In response to Saturday women in the military postings (here and here), a reader writes:
I spent 12 years in the Navy, and I can tell you, +nothing+ infuriates men
in the military more than discussions of “non-deployable” women. Women fill
many billets, and if they can’t deploy, that means some poor man must deploy
to take her place, thus +increasing+ the overall deployment time for men,
and +decreasing+ the overall deployment time for women. Men have to spend
more time away, and women get to spend more time a
Why is the family time of single female parents more valuable that the
family time of (responsible) married men?
Another consideration — women who want to avoid deployment can get pregnant
and thus get out of it. Men have no such option.
The issue boils under the surface of the whole military, and bills in
Congress to limit the deployability of women make the blood boil of military
men who really can’t do or say much about it, except get out, as I did.