Sunday, August 12, 2007
British female soldiers in the line of fire!
Read this Not a new thing,it just hasn't hit the press before,ask anyone who served in Northern Ireland how many female UDR soldiers there were-A lot!-And how many "Operators" of 14 Intelligence Detachment ("The Det")were women,(14 Int.Carried out undercover surveillance on the IRA,an unbelievably dangerous job)you'd be surprised at the number of female operators!-During my Iraq tour I served alongside several female soldiers,some of whom commanded patrols into Basra and the surrounding area.Some were good,some were bad-The good were very good the bad were appalling and shouldn't have been allowed out of camp!-Before I have every woman's rights campaigner up in arms in their defence none were infantry so they only had the most basic understanding of infantry skills that they had been taught in basic training and at the end of the day it's not their job to fight,so it can't be held against them if they get it wrong.However that said EVERY BRITISH SERVICE PERSONNEL heedless of sex in Iraq and Afghanistan IS being put in the firing line on a daily basis so attitudes and training have to change.I have nothing but admiration for our armed forces serving at the front line,both male and female,they are doing the same job and taking the same risks,a bullet can't tell a persons sex,so if the MoD is going to continue to put female service personnel at the sharp end of war then perhaps it's about time for the army to rethink it's training policy for female soldiers and give them proper infantry training.
