Should women serve in combat? Military experts weigh in

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to pb the Defense Department, Pete Hegseth, is facing a firestorm of backlash for voicing his content that women should not service successful subject combat roles. Although the media is mostly agreed against him, opinions among combat and subject experts are much split. 

Will Thibeau, a erstwhile Army Ranger with aggregate combat deployments, told Fox News Digital that helium agrees with Hegseth wholeheartedly.

"I deliberation soon-to-be Secretary Hegseth stated elemental truths that 12 years agone were commonly understood and affirmed by the senior-most leaders successful the Pentagon, the fertile and record of the subject and the civilization astatine large, that warfare and successful peculiar units that are made and forged to combat successful warfare with nary different intent are units meant for men and men only," helium said.

"Biological sex and relationships betwixt men and women is simply a world that you can't avoid," helium added. "And erstwhile you induce stress, carnal uncertainty, carnal proximity and unsocial scenarios to that biologic reality, you get a fracture of what would person been a emblematic subject team, oregon a subject portion forged for warfighting."

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FILE - This Sept. 18, 2012 record photograph shows pistillate soldiers grooming connected a firing scope portion wearing caller assemblage armor successful Fort Campbell, Ky. Only a tiny fraction of Army women accidental theyd similar to determination into 1 of the recently opening combat jobs, but those fewer who do, accidental they privation a occupation that takes them close into the bosom of battle, according to preliminary results from a survey of the services astir 170,000 women. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

Hegseth, 44, is simply a erstwhile Fox News big and Army infantry serviceman who served 2 combat deployments successful Iraq and Afghanistan and an further deployment to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Trump tapped Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, 1 of the astir influential positions successful his cabinet, connected Nov. 13, conscionable implicit a week aft helium won the election. The president-elect said of Hegseth that "nobody fights harder for the Troops" and "with Pete astatine the helm, America’s enemies are connected notice."

However, Hegseth is facing a large woody of pushback from Democrats and the media, astir particularly for his comments connected a Nov. 7 occurrence of the "Shawn Ryan Show" podcast successful which helium said, "I’m consecutive up conscionable saying we should not person women successful combat roles."

Hegseth asserted that women serving successful combat roles "hasn’t made america much effective, hasn’t made america much lethal" and "has made warring much complicated."

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Host Pete Hegseth during "FOX & Friends" astatine Fox News Channel Studios connected May 27, 2022 successful New York City.  (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)

He did not reason against women serving successful the subject oregon adjacent successful non-ground combat roles specified arsenic successful the Air Force. Rather, helium made the constituent that the U.S. subject has been lowering its carnal standards to let much women to beryllium eligible to service successful combat roles, thing that helium said increases the hazard of combat complications and fatalities.

He said, "I emotion women work members who lend amazingly," but asserted that "everything astir women serving unneurotic makes the concern much analyzable and complication successful combat means casualties are worse."

He besides criticized the precocious echelons of subject enactment for changing standards and prioritizing filling diverseness quotas supra combat effectiveness. He pointed to a 2015 survey by the Marine Corps that recovered that integrated male-female units did "drastically worse" successful presumption of combat effectiveness than all-male units.

"Between bony density and lung capableness and musculus strength, men and women are conscionable different," helium said. "So, I’m good with if you support the standards conscionable wherever they are for everybody, and if there’s some, you know, hard-charging pistillate that meets that standard, great, cool, articulation the infantry battalion. But that is not what’s happened. What has happened is the standards person lowered."

Pete Hegseth and Kayleigh McEnany volition beryllium portion of Fox News' Independence Day programming.  (Fox News)

Hegseth noted that helium was not needfully advocating for making the alteration close now, commenting; "Imagine the demagoguery successful Washington, D.C., if you were really making the lawsuit for, you know, ‘We should standard backmost women successful combat.’"

"As the disclaimer for everybody retired there," helium added, "we’ve each served with women and they’re great, it’s conscionable our institutions don’t person to incentivize that successful places wherever … implicit quality history, men are much capable."

Despite this, Ellen Haring, a retired Army colonel, told Fox News Digital that galore women and men successful the subject are acrophobic astir Hegseth becoming caput and instituting these changes.

"Women who are successful these combat jobs and galore of them person been determination for six, 8 years now, are precise energized and acrophobic astir the thought that they mightiness suffer their jobs," she said.

According to Haring, determination are 2,500 women presently serving successful crushed combat roles successful Army infantry, armor, tract artillery branches arsenic good arsenic peculiar forces. She besides said that 152 women person earned Army Ranger tabs and determination are presently 10 women successful the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment.

She said that contempt women making up lone a 4th of each West Point Academy graduates they accounted for a 3rd of each lieutenants slotted to armor combat units.

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U.S. Army Fort Leonard Wood  (U.S. Army Fort Leonard Wood)

"There's nary denotation that immoderate of those units person been harmed by their presence," she said. "So, Hegseth claims that adding women to these units is going to make a grade of complication and is someway oregon different puts radical astatine risk. That hasn't happened astatine immoderate portion that we've seen truthful far. So, I don't cognize wherever he's coming up with these notions."

Beyond not harming units, Haring went connected to accidental that women person helped to amended the professionalism of units, particularly infantry units.

"Infantry units had a civilization of hazing and benignant of maltreatment of each other," she said. "Their beingness determination has turned a spotlight connected that benignant of behaviour and has really eliminated a batch of it crossed the force. So, this benignant of brutal behaviour that infantry units engaged successful amongst themselves is dilatory being eradicated by the women's presence."

Similarly, Captain Micah Ables, an Army Infantry institution commander, told Fox News Digital that women successful his portion person improved the "team player" cognition of the institution arsenic good arsenic broadened its capabilities erstwhile deployed.

U.S. Army Major General Laura J. Richardson, the archetypal pistillate to service arsenic a lawman commandant of a combat division, listens portion seated down Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley (L) during a Senate Armed Services Committee proceeding connected the implementation of the determination to unfastened each crushed combat units to women connected Capitol Hill successful Washington, February 2, 2016.  (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

Ables’ archetypal deployment to Afghanistan was with an all-male unit, however, helium aboriginal deployed with 1 of the archetypal integrated companies successful the infantry. He said that though determination was immoderate archetypal pushback and tension, the pistillate soldiers successful his portion rapidly proved themselves arsenic susceptible and the institution adapted without excessively overmuch issue.

He said that galore of the women successful his portion person proved to beryllium immoderate of the astir physically and tactically susceptible leaders and soldiers nether his command.

"Once I did instrumentality implicit the mixed-gender company, I didn't truly cognize what to expect," helium said. "But they dug in, and they did what they needed to bash to beryllium experts."

X Soldiers giving feedback connected autonomous instrumentality decontamination system  (U.S. Army)

On the different hand, Jessie Jane Duff, a retired pistillate gunnery sergeant successful the Marines, told Fox News Digital that allowing women to capable combat roles is simply a "lethal mistake."

She besides cited the study by the Marines that she said recovered that integrated units were lone 60 percent arsenic effectual arsenic all-male units and women were betwixt 20 and 30 percent much prone to injury.

"From a biologic level. We're not equal," she said. "With the deficiency of testosterone, women instrumentality a longer clip to retrieve and rebuild musculus due to the fact that they deficiency that testosterone. Whereas men who besides get severely injured based upon the grooming person a higher complaint of being capable to travel backmost into the combat portion and perform."

"Why would you h2o down the effectiveness of our infantry units? You're watering it down due to the fact that you're trying to scope a extremity of equality," she went on. "You tin person the accidental to pass, but you should not beryllium accommodated due to the fact that of your sex erstwhile a much qualified antheral could instrumentality that slot."

US Marine Corps recruits instrumentality portion successful the accepted Eagle, Globe and Anchor medal ceremony. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images) (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

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Finally, Anna Simons, a retired prof of defence investigation astatine the Naval Postgraduate School, told Fox News Digital that it comes down to diverseness versus similarity.

"Women person been successful combat from the opening of time," she said. "They've defended their children, they've defended their property, they've defended husbands, they’ve fought valiantly, that's perfectly true. But the contented isn't women successful combat. The contented is women successful combat units, tiny groups of individuals wherever everybody needs to beryllium fundamentally interchangeable and arsenic proficient astatine definite combat skills."

"The full constituent of combat is to wield unit and to beryllium capable to sorb violence," she said. "So determination has to beryllium a sameness oregon similarity to radical truthful that they go easy interchangeable erstwhile it comes to cardinal skills, shoot, determination and pass skills."

"Everybody needs a baseline of that, and you privation the baseline to beryllium arsenic precocious arsenic possible," she concluded. "That means that radical request to beryllium little akin alternatively than much divers successful their capabilities."