. When they do seek help at VA medical centers, they are screening positive at a higher rate for military sexual trauma, meaning they indicated experiencing sexual harassment, assault or rape. Some studies have shown that female veterans are at greater risk for homelessness."

Now, the greater risk for homelessness was a new one to me. That's very disturbing.

Here's something else that should bother you...

"Genevieve Chase, 32, of Alexandria, Va., a staff sergeant in the Army Reserves, said the same guys who were her buddies in Afghanistan didn't invite her for drinks later on because their wives or girlfriends wouldn't approve.

'One of the hardest things that I had to deal with was, being a woman, was losing my best friends or my comrades to their families,' Chase said."


Did you catch that? The woman states that she "lost her best friends to their families"! Should those returning husbands and fathers be out drinking with their former comrades, or home reuniting with their wives, and children?? Of course their wives and girlfriends wouldn't approve! Why would they want to share their husbands with another woman? But, essentially, that's happening when you place men and women together in these situations!

Not only do these soldiers grow to rely on and trust each other, they become emotionally invested in each other during "down time." If someone is going to be willing to die for you, and vice versa, it's nice to get to know who you're fighting for. Right? So, it isn't all that surprising that SSgt. So-and-So complains to Corporal La-Ti-Da about his wife's nagging letter, or how she wants him to get out of the military as soon as this tours ends, etc. etc. It's the same scenario played out all over the world, when people start to get emotionally intimate with co-workers. Being in the military just amps it up a few notches. Working together in life or death situations, where you are often together for 12+ hours a day, and possibly in secluded areas, it can cause all sorts of hormonal/emotional issues. God never, never, never intended for women to have relationships with men - other than their OWN husbands - that were intimate and emotional.

It's heart-wrenching to read about. It's harder to watch it personally. There was a line drawn, a time when men wouldn't think of fighting beside a woman in combat. When women were supposed to be protected and fought for. Feminism successfully blurred that line. I'm not doubting the validity of the work these female soldiers have done. I definitely think some have undergone post-traumatic stress and their lives haven't been easy in the military. I'm just wondering why we were ever there at all?

The results of women in the military have been devastating and the effects, well, we'll be seeing those for a long time...