A
recent episode of JAG (Judge Advocate General), the CBS series about a
Navy legal team, is based on an actual event last year in Saudi Arabia. The TV
drama was about a woman Navy pilot assigned to an Air Force unit who resented,
and rebelled against, the requirement that she wear the abaya, the black
head-to-toe enveloping garment worn by pious Saudi Arabian women, not drive an
automobile or even ride in the front seat off the military base. She voiced her
objections up the chain of command, was rebuffed, got a lawyer and sued Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
That’s
what Lt. Col. Martha McSally, the Air Force’s ranking woman fighter pilot and
first woman to fly combat aircraft in enemy territory did when stationed at Prince
Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. She knew it might derail her fast-track career
in the Air Force, but as she told CBS News Correspondent Lesley Stahl, "I can
fly a single-seated aircraft in enemy territory but I can’t drive a vehicle. They
turned me into a fighter pilot. This is who I am. When I see something messed
up, I’m going to challenge it."
CBS
News Senior Staff Writer Jim Burns, wrote that Steve Aden, one of Lt. Col. McSally’s
lawyers, said, "Even though she is the commander for all those enlisted men and
junior officers around her, she is ordered to sit in the back seat, wear this
Muslim attire and in essence pretend she is a Muslim woman until they get to the
base, at which time she can take it off and be a superior officer again."
And
she won. Gen. Tommy Franks, head of the US Central Command, e-mailed commanders
in the area that wearing the abaya "is not mandatory but is strongly encouraged."
Which means servicewomen don’t have to wear it if they don’t want to. And you
just know Lt. Col. McSally doesn’t. And won’t.
But
she still wouldn't be able to operate an automobile off base or ride in the front
seat. (McSally transferred to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona last December.)
According to the Air Force
Times newspaper, Army Reserve Major Shareda Hosein, is studying to be a military
chaplain at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn. The unusual thing about this
is, she plans on being a Muslim chaplain when she completes the course in two-and-a-half
years. She says she wants to teach other Service members about her faith.
Retired
Marine Gunnery Sergeant Qaseem Uqdah, executive director of the American Muslim
Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, told the Air Force Times’ Karen Jowers,
"It’s long overdue. The reality of Islam in America is that women are within our
armed forces. We have to deal with women. I owe a responsibility to Muslim women
as well as men, and I haven’t been able to fulfill their needs."
I
sent the clipping about Major Hosein to my Muslim-American in-law and he found
it a bit of a surprise. He said under Islamic law she could counsel men but could
not preach to them.
There
are now 12 male military chaplain Muslims. Seven in the Army, three in the Navy
and two in the Air Force.
Air
National Guard Senior Airman Jennifer Donaldson has also had special training.
But not in counseling men. In killing them from ambush. Senior Airman Donaldson
completed two week’s of counter-sniper training at Camp Robertson, Arkansas and
is the first servicewoman to be designated a sniper. The Army, Navy and Marines
don’t allow women to serve as snipers but the Air Force, which has no snipers,
has no rules prohibiting them from being snipers.
Russia
has a big lead on the US in this field of endeavor. In World War II, Russia had
a woman sniper who was so expert at gunning down enemy men that she was brought
to this country to help publicize a big war bond drive.
CBS
News site's story on Lt. Col. Martha McSally
NPR
Fresh Air program on Lt. Col. McSally
David
Westheimer lives with his wife of 57 years, Dody, in the same Los Angeles apartment
they moved into from Houston, Texas 40 years ago. Their son, Fred, is a Senior
Vice-President at the William Morris Agency and his younger brother, Eric, is
a veterinarian. Succeeding generations include five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
As a journalist, David worked for Oveta Culp Hobby. At 83, David Westheimer continues
to write, and not just for Senior Women. His latest effort, "The Great Wounded
Bird", his recollections of World War II, winner of the Texas Review 1999 poetry
prize, was published this year by Texas Review Press and may be ordered from Amazon
Books, where it is 1,458,159th on their sales list, from Barnes & Noble and Borders
Books. He is a novelist and a retired Air Force Officer. He can be reached for
a repertoire of feigned curmudgeonly remarks at: DWestheime@aol.com.
