From: CMSgt Mike Bergman <bergman@afnews.pa.af.mil>
Subject: Report Examines Women's Role in Gulf War
Organization: Hq Air Force News Agency/SCC
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 16:31:23 GMT


From CMSgt Mike Bergman <bergman@afnews.pa.af.mil>

Report Examines Women's Role in Persian Gulf War

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Information Service

     A DoD study on women's performance during the gulf crisis
shows they were less deployable than men and had a higher
return-from-theater rate -- but both rates were small and did not
hamper military operations.
     Christopher Jehn ordered the report -- "Utilization of
American Women in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm."  Jehn
is assistant secretary of defense for force management and
personnel.  The President's Commission on the Assignment of Women
in the Military, the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the
Services, Congress, the military services and DoD will use the
report -- with other sources of information -- when formulating
policy.
     The Persian Gulf war was the first large-scale deployment
featuring a significant number of women.  More than 40,000 American
women deployed with their units to the gulf region.  The report
says this was the largest deployment of military women in U.S.
history.  Women made up more than 7 percent of all U.S. forces in
the area.
     The deployment allowed the United States to track questions
that have been raised for years.  In the past, critics of women in
the military said they would not deploy easily.  Further, once
deployed, these theorists said, women would experience a higher
early return from deployment rate than men.  Finally, critics
raised many questions about pregnancy rates during a long
deployment.  Some contended women would get pregnant to avoid duty.
     Medical problems prevented more service members from deploying
than any other reason.  Information indicates more than 2 percent
of men and 9 percent of women considered for deployment were not
deployed due to medical reasons.  The Army, Navy and Marine Corps
kept specific figures for pregnancy.  Pregnancy accounted for about
half of the medically nondeployable women.  Even with pregnancy out
of the picture, 4.5 percent of the women considered for deployment
were unable to go vs. 2 percent of all men.
     "One problem with the deployment figures is that each service
has a different definition," Jehn said.  "Sometimes the definition
differed within the services and was different between the active
component and the reserve component."
     As an example, Jehn pointed to a unit that had to send a
detachment to the gulf.  He said the commander would look through
the unit and decide who was deployable.  "He's not going to send
the man who sprained his knee, he's not going to send the man who
is just getting over the flu, he's not going to send the woman who
just gave birth.  So when he puts the detachment together, they are
100 percent deployable."
     Had the unit deployed rather than a detachment, the same
people would not have gone.  The unit, then, would have had a
higher nondeployment rate.
     Women were returned from deployment at a greater rate than men
also.  According to the figures available, 2 percent of men
deployed returned early.  About 2.5 percent of the women returned
early.  Jehn said medical problems accounted for most early
returns.
     The survey also shows that pregnancy rates remained constant
through Desert Shield/Storm.  "Many critics of women in the
military used the pregnancy rates as an excuse to bash the whole
concept of women in the military," Jehn said.  "In fact, there was
no difference between pregnancy rates prior to the deployment and
during the deployment."
     Jehn said he was not surprised by the general conclusions of
the report.  "Essentially, the report stated that everyone -- men
and women -- did an outstanding job in the gulf," he said.  "The
overall conclusion is the deployment went extremely well and that
our policies make sense."

--
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    |            Air Force News Agency (AFNEWS)                        | 
    |           Kelly Air Force Base, Texas, USA                       | 
    |               bergman@afpan.pa.af.mil                            |  
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