By 1997 women comprised 13.5 percent of the force. Today the numbers are perhaps heading closer to 20 percent. Fraternization has never really become a problem for the military and when ever it has become a problem, it's because of a failure of leadership on how to deal with the issue of fraternization. The only problem fraternization has ever presented for the military is the embarrassment for the admiral or general who has been caught with his pants down. The biggest problem has been and will always be cronyism .
Cronyism is without question and efficiency crippling issue for any organization.
But for the military, cronyism has cost the lives of countless Americans who trusted their superiors to know what they were doing. Junior ranking personnel are being court-martialed over adultery and fraternization while cronyism helps to get the admirals and generals out of the fire and off the hook. Adultery is the point in America where church and state do not separate. The military has no business making adultery a crime. Let's look a some recent history.