Veterans Blog

"Lioness": Female soldiers in combat

The "Lioness"  is a documentary made about the role of women in the current war in Iraq.  Mary D. Ross, Retired Army and Deputy Executive Director, Operation Stand Down Nashville, Inc. believes this is an extraordinary documentary about women in combat.  She goes on to say, "The history of women in the military is full of examples of women in harms way.  With today’s technology there is no such thing as a ‘front line’.  This film not only shows the effects that war has on women in the military but also shows their courage and commitment.  They serve with honor!"

In addition, Felicia R. Lee of the New York Times wrote the following article titled "Battleground: Female Soldiers in the Line of Fire,"  about women serving in Iraq.  Here are some snippets:

After Shannon Morgan returned from serving in Iraq, the memories of killing and carnage continued to haunt her, memories that some told her were unexpected for a female soldier. Department of Defense policy bars female soldiers from direct ground combat, but for Ms. Morgan, like the four other female soldiers profiled in the documentary "Lioness," that regulation meant little in the heat of battle.

Attached to all-male combat units in the Army and the Marines as part of the Lioness program, the female troops were used to search Muslim women as needed and to defuse the cultural tensions caused by strange men interacting with Iraqi women. But when fighting broke out, the female soldiers fought back.
 
"We’d been downtown searching houses, and fighting would break out," Staff Sgt. Ranie Ruthig, a former mechanic with a Lioness team, said in a recent interview. "We’ve had grenades thrown at us, shooting at us with AK-47’s. It's a fight-or-flight thing. When someone is shooting at you, you don’t say, ‘Stop the war, I’m a girl.' "

As Ms. Morgan says toward the end of "Lioness," which had its broadcast premiere on Wednesday night at 9:30 on Channel 13 in New York, "This is a new thing for people to realize that their daughters are over doing the exact same thing that males are doing now."

The documentary makes the point that the nature of the Iraq war — fuzzy front lines and guerrilla tactics — has thrust more female soldiers (who represent 14 percent of active-duty enlisted personnel) into enemy fire than ever before. And, like the men, the women sometimes find the return to civilian life difficult, suffering the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the depression and sleeplessness that come with it.

One of the filmmakers argues that the Lioness teams are in a "gray zone" when it comes to combat. The filmmakers sent "Lioness" to the public affairs office at the Army for fact-checking and as a courtesy, and "they said O.K."
When filming began, the documentary focused on five women: Specialist Morgan and Sergeant Ruthig, both mechanics; Specialist Rebecca Nava, a supply clerk from Jamaica, Queens; Maj. Kate Pendry Guttormsen, a West Point graduate whose hometown is Toledo, Ohio; and Capt. Anastasia Breslow, a communications specialist from Fort Bragg, the Army post in North Carolina, according to biographical information supplied by the filmmakers.

Catch one of our most recent posts on the Veterans' Blog referencing PTSD. It is titled: "PTSD afflicts soldiers still on duty." 

Mary thank you for the heads-up on "Lioness," and thank you for your service!  Thank you for your work with Operation Stand Down Nashville, Inc.

Tuskegee Airman: General Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr.

I had the honor of meeting General James when I was an AFROTC cadet at Baylor University in the fall of 1973.  I was selected to be one of his escorts, when he was invited to be our guest speaker at our fall dining out.  I remember him as a man of great physical stature and an eloquent speaker who had no problem commanding the attention of my fellow cadets and of our invited guests.  His message was about leadership and the opportunities afforded him as a military officer.  Later that night my roommate John White and I drove General James to his waiting T-39, where we said our goodbyes, thanked him again, saluted, and wished him a safe journey home.  Years later I was saddened to hear of his passing.  Looking back, I fondly remember him as a patriot, a warrior, and an inspirational leader with a particular preference for Tanqueray Gin, his drink of choice.

So in more detail, who was General Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr.? He was a Tuskegee Airman and the first African-American Four Star General in the United States Armed Forces. He joined the Army Air Force at a time when blacks were only allowed to work as laborers and cooks. At his childhood home near Pensacola Naval Air Station, Fla., James often dreamed of flying for the Navy, but at the time none of the military branches allowed blacks to become pilots. He often told the story of when he was a young man, a naval officer ordered him to move to the back of the bus so he could sit down. James later said in a speech at Morehouse College in Atlanta that he did as he was told, but said he felt ashamed of himself and vowed to never let anyone or anything stand in his way again.

After completing college at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, he became an instructor with the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program. When the Army considered training blacks as pilots, James resigned his civilian post and entered the program as a student. He later graduated first in his class and received a commission as a second lieutenant. He next completed fighter pilot combat training at Selfridge Field, Mich., and was assigned to various units in the United States for the next six years.
 

Afterwards, his early career included assignments in the Philippines as flight leader for the 12th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 18th Fighter Wing, at Clark Field. In July 1950, he left for Korea where he flew 101 combat missions in P-51 Mustang and F-80 aircraft.  Later, General James returned to the United States and, in July 1951, went to Otis Air Force Base, in Massachusetts as an all-weather jet fighter pilot with the 58th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron and later became operations officer. In April 1953, he became commander of the 437th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron and, in August 1955, he assumed command of the 60th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron.

General James next was assigned to Headquarters U.S. Air Force as a staff officer in the Air Defense Division of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. In July 1960, he was transferred to the Royal Air Force Bentwaters in England, where he served successively as assistant director of operations and then director of operations, 81st Tactical Fighter Wing; commander, 92nd Tactical Fighter Squadron; and deputy commander for operations for the 81st Wing. In September 1964, General James was transferred to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, where he was director of operations training and later deputy commander for operations for the 4453rd Combat Crew Training Wing.

In December 1986 he was assigned to the Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand as deputy commander for operations, 8th TFW, and in June 1967 was named wing vice commander, under Colonel Robin Olds, a triple ace. Both in their mid-40's, they formed a legendary team nicknamed "Blackman and Robin." James flew 78 combat missions into North Vietnam, many in the Hanoi/Haiphong area, and led a flight in the "Operation Bolo" Mig sweep in which seven Communist Mig-21's were destroyed, the highest total kill of any mission during the Vietnam War.

He was named vice commander of the 33d TFW at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, in December 1967.  Later, he was transferred to Wheelus Air Base in the Libyan Arab Republic in August 1969 as Commander of the 7272nd Fighter Training Wing (see additional note below).
General James became deputy assistant secretary of defense (public affairs) in March 1970 and was designated principal deputy assistant secretary of defense (public affairs) in April 1973. He assumed duty as vice commander of the Military Airlift Command, with headquarters at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, on September 1, 1974.

General James was promoted to four-star grade and assigned as commander in chief, NORAD/ADCOM, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, on September 1, 1975. In these dual capacities, he had operational command of all United States and Canadian strategic aerospace defense forces. He assumed duty as special assistant to the chief of staff, U.S. Air Force on December 6, 1977.

General James was widely known for his speeches on Americanism and patriotism for which he was editorialized in numerous national and international publications. Excerpts from some of the speeches have been read into the Congressional Record. 

Additional Note:  A TROA article by J.D. Haines in Retired Officer Magazine, February 2001, described the following events which occurred at Wheelus AFB, Tripoli, in October 1969:

On Oct. 18, 1969, just six weeks after Col. Muammar Gaddafi of the Libyan Army had led a coup deposing Libyas King Idris, he stood at the gates of Wheelus Air Force Base.  Facing him was an American officer, also a colonel, named Daniel Chappie James Jr.  However, any similarity between the two men ended with their military rank.  Before the coup, 27-year old Gadhafi had been a mere lieutenant in the Libyan Army.  As leader and chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, Gadhafi was catapulted to Colonel overnight.  In contrast, James, an African American officer, earned his rank the hard way by overcoming racial prejudices and enduring air battles in Korea and Vietnam.

Few Americans recall the day that James faced down Gadhafi.  The confrontation occurred when Gadhafi ordered a column of Libyan half-tracks onto Wheelus.  The half-tracks blew past the gate guards and through the housing area at top speed.

When James was notified of the intrusion, he came immediately to the front gate and lowered the barrier to prevent more vehicles from entering.  Standing a few yards beyond the barrier was Gadhafi with his hand resting on the butt of his pistol.  James glared at him, his own .45 ready at his side.

Move your hand away from that gun, James ordered.  Much to everyone’s surprise, Gadhafi complied and probably prevented an early end to his dictatorship.  As James later recalled,  If he had pulled that gun, it never would have cleared his holster.  As if to punctuate the impression James had made, the Libyan Army didn’t send any more half-tracks after that incident.

Previously  in July 1969, while James was at Wheelus AFB, he displayed an example of his diplomatic talents.  Americas relations with Libya had continued to slide downhill as Gadhafi pressured the U. S. Government to withdraw its military presence.  But the Libyans wanted the Americans to leave behind expensive technical equipment to keep the base running.  The Americans resisted and planned to remove the material from the base.  A serious confrontation almost took place when several Libyan colonels demanded an audience with James.

James invited the officers to his home to discuss the issue of the base equipment.  Tensions were already high as the Libyans entered James living room.  As the Libyan officers sat down, their driver entered the room carrying a submachine gun.  James immediately glowered at the Libyan officers.  I’m going to count to three, he said, and if that man is not out of my living room by that time, I will physically throw him out.  The driver made a hasty retreat.

General James thank you for your service! Cheers!

Farewell Jack Lucas, Marine and Medal of Honor Recipient

Jack Lucas, who at 14 lied his way into military service during World War II and became the youngest Marine to receive the Medal of Honor, died last Thursday in a Hattiesburg, Miss., hospital. He was 80.  Jack Lucas had been battling cancer.

Chris Talbott, a writer with the Associated Press wrote that they just don’t make them like that anymore in his article covering the passing of Mr. Jack Lucas: Vet who earned Medal of Honor at 17 dies.

Jacklyn "Jack" Lucas was just six days past his 17th birthday in February 1945 when his heroism at Iwo Jima earned him the nation’s highest military honor. He used his body to shield three fellow squad members from two grenades, and was nearly killed when one exploded.

"A couple of grenades rolled into the trench," Lucas said in an Associated Press interview shortly before he received the medal from President Truman in October 1945. "I hollered to my pals to get out and did a Superman dive at the grenades. I wasn’t a Superman after I got hit. I let out one helluva scream when that thing went off."

He was left with more than 250 pieces of shrapnel in his body and in every major organ and endured 26 surgeries in the months after Iwo Jima. He was the youngest serviceman to win the Medal of Honor in any conflict other than the Civil War.  What a story!  Semper Fi Jack Lucas!  Thank you for your service to your country!

Epilogue: While we honor the sacrifices of those that have given their lives in service to our country, please let us not forget our most recent recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor (MOH) as a result of the War on Terror.  As I heard Colonel Oliver North recently point out, it’s sad when people remember the gossip and wild exploits of movie stars, but yet can’t remember the single name of one Medal of Honor recipient.  Therefore, I have listed the names of those five Medal of Honor recipients below who have died fighting the War on Terror.  In addition, I have provided a link honoring the "Faces of the Fallen" who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting the War on Terror. Thank you for your service!  God Bless America!

•  Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith
•  Corporal Jason L. Dunham
•  Lt. Michael P. Murphy
•  Master-at-Arms, Navy Seal, Michael A. Monsoor
•  Army Pfc. Ross McGinnis

Deploying? Consider these 40 humorous tips

I just received this humorous list from one of our fellow "Bloggerheads!"  Most military members I have served with can find humor in just about anything while operating under stress and in the most inhospitable places on earth.  To our brave men and women serving around the world, THANK YOU for your dedication and service!

Before deploying to Iraq accomplish the following:

1. Sleep on a cot in the garage.
2. Replace the garage door with a curtain.
3. Six hours after you go to sleep, have your wife or girlfriend whip open the curtain, shine a flashlight in your eyes and mumble, "Sorry, wrong cot."
4. Renovate your bathroom. Hang a green plastic sheet down from the middle of your bathtub and move the shower head down to chest level. Keep four inches of soapy cold water on the floor. Stop cleaning the toilet and pee everywhere but in the toilet itself. Leave two to three sheets of toilet paper. Or for best effect, remove it altogether. For a more realistic deployed bathroom experience, stop using your bathroom and use a neighbor's. Choose a neighbor who lives at least a quarter mile away.
5. When you take showers, wear flip-flops and keep the lights off.
6. Every time there is a thunderstorm, go sit in a wobbly rocking chair and dump dirt on your head.
7. Put lube oil in your humidifier instead of water and set it on "HIGH" for that tactical generator smell.
8. Don't watch TV except for movies in the middle of the night. Have your family vote on which movie to watch and then show a different one.
9. Leave a lawnmower running in your living room 24 hours a day for proper noise level.
10. Have the paperboy give you a haircut.
11. Once a week, blow compressed air up through your chimney making sure the wind carries the soot across and on to your neighbor's house. Laugh at him when he curses you.
12. Buy a trash compactor and only use it once a week. Store up garbage in the other side of your bathtub.
13. Wake up every night at midnight and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a saltine cracker.
14. Make up your family menu a week ahead of time without looking in your food cabinets or refrigerator. Then serve some kind of meat in an unidentifiable sauce poured over noodles. Do this for every meal.
15. Set your alarm clock to go off at random times during the night. When it goes off, jump out of bed and get to the shower as fast as you can. Simulate there is no hot water by running out into your yard and breaking out the garden hose.
16. Once a month, take every major appliance completely apart and put it back together again.
17. Use 18 scoops of coffee per pot and allow it to sit for five or six hours before drinking.
18. Invite at least 185 people you don't really like because of their strange hygiene habits to come and visit for a couple of months. Exchange clothes with them.
19. Have a fluorescent lamp installed on the bottom of your coffee table and lie under it to read books.
20. Raise the thresholds and lower the top sills of your front and back doors so that you either trip over the threshold or hit your head on the sill every time you pass through one of them.
21. Keep a roll of toilet paper on your night stand and bring it to the bathroom with you. And bring your gun and a flashlight.
22. Go to the bathroom when you just have to pass gas, "just in case." Every time.
23. Announce to your family that they have mail, have them report to you as you stand outside your open garage door after supper and then say,  "Sorry, it's for the other Smith."
24. Wash only 15 items of laundry per week. Roll up the semi-wet clean clothes in a ball. Place them in a cloth sack in the corner of the garage where the cat pees. After a week, unroll them and without ironing or removing the mildew, proudly wear them to professional meetings and family gatherings. Pretend you don't know what you look or smell like. Enthusiastically repeat the process for another week.
25. Go to the worst crime-infested place you can find, go heavily armed, wearing a flak jacket and a Kevlar helmet. Set up shop in a tent in a vacant lot. Announce to the residents that you are there to help them.
26. Eat a single M&M every Sunday and convince yourself it's for Malaria.
27. Demand each family member be limited to 10 minutes per week for a morale phone call. Enforce this with your teenage daughter.
28. Shoot a few bullet holes in the walls of your home for proper ambiance.
29. Sandbag the floor of your car to protect from mine blasts and fragmentation.
30. While traveling down roads in your car, stop at each overpass and culvert and inspect them for remotely detonated explosives before proceeding.
31. Fire off 50 cherry bombs simultaneously in your driveway at 3:00 a.m. When startled neighbors appear, tell them all is well, you are just registering mortars. Tell them plastic will make an acceptable substitute for their shattered windows.
32. Drink your milk and sodas warm.
33. Spread gravel throughout your house and yard.
34. Make your children clean their Super Soakers in a cleaning barrel you placed outside the front door before they come in.
35. Make your family dig a survivability position with overhead cover in the backyard. Complain that the 4x4s are not 8 inches on center and make them rebuild it.
36. Continuously ask your spouse to allow you to go buy an M-Gator.
37. When your 5-year-old asks for a stick of gum, have him find the exact stick and flavor he wants on the Internet and print out the web page. Type up a Form 9 and staple the web page to the back. Submit the paperwork to your spouse for processing. After two weeks, give your son the gum.
38. Announce to your family that the dog is a vector for disease and shoot it. Throw the dog in a burn pit you dug in your neighbor's back yard.
39. Wait for the coldest/ hottest day of the year and announce to your family that there will be no heat/air conditioning that day so you can perform much needed maintenance on the heater/ air conditioner. Tell them you are doing this so they won't get cold/hot.
40. Just when you think you're ready to resume a normal life, order yourself to repeat this process for another six months to simulate the next deployment you've been ordered to support.

Wow...you know, it just doesn't get any better than this!  I particularly like #25!

When a General Speaks Out on Gays in the Military

Does the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Have the Right to Say: ...Homosexual acts are immoral...? I would hope so!

We need senior military officers with courage who are not afraid to speak their mind and endorse high ethical standards while leading our forces during time of war and in peace. Soldiers need to have confidence in their leader's moral beliefs in order to reassure them that they will be treated fairly and equitably while under his or her command.

This is something that cannot be dodged or downplayed by political opportunists who believe a milk toast answer will suffice and honker-down to wait and see till another news worthy story hits the airwaves! I was wondering... (foolish me!) what direction the firestorm would have taken had General Pace said something like...immoral acts were OK with him! Furthermore, I would like to know the context in which the question was asked. I would hope that it was not phrased inappropriately with the intent of trapping General Pace. Now a days, that seems to be the purpose behind most interviews. I’m surfing now...! Oh! This is good...! I was reading through Pat Buchanan's column from yesterday addressing General Pace’s comments ...oh yes!

I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immorality. I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way."

Buchanan went on further to say that the responses to Pace's moral assertions are indicative of the state of play, the correlation of forces, in America's culture war.

OK back to Google, what else? A Presidential candidate not afraid to speak out...there's hope! Senator Sam Brownback said in support of General Pace's comment: “We should not expect someone as qualified, accomplished and articulate as Gen. Pace to lack personal views on important moral issues." Not surprisingly, Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed to duck the big question. "We need patriotic Americans who exist across the board in our population. We don't need a moral judgment from the chairman of Joint Chiefs."

Talking about taking a stand! Buchanan ends his column with this thought:

And where there is no moral community, there will not long be one country. For in a religious or culture war, there is no peaceful coexistence. One side wins, the other side loses.

Remember, Pace never suggested gays were not patriotic. He said what he believes (sounds refreshing) in that homosexual activity is outlawed in the service — and is immoral. As members of the military community either active duty, reservists, retired, or a veteran of the armed forces, we need to rally support for someone not afraid to express his convictions. You can disagree with him...but he has that personal freedom, which is the same freedom he protects for us on a daily basis.

Joe Dougherty, Col, USAF (Ret.)

Joe Dougherty is Vice-President of the Armed Services Mutual Benefit Association and a retired Air Force Colonel who has served in numerous leadership positions on active duty at the squadron, group, wing, numbered air force, and MAJCOM level.  He received his undergraduate degree in accounting from Baylor University in 1974 and was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Program.  He completed undergraduate pilot training at Laughlin AFB TX in 1975. Afterwards, he was assigned to Ellsworth AFB SD where he flew the B-52 G/H and T-38 aircraft.  He later earned a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota.  Next, he was assigned to Castle AFB CA as a combat crew training instructor pilot.  He has logged more than 4200 flying hours, 2,000 hours of which were as an instructor/evaluator pilot. 

Afterwards, he was assigned to Headquarters Strategic Air Command, and served as Chief of the Strategic Warfare Center (SWC) Range Equipment Management Division, where he directed and managed the development, programmatics, and implementation of the SWC, a $1 billion acquisition program stressing combat tactics and composite force training.  Returning to Castle AFB CA in January 1992, he served as the Wing Chief of Safety and Commander of the 93rd Operations Support Squadron (93 OSS), where his unit was recognized two years running (1993 and 1994) as the “Best OSS” in Air Combat Command. He completed his tour first as the Deputy Operations Group Commander, and then as the Deputy Support Group Commander during base realignment and closure and was the last service member to leave the base. His follow-on assignment was to Davis-Monthan AFB AZ, where he was Chief of Battle Management Integration, responsible for developing, integrating, and implementing operational programs to ensure the combat readiness of the USAF’s surveillance, reconnaissance, and command and control forces, over 90 aircraft.

Next, he was assigned to U.S. European Command in Stuttgart GE and was the USNATO Liaison Officer stationed in Brussels, Belgium.  While there, he was the Command’s representative to the U.S. Ambassador, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (USNATO), and was instrumental in insuring that the Command’s senior leaders and staff received timely information on USNATO and NATO activities, which included the Kosovo conflict. In addition, he assisted new NATO members Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic “in-country” with development of their strategic planning process and implementing NATO membership requirements.  He was also senior military advisor on two Office of Secretary of Defense sponsored Bilateral Working Groups to the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

In 2001 he returned to the U.S. and assumed command as the Professor of Aerospace Studies at Auburn University, where he led a staff of 7 instructors and administrative personnel, charged with training, mentoring, educating, and motivating over 170+ officer candidates preparing them for leadership positions in the U. S. Air Force. While there, his unit earned the Air Force Association Award for being the Best AFROTC Detachment in Alabama.  His detachment consistently ranked in the “Top 10%” nationally out of 144 detachments for corps size, scholarship recipients, and organizational awards.  He is currently enrolled in the Auburn University Graduate School pursuing a PhD in Public Administration and Public Policy.

Following his retirement in December 2004, Colonel Dougherty was selected for Federal Civilian Service with AmeriCorps NCCC and was tasked with running the day-to-day operations of a non-profit residential program which included 20 staff members and instructors organized to provide service learning and leadership development for between 200 and 250 corps members, ages 18-24 operating across a 9 state area and the Gulf Coast.  He oversaw the day-to-day campus life addressing and resolving problems related to quality of life, discipline, funding, budgeting, public relations, and capital improvements to facilities.

Colonel Dougherty is married to the former Linda Ann Partin.  They have a son Ryan and a daughter Kaylyn.  They also have a Samoyed named "Hayden."