Dear Readers: Remember the column that raised the question, ”Should women be allowed to serve in the Navy aboard ships?” Well, it almost started World War III. Want to read over my shoulder? Here are some choice excerpts:
Dear Ann Landers: Women in the Navy serving aboard ships? Forget it!
There should be a constitutional amendment barring women from military service entirely. There has never been a need for it. It`s nothing more than a boost to the feminine ego. I resent paying taxes to support such nonsense.
Things have gone too far when you hear of air-cushioned, hazardous-duty shields for women in their third trimester and computerized pain and muscle controls that allow women to fly planes, drive tanks and fire artillery while in labor.
Harry E. Ward III, Houston
Dear Harry: Any war in which women in labor are flying planes, driving tanks and firing artillery is already lost. In what country does this go on?
From Holland, Mich.: There are now 400,000 women in the U.S. Armed Forces. We have approximately 1.8 million woman veterans.
Deborah Sampson Gannett disguised herself as a man named Robert Sutcliff in the Revolutionary War and was not discovered until she was wounded for the third time. Molly Pitcher fired her husband`s cannon when he was struck down. The first woman Marine served on the USS Constitution under the name of George Baker in the War of 1812. Dr. Mary Walker, a surgeon in the Civil War, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Women have served in the military for as long as there have been wars. In World War II, women worked in medical units before they were old enough to vote. Ask any man who served in Desert Storm what he thought about the women who served in that war. I`m a veteran of the Korean War and am sorry I wasn`t in the Persian Gulf.
Sandra Kantz
Madison, Ind.: Women in the military have always been discriminated against. For example, the 1,200 women who got pregnant in Desert Storm were treated unfairly. Newsweek magazine reported that the military issued 1 million condoms over 31 days. According to my calculations, if each of the 35,000 women who served in Desert Storm had sex once a day, they were 85,000 condoms short.
John O`Neill
Philadelphia: You recently printed a letter from a Navy wife who complained about women serving on ships. I was in the Army, but I can tell you she is wrong. I`ve seen men on an Army base fool around while living with their wives. If a man is going to be unfaithful, he can cheat on land as well as at sea.
Arlene Gilmore
Seattle: If men in the military can`t control themselves, even around
”homely women,” they are not the kind of people we want making life-and-death decisions on destroyers and aircraft carriers.
Julie Buck
Ft. Worth: Unless the Navy doctors are practicing artificial insemination at sea, each pregnancy on board is the direct result of misconduct by a male as well as a female. If men cannot keep their genes in their jeans, their careers should also be affected by at least a reprimand for misconduct.
Myra McPeak
San Diego: I served in World War II-Iwo Jima and other godforsaken spots in the South Pacific-and the same held true about ”no homely women.” After several months, those native females looked downright beautiful. Memories, ah, memories! I`m 75 now and it seems like yesterday. No name, please, my wife wouldn`t appreciate the publicity.
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”Gems” is a collection of Ann Landers` most requested poems and essays. Send a self-addressed, long, business-size envelope and a check or money order for $4.85 (this includes postage and handling) to: Gems, c/o Ann Landers, P.O. Box 11562, Chicago, Ill. 60611-0562.
