The 1991 Combat Exclusion Repeal Timeline: The United States Naval Story
In November 1972, the Navy announced that it was seeking eight women volunteers to train as pilots. In early January 1973, the eight names were released as the first group of women pilots to enter military aviation training since the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) of World War II. [1, 2]
Four of the women who had already been commissioned started the program in March 1973; the remainder reported to flight training in May 1973 after completing the Women Officers School. Later, two of the first eight women dropped out.
The first female naval aviator to earn her wings, Barbara (Allen) Rainey, was designated on February 22, 1974. She was followed in March through May by Judy (Neuffer) Bruner, Jane (Skiles) O’Dea, Joellen (Drag) Oslund, female Navy helicopter pilot #1, Ana Maria Scott, and Rosemary Bryant Merims (Conatser) Mariner. The other services followed the Navy’s lead.
The Army began training six months after the Navy with Sally Murphy earning her wings on June 4, 1974. Ten Air Force female pilots began flight training in 1976, and all earned their wings on September 2, 1977. The Coast Guard opened all aviation ratings to women on January 1, 1976. The first female Coast Guard aviator, Janna Lambine, began aviation training that month and received her wings at NAS Whiting Field on March 4, 1977, becoming the first female Coast Guard pilot.
Vietnam had ended, but the Cold War continued as women began to enter new realms of military aviation. Air Force Second Lieutenant (2Lt) Kathy Cosand received the first Air Medal earned by a military woman pilot in May 1977, for C-141 operations in Zaire. Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG) Rosemary Bryant (Conatser) Mariner broke through the “glass canopy” and qualified in the A-4 Skyhawk in 1975 and the A-7E Corsair II in 1976, she was the first woman to fly Navy tactical jets.
In late 1976, Lieutenant (LT) Joellen Drag Oslund, joined a class action lawsuit Owens vs. Brown, in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with five other Navy women, challenging the constitutionality of 10 USC 6015’s[3] language restricting women from serving on vessels other than hospital ships and transports. Joellen, assigned to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Three (HC-3) based at Naval Air Station North Island, was not allowed by Commander, Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet (COMNAVAIRPAC) policy to even hover above the deck of a ship anchored in port.
Realizing that the courts would act if the Navy did not, the Chief of Naval Personnel requested statutory language to amend 10 USC 6015, allowing women to serve on non-combatant ships permanently and aboard combatant ships for Temporary Active Duty (TAD) of 180 days, which was supported by Department of Defense (DOD). This was incorporated into the FY79 Defense Authorization bill.
On July 27, 1978, District Judge John J. Sirica ruled 10 USC 6015 unconstitutional. The Navy had 90 days to file an appeal. In the meantime, the FY79 Defense Authorization bill was passed by Congress, creating a new version of the law that rendered the lawsuit ruling moot. This was the basis for the “Women at Sea Program” started in 1979, allowing female pilots and aircrew to serve as part of shipboard detachments aboard the Navy’s Mobile Logistic Support Force (MLSF) vessels.
Restriction to non-combat missions, however, relegated the women to second-class status in the macho world of military aviation. Women wanted to be able to compete for any job in the Fleet, based on performance and ability. First, the women had to organize. Rosemary (Conatser) Mariner, Joellen (Drag) Oslund, Mary Lou (Jorgensen) Griffin and other Navy women formed the Society of Women in Military Aviation (SWMA) in the early 1980’s, eschewing the “pilot” title in order to include Naval Flight Officers (NFOs) and female enlisted aircrew. The WASPs formed a similar group in 1978. In 1981, the WASP Women Military Pilots Association (WMPA) invited Air Force and Army women aviators to join the organization, giving the organization a charter and heritage leading back to the World War II WASP. The WMPA board welcomed its first active-duty members by 1982-1983. Air Force Captains and Lieutenants Barb Brumme, Julie Tizard, Karen Daneu, and Margie (Clark) Varuska held the primary board positions of President through Treasurer. By late 1988, WMPA members voted to change the organizational name to Women Military Aviators (WMA), Inc. The SWMA and WMPA (WMA) all recognized the fact that women needed a support system and sharing of information to advocate for flying every aircraft in the inventory just like the WASPs did in WWII.
WMA reached out and merged with the Navy group. Under the leadership of U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col) Kelly Hamilton, followed by Navy Commander (CDR) Rosemary Bryant Mariner, WMA built the organization to include Coast Guard women aviators by 1991. This formed the first active network of WASP, Air Force, Army, Navy, and Coast Guard women aviators, as well as their extended families and non-military or military non-aviation as associate members. Female Marine Corps aviators were eligible to join WMA in 1993, the first year the Marine Corps allowed women to train in aviation.
Unfortunately, scheduled deployments of the Women at Sea Program to the 6th and 7th Fleets were cancelled by fleet commanders after Ronald Reagan became President in 1981. After much political wrangling, it took several years for women to deploy in these Fleets. In 1986, the Navy renamed MLSF to Combat Logistics Support Force (CLSF), thereby closing most of these ships to women. Quickly advised of the implications of restricting women’s service by WMA and other women’s advocacy groups, the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS), the Secretary of Defense, and Congress forced the Navy to stop turning back the clock.
The 1988 Department of Defense “risk rule,” restricting women from serving in military positions where they faced a high risk of direct combat, hostile fire, or capture, seemed to apply more to the Army, rather than the other services. There has never been a statutory restriction on the assignment of Army women to combat (air or land); it was policy that restricted women’s assignments. The 1988 Task Force on Women in the Military recommended adopting the “risk rule”[4] but it was solely the decision of the Secretary of Defense. The Air Force and the Navy policies, which changed periodically, might have cited the risk rule, but their authority for restricting women was derived from 10 USC 6015 and 8549,[5] part of the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948.
In the 1980s, there were some successes. Although Lin (Vaught) Hutton had a short tour in Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron TWO (VQ-2) in the late 1970s, she was reassigned because the assigned EP-3 aircraft had a combat reconnaissance mission. By 1986, the first women were officially assigned to the Fleet Air Reconnaissance (VQ) Squadrons in the Navy, a warfare specialty. Women delivered mail to Navy ships via Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) aircraft and were carrier qualified. The first woman to qualify to land aboard a ship was LT D. Lynn Spruill in VRC 40, in June 1979, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Independence (CV 62). LTJG Patricia A. Denkler received Bureau of Personnel (BUPERS) orders in November 1980 for jet training enroute to duty in Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 33 (VAQ-33), with orders that required a jet transition training syllabus including carrier qualification (CQ). Her first CQ was in the TA-4J on 24 & 25 September 1981 aboard Auxiliary Aircraft Landing Training Ship, USS Lexington (AVT 16). This was followed by A-6E CQ on 16 June 1982, marking her as the first woman to carrier qualify in jet aircraft.
The Navy “strike” training pipeline opened to women in 1982 was to be the new training track for females flying jets, just like the training for men. Trish Lasell was the first woman to complete the full strike pipeline, winging on 23 December 1982. Prior to this, Navy women had been flying jets since 1975, but training had been limited. Women had also been flying propeller (maritime) aircraft and helicopters, but without carrier qualification and certain tactics training. The complete jet training syllabus replaced the initial propeller training/jet transition training system used for women from 1973 to 1981. Finally, in 1982, full equality was achieved in naval air training.
Women became test pilots (Colleen Nevius) and test engineers (Trish Beckman), and a few qualified in air combat maneuvering (ACM), led by LTJG Lucy Young and LTJG Andrea Rice in Combat Support Squadron ONE (VC-1) in Hawaii, and in 1977, Mary Lou (Jorgenson) Griffin was assigned to Fighter Squadron 126 (VF-126) at NAS Miramar. Women received orders to A-7s and A-6s in VAQ squadrons VAQ-33 and VAQ-34, both shore-based electronic warfare force support squadrons flying EA-6A, ERA-3B, and EA-7L aircraft. VAQ-34 transitioned to F/A-18B in late 1991 as VAQ-34 retired the older EA-7L and EA-3 aircraft putting multiple women in the F/A-18 Hornet.
From the growing cadre of Navy women pilots flying every jet in the inventory, a number went to Test Pilot School, and a few, led by Wendy B. Lawrence, followed that training to join NASA for astronaut training in 1992. By the mid-1980s, Navy women could qualify in any aircraft in the fleet. They could complete combat training, train men to fly combat, and serve in weapons research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) commands. However, Navy women could not be permanently assigned to a “warfare specialty” units, such as part of a carrier air wing (CVW) or shore-based maritime patrol (VP) squadron, which included anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missions.
In the Air Force, Margaret Woodward refueled aircraft with KC-135s in the 1989 invasion of Panama. While Air Force women also served in the RDT&E and frontline communities such as aerial refueling, they were restricted from combat aircraft types (F-15, F-16, B-52, FB-111, etc.). The Air Force chose to restrict women by aircraft type instead of the Navy’s restriction of women by command mission types. Yet women flew into hurricanes, onto the Antarctic ice, refueled Navy jet fighters over the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Earnest Will and launched into low Earth orbit on the Space Shuttle, showing that risk was not the issue.
Army women, much like the Navy, could fly any aircraft in the service. However, like the Navy, they were not assigned to units with combat missions, although Army combat support missions could clearly cross front lines, particularly in MEDEVAC and airborne armor support units. The Army restrictions were by policy only, as there were no legal restrictions such as those imposed on the Navy and Air Force.
In 1987, Rosemary Mariner was selected for aviation squadron command by a Bureau of Naval Personnel command screen board, joining VAQ-34 in 1989 as Executive Officer. She assumed command of VAQ-34 at the Pacific Missile Test Center, in ceremonies at NAS Point Mugu, California, on 12 July 1990, flying the EA-7L, the ERA-3B, and the A-7E Corsair II. A woman was in command of an aviation unit, another smash at the “glass canopy” of aviation. Thirteen (13) female naval aviators and 43 enlisted women in aviation ratings helped fill her unit.
There is no question that the number of women deployed to the theater during the 1991 Gulf War immediately called into question the combat restrictions on women. This brought the issue into the forefront of the American public’s understanding of the roles of women in the military. The Title V Report to Congress following Desert Storm, the official DOD report mandated by law, set the number actually deployed at 37,000. This did not include women flying and otherwise serving in and out of the theater on a temporary basis. The additional theater support personnel, particularly in the Air Force Logistics Command and the Navy Maritime Logistics Support Force (MLSF) ships, brought the number up to an estimated 40,000.
The 1991 Gulf War proved to be a catalyst for change. Operation Desert Shield, largely a logistics buildup of troops to defend Saudi Arabia, and Operation Desert Storm, the combat phase to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi invasion, involved military women in virtually all theaters of operation. The 1948 law, which prohibited women from serving on combatant ships or aircraft, was still in effect, yet women were ferrying personnel, supplies, medical personnel, prisoners around the war zone, refueling fighters in midair, and flying reconnaissance and search and rescue missions.
On February 27, 1991, Iraq captured and held as a Prisoner of War (POW) Army flight surgeon Rhonda Cornum after her aircraft was shot down behind enemy lines. Major Marie Rossi, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter pilot in a combat support unit, served as a company commander in a position that technically violated the risk rule. Tragically, she was killed in a combat-related, non-hostile fire mishap on March 1, 1991, two weeks after being interviewed by CNN. Major Rossi, 32, flying her CH-47D crashed into an unlit microwave tower in bad weather. While military women had perished in Vietnam at field hospitals and in aircraft mishaps, this was different because the war was highly televised, and combat support was in the front lines of the battle. Americans saw that the United States could not go to war without women. Women were serving courageously just like the men.
It was also painfully clear that combat exclusion policies did not protect women from being killed in action or becoming POWs. A total of five Army women died as a result of non-direct combat causes (Scud missile attacks, helicopter crashes, and mine explosions) and two were taken prisoner.[6] Ten other women died in non-combat related incidents including traffic mishaps and port facilities related accidents.[7]
Following the liberation of Kuwait, the 102nd Congress held hearings on the Gulf War that opened the door to discussion of women’s assignment policy. History shows that Congress is most apt to enact legislative change in a window following the end of a war. History indicated that the window of opportunity was about six to twelve months long because after that, society wants to forget the war and move on.
Pushed by a public and congressional pressure following Operation Desert Storm, in April 1991 the House Armed Services Committee, chaired by Representative Les Aspin (WI-01)(D), unanimously passed the amendments to the Military Authorization Act of 1992, offered by Representative Beverly Byron (MD-06)(D) and Representative Patricia Schroeder, (CO-01)(D). These amendments repealed the aviation combat laws in the House version of the FY92 authorization bill. The bill passed the House as H.R. 2100 by a 268 – 161 vote on 22 May 1991.
The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) held hearings on the issue of women in combat aviation, and the service chiefs testified across the board against changing the law. On July 9, 1991, the SASC rejected the House version, meaning they opposed repeal. Senator William Roth (R-DE) decided to act, and he enlisted the aid of the powerful legislator Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA). They co-sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that would repeal the combat exclusion laws. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney opposed repeal. Unless women acted, it would die in the Senate. Women aviators were determined not to repeat what happened to the WASP cadre in 1944; the WASPs were sent home without support and not allowed to continue to fly military aircraft. Now was the time to speak up.
On July 19th, Heather Wilson, U.S. Air Force Academy graduate, Rhodes Scholar, National Security Council (NSC) staffer, and future Secretary of the Air Force under President Barack Obama, was furious. She had read an article in the Washington Times that implied women couldn’t hack flying fighters. She put out the word – “activate your rolodexes!”[8] The call went out across the WMA network: come to Washington in uniform to tell your story, and if unable, then write letters to your representatives in Congress.
Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) Trish Beckman, WMA President, called and asked Lucy Young and others to come to Washington, D.C., to educate Senate staffers on women’s accomplishments. Carolyn Becraft, Army veteran and Women’s Research & Education Institute (WREI) advocate, called CDR Rosemary Mariner, the CO of VAQ-34, and said, “you’d better worry about what will happen if you don’t come.” Rosemary Mariner, the president of WMA, packed her bags, took leave from her VAQ-34 CO’s office, and headed to DC, calling all her contacts enroute. Retired VADM Bill Lawrence, President of the Association of Naval Aviation, and father of Navy helicopter pilot and astronaut Wendy Lawrence, was tremendously supportive.
The hearings on the Kennedy-Roth Amendment were scheduled for July 25,1991. Due to their work and airline schedules, some women only had a small window in which to help. A number such as Lori Melling came to D.C from the Navy’s Test Pilot School at Patuxent River. They put on their Navy summer whites, Air Force Blues, and Army Greens, flew to DC, and caught cabs to the Hart Senate Office Building as instructed. The women met with Trish Beckman and the other military women for a strategy lunch at the American Cafe down the street from the Capitol. Barbara Bell (with her husband), Lori Melling Tanner, Paula Coughlin, and others were present in their Navy summer white uniforms, a violation of Navy policy that requires civilian dress for those lobbying Congress. However, the women were there to educate members of Congress, not to lobby; therefore, not technically violating regulations. Kelly Hamilton was in town representing the Air Force, along with Terry VandenDolder, who came from nearby Andrews Air Force base, where she was stationed. A large group of women and men, all services, WASP, National Organization for Women (NOW), Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS), Women’s Equity Action League (WEAL) and other women’s professional organizations, were mobilized for that entire week to assist in the efforts. DACOWITS Chairwoman Becky Constantino and Carolyn Becraft of the Women’s Research and Education Institute (WREI) coordinated with Heather Wilson on the list of Senate Offices to visit. Heather, a conservative Republican and future Congresswoman from New Mexico, met the most conservative members of Congress. Other women’s groups (NOW, WEAL, etc.) talked with the most liberal members. Becky Constantino and Carolyn Becraft then divided up the rest.
Following Heather Wilson’s and Trish Beckman’s plans, the women divided up into small groups and headed out. The military women’s role was to tell their story, many of which were almost two decades old. The strategy was to be in a uniform so members of Congress and their staff could see the wings on their chests, the ribbons and the service badges. These military uniform accoutrements spoke more than the women’s words could say. They spoke, “We have been living this life, some people are proposing we cannot do. We are your study. We do not need an academic or a sociologist to tell you what a military woman thinks. Ask us. We have been there and are still there today.”
Many had flown the A-4 Skyhawk for years in the Navy, some were air combat maneuvering qualified, carrier qualified, and had flown aircraft in and out of Operations Desert Shield and Storm. The women looked sharp in their uniforms, the Navy in summer whites. Trim, athletic, and confident young American women capable of pulling “Gs”, shooting missiles, and dropping bombs in the service of their country. They could load and move cargo, fly, and nurse patients in rescue missions. They did these military duties and many more. They made an impressive sight at a historic time for women in the military. Carolyn Becraft and other civilians did the “lobbying,” and the women military officers did their best to educate Senate staffers and dispel myths. Their adversaries were the Eagle Forum,[9] a conservative advocacy group founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972, and those who opposed the “feminization of the military.” However, they could only give their opinions, and they were mostly non-veteran women.
It was crunch time. On July 25th, the military women were on the Hill by 8:30 am and attended a press conference at 9:30 am by Senators Roth and Kennedy. They spoke to Reuters reporter Jim Adams and the Washington Post’s Bart Gellman. Their allies were at their side, retired Major General Jeanne Holm, USAF, and Brigadier General Evelyn Foote, USA, both amazing leaders. WASP Barbara Lagarsky and DACOWITS Chair Becky Constantino were eloquent in their presentations about a subject in which they were experts. The military women in their “liberty” uniforms were their own best advocates.
The actual repeal of the combat aviation exclusion laws was assured on July 31, 1991. The Kennedy-Roth Amendment vote, which added repeal of the combat exclusion provisions of Title 10 to the FY92 Defense Authorization Act (an amendment sponsored by Senator William Roth (DE-R) & Senator Ted Kennedy (MA-D)), was the legislative fight that made the necessary change to the law. This law change fulfilled Admiral Elmo Zumwalt’s prediction two decades earlier, as the key change that would enable Navy women to have equal opportunities in their military service.
The opposition was supported by Senator Sam Nunn (GA-D), the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senator John McCain (AZ-R), who moved to table the Kennedy-Roth amendment. The Senate voted 69-30 against tabling the Kennedy-Roth amendment. The defeat of that Table Motion paved the way for a roll call vote where the full FY92 Defense Authorization Bill passed unanimously. With support clearly ascendant for new rules for military women, the amended bill passed by a voice vote in the Senate. The law repealed 10 USC 8549 in its entirety and amended 10 USC 6015. Following the resolutions of the House and Senate versions of the bill in the Conference Committee, the House passed the measure by a vote of 329 to 82, and the Senate passed it by a vote of 79 to 15 before Thanksgiving. President George H. W. Bush signed the bill into law on 5 December 1991.
The Senate also passed an amendment providing for a 15-member Presidential Commission to conduct a two-year study on all aspects of women in combat roles, with the report due by December 1992.
In September 1991, the infamous Tailhook Association reunion in Las Vegas became a national scandal when Admiral’s aide LT Paula Coughlin and a number of other military and civilian women were groped in public by fellow aviators in a Las Vegas Hilton Hotel hallway. Emotions were running high about the changes needed in military aviation for women.
DOD did not immediately act to open combat aviation after the law was repealed because Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney was personally opposed to the changes, and most importantly, it was a presidential election year. The Republican party bowed to far-right social conservatives and neoconservatives who adamantly opposed the equality of women in the armed forces, especially women in combat. Phyllis Schlafly even managed to get language opposing women in combat in the GOP party platform. A presidential commission was formed and charged to study women in the military for much of 1992, despite the fact that women had been flying nearly a decade in the Navy (1973), the Army (1974) and the Air Force (1976).
After months of base visits and testimony by many witnesses from both the military and the civilian sector, the presidential commission voted by a one-vote margin to oppose the expanded role of women in the military. The commission report was presented to the newly elected Democratic president in December, but its impact was negligible. Its effect was largely offset by the influence of the DACOWITS.
DACOWITS at its spring 1993 meeting, hosted by the U.S. Air Force, positively endorsed the expansion of opportunities for military women. Air Force Chief of Staff General Merrill McPeak, the conference host, put up a spirited fight. But he ultimately was embarrassed by a phalanx of experienced Navy women aviators. Particularly effective were the questions of Navy Intruder and future F-14 Tomcat pilot, LT Kara Hultgreen, and Navy Test Pilot School student and future F/A-18 Hornet pilot, Lori Melling Gattuso. Their concise and well-reasoned questions helped General McPeak show his prejudices against women in a public forum in front of the press, members of Congress, female Republican donors, and a number of Congressional staffers. This was actually a calculated strategy by the members of WMA and those who orchestrated the law change. The Navy women raised the questions with the Air Force general, and the Army and Air Force raised the questions with the Navy admirals. This avoided retaliation for the same service women members.
A number of other factors coalesced the movement to begin the final push to remove vestiges of the combat exclusion rule these included: 1) the public profile of WMA members, 2) the embarrassment of the Navy over the Tailhook scandal in September 1991 which reduced the influence of many admirals who opposed women in military aviation, 3) the push of various Congressional members and staff, 4) the results of the November 1992 election, and 5) the changing of the guard in the civilian leadership of the Pentagon.
In early 1993, after the election of new Democratic President Bill Clinton, former chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Les Aspin, became the Secretary of Defense. Aspin quickly moved to order all the services to open combat aviation to women. In a Pentagon press conference on 28 April 1993, Secretary Aspin directed the Army to drop the risk rule and open new positions to women. He also directed the Marine Corps to open new assignments to women and directed the Navy to draft legislation repealing the remaining portions of 10 USC 6015.
General McPeak regained some public relations points at the press conference that day by introducing three of the first seven Air Force women tactical jet students to the assembled press corps. He introduced them as the first women fighter pilots. He ignored the inconvenient truth that one Navy woman had been flying fighters for 19 years, and over 30 women had qualified in Navy tactical jet aircraft in the past two decades, defining the true history of the start of the path to combat aviation for female sisters-of-the-air.
With the change in the statute opening up combatant ships to women, Shannon Workman, Sally Fountain, Kara Hultgreen, Linda (Heid) Maloney, Loree (Draude) Hirschman, and Suzanne Dee were among those detailed to carrier-based aircraft, EA-6B’s, F-14’s, and S-3s. Women in VAQ-34 transitioned to the squadron’s new F/A-18 aircraft. Seven female Air Force pilots were selected for fighter/bomber lead-in training: Jeannie Flynn, Martha McSally, Sharon Preszler, Dawn Dunlop, Sara Beyer, Ellen McKinnon, and Dawn Shohfi. In the Army, Charlene Wagner, Angie Norman, Cathy Jarrell and many others were off and running!
Congress repealed the remainder of 10 USC 6015 in 1994. The repeal of the combat exclusion policy completed a twenty-year effort by women in all the services, but particularly in Naval Aviation, allowing women to fly in operational squadrons and carrier air wings from the decks of Fleet carriers. As an important postscript to this saga, LT Kara Hultgreen was the first female casualty of carrier aviation when she was killed flying an F-14A Tomcat (NH 213), of the VF-213 Black Lions aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72, on 25 October 1994.
The legacy of this fight was enshrined before the nation at CAPT Rosemary Mariner’s burial service on February 2, 2019. Four Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet fighters roared overhead an estimated crowd of 2,000 on a Tennessee hillside cemetery in the Navy’s first all-woman “Missing Man Formation.” As combat veteran LCDR Danielle “Purple” Thiriot, pulled vertical out of the #3 position in the formation and rocketed upward, she symbolically bore the spirit of CAPT Rosemary “Sabre” Mariner toward the heavens as a silver sun glint flash lit the underside of her jet. Over 40 of Rosemary’s sisters of the air, in attendance below the flight, smiled and shed a tear in their shared portion of this salute.
Endnotes
[1] Parrott, Jennings, “Newsmakers,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 11, 1973, pg. A2.
[2] Naval Aviation News, February 1973, pg. 3.
[3] It is worth noting the 10 USC 6015 restricted women on ships or aircraft but did not address ground forces
[4] https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA190369.pdf Accessed 17Jun25 to validate link
[5] Public Law 625 – 10 USC 8549 & 6015 “…women “may not be assigned to duty in aircraft while such aircraft are engaged in combat missions.”
[6] Appendix R, “Role of Women in the Theater of Operations” in Conduct of the Persian Gulf War: Final Report to Congress. vol. 2, Washington: Department of Defense, 1992.
[7] http://www.nooniefortin.com
[8] The Rolodex, invented in 1956, was a rotating card device to store contact information on colleagues and friends. It was widely in use in the 1980s. Accessed 10 Jul 2025. https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/snapshot/still-rolling-around
[9] https://eagleforum.org/ Accessed 17Jun25 to check link