It's a thorny issue. Mixing men and women causes problems wherever you do it. Sting said it best: "There is no political solution/for our troubled evolution." ("Spirits in the Material World") Substitute policy or administrative for political, and you have something to apply to the military. Men and women can have fraternal relationships, but men and women in their breeding prime (especially men) want love and sex--not necessarily in that order of priority. Ignoring this unavoidable fact is just immature. Given our oddly puritanical attitudes towards sex, it's not surprising that the US military is struggling with integrating men and women in a fashion that is fair, impartial, and workable.
I'll be honest: I struggled with the mixing when I was MI. The combat engineers and the infantry are just easier in that way. Fortunately for me, I don't flirt well, and I know it. I kept female soldiers at arm's length because I don't dance well enough to manage anything else. While I daresay that many male soldiers have my attitude, at least as many are eager to find themselves in the company of female soldiers for all the wrong reasons. I won't repeat the things I heard at an EO seminar; young soldiers are looking to get some.
It's not all one-sided, either. In my various XO positions for MI AIT companies at Huachuca, I was constantly in the company of young female soldiers. The command team (the commander, the first sergeant, and I) had a runner assigned to us whenever snowbirds, blackbirds, or light duty types were available. The runner occupied a desk in my office, which was between the CO's and 1SG's offices. Many's the day I walked into my office and got a "Hi, sir..." greeting that told me I needed to be out and about all day.
After PT one day, I discovered that I didn't have enough time to drive home and shower before an early appointment. I kept a spare set of BDUs in my trunk for just such an occasion. I showered in the seldom-used VIP shower in the barracks. The private assigned to clean that area came in and struck up a conversation with me through the shower door. She was one of the "Hi, sir..." types. She ignored hints that I was just about done with my shower. She did not leave when I shut off the shower and dried off. I told her I was going to have to get out of the shower and get dressed now. She said, "That's okay, sir."
I solved the problem by telling her to find the senior drill sergeant right away. There was a pause, then she left. When the senior drill sergeant arrived, I told him that under no [expletive deleted] circumstances were any of the trainees to enter the VIP shower while anyone was in there. He gave me a three-bags-full. I think he understood.
While it may be true that fraternization represents a lack of discipline, asking for monastic discipline on top of combat discipline may be more than one can ask. We don't want choir boys in the Army, and we don't recruit monks. We want killers. For better for for worse, the kinds of men who sign up to kill people against whom they have no particular gripe want to [expletive deleted] women. If government-sponsored brothels were available, then I'd say the Army would have a case against fraternizing in the field. In lieu of providing authorized outlets, the Army needs to grow up and accept that its killers never signed on for celibacy. Men and women under stress are going to have sex just as surely as a bullet fired in the air will come down someplace.
If I were in charge, I'd set up brothels that were under strict military control and issue ration cards or some other rationing system for access. Then we'd have an argument that male and female soldiers should not be finding solace in each others' arms.
Webstral
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