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Those of you who read my blog know I’m no war-hawk. However, as a part-time reservist I sometime wrestle with my inner-Patton. Both of my novels deal with the issue of being a woman in the military and, consequently, what it’s like to live under a spotlight and have all of your actions reflect on every other woman in uniform. We’ve had some doozies. Anybody remember Lieutenant Kelly Flynn, for example? And we have two new hall-of-famers—US Air Force Colonel Lisa Nowak and British Royal Navy Leading Seaman Fayne Turney—to make the rest of us look, er, like we’re wearing shoes we can’t quite fill.
US Navy Captain [corr. see below] Nowak is the now “former†NASA astronaut who attacked the girlfriend of a fellow astronaut for whom she left her husband. I mean, like, that’s all she did? Lordy, it’s a wonder she only tried to kidnap and bludgeon her rival and didn’t fly the space shuttle in the women’s house. Naturally, the Orlando police have now revealed that along with all the weapons she was carrying, she also had photos of sexual bondage scenes on computer discs. Yeah, guys, military chicks really ARE freaky! Remember that the next time you think about asking one of us on a date.
In terms of role models, I’m even less inspired by the British seaman, Fayne Turney, recently released by the Iranians. She was evidently the first to submit to the will of her captures (though fortunately for us girls, her male crew members proved equally pliable). Back home, she was the first to sell her story to the press under a special “one day only sale†rule granted by the British government. In her tale, she described her ordeal and how she was fooled into false confessions by the threat of imprisonment and the ole “sizing me up for a coffin trick,†which has evidently still not seen its last sucker. Turney’s commander, Royal Navy Lt. Felix Carman, called the book deal “unsavoryâ€, but commented that she was at least securing a financial future for her child. And cha-ching, another great female roll model is born.
There are great women military leaders out there—there just isn’t much interesting to say about them. They lead, fight, save lives and die everyday. But that really isn’t enough for a news lead. Now you have to do something outrageous first. Whether that reflects poorly on popular taste is a matter of debate, but whether it reflects poorly, by association, on those of us in uniform is not even a question. When we're no longer associated with those around us who do silly or crazy things, then I'll believe we really have been accepted as equals in the military. But not yet.
