10/26/2005: All-woman C-130 crew
 

http://cellar.org/2005/c130crew.jpg

I can't find the image that had the four women crew in Afghanistan? I know there was an IotD with an all-female crew before... but even though it's not an IotD first, this shot of an all-woman C-130 crew, forwarded by xoB, is strangely compelling to me. Oh sure, there's the mystery of a military chick, with a firearm strapped to her thigh, who could kick your ass across the room -- maybe that's a part of it, I don't know. Or maybe it's the simple evidence that the world is changing, things are not what they were 40-50 years ago or even 10 years ago. Anyway, it seems like an image of the day.

I guess that would make it: Charlize-130?

Times are changing? In a world where there were no firearms a woman would be laughed to scorn if she joined the military. But just because you can shoot a gun doesn't mean you have the mental toughness to handle combat situations. Women are a liability on the field...

Or have a penis.

This is my favourite all female in male dominated space crew.

What are you basing this on? From USA Today:

Army women in support units exposed to combat don't have higher post-traumatic stress or depression rates than their male counterparts a few months after leaving Iraq, according to a pilot study due Thursday.
It's believed to be the first research comparing the mental health of men and women doing violence-prone support jobs — medics, mechanics, drivers — in Iraq, says Army Lt. Col. Carl Castro, chief of military psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

"If the argument is, women can't handle the stresses of combat as well as men, we see no evidence of a sex difference in these units," Castro says. Women can't serve in frontline combat, "but truck drivers in Iraq have the dangerous jobs," he says, and Army women fill about 10% of such support jobs.

Castro gave mental disorder screening tests to a random sample of men and women in these posts — 50 women and 300 men — three months after ending deployment. He says there wasn't a statistical difference between the two sexes: about 6% of men had depression, 8% of women; 11% of the men and 12% of women had PTSD symptoms.

"It's possible that sex differences could develop later on," says Castro, "but right now we don't think women need any more mental health help than men."

Edited for length - full article here http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...s-stress_x.htm

Don't come between a lioness and her cubs. Or a woman and her children. Or a woman and her family. Or community. Or country.

Women don't get into fights as precipitously, but when they do the Israeli army has found that they fight more fiercely.

women make fine pilots....take Patty Wagstaff for example.

Yah...women are fer rapin' after the pillaging is over with. Women are fer bearin' more warrior baby boys and cookin' chow for the real fighters. Women are fer using as barter to get a new horse after the one you were ridin' was hacked out from under you by a screaming Celt wearin' nuthin' but wode and a battleaxe!

too bad the one third from the right couldn't smile for the camera - she looks like a hottie.

as for the post traumatic stress experienced by female soldiers being lower than their male counterparts... could this perhaps be due to the reality that they are the ones doing the beat on the street day in and day out? Yeah, driving a truck that could be hit with an IED wouldn't be fun, but for sheer adrenaline and intensity of combat.. it's the grunts with the helmets and M4A1's that experience the horror of war to a greater degree.

ok... flame away!

These women look trained and tough enough to me. But the camera angle throws me a little. It makes them all look awfully small. How tall would you say they are? They all look about 5 foot 1.

smiles,
Liz http://lettingmebe.blogspot.com

'Women are a liability on the field...'

So what branch of the service were YOU in? And what battlefield have you fought on that you base these observations on? Or is this just tough guy banter?

G Mick LCDR (Ret) USN

They're in the Air Force. They can't kick anybody's ass on the ground. That's why they're in the Air Force. Maleness or Femaleness has nothing to do with that.

These women can probably fly circles around the other guys, although the C-130 is not known for it's nimbleness in the air.

Can a Sidewinder be launched while the aircraft is still on the runway?

Depends. If the rocket fires in the cradle, then I think it would flip the fighter on the ground. If a Sidewinder drops and then fires, it would get messy in different ways.

I am not up on my aviation armaments.