AAP General News (Australia)
04-19-2011
NSW:Veterans cast doubt on women in combat
By Miles Godfrey
SYDNEY, April 19 AAP - War veterans preparing to commemorate Anzac Day in Sydney have
cast doubt on women serving on the frontline.
One retired soldier said he'd rather be shot than see females in combat.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) plans to open up all frontline jobs to women as
part of its response to the Skype sex scandal at the Australian Defence Force Academy
(ADFA).
"I'd stand up and be counted and rather be shot than have them working on the frontline
of the infantry, certainly not," Brigadier (retired) Olof Isaksson MC, 93, a World War
II veteran who fought in the 1941 Siege of Tobruk, told AAP.
"I'm totally opposed to women on the frontline.
"Conditions are impossible for them, no privacy, no latrines and I think it downgrades
the status of womanhood to suggest they should be in the frontline.
"I don't care about ... other people that do (allow women on the frontline). They don't
pay women the same respect that we do."
Anne Bonner, NSW president of the War Widows' Guild of Australia, said she had mixed
feelings, but cast doubt on the physical ability of women to serve on the frontline.
She said most older war veterans were opposed to the move.
"Women should be able to do everything they think they can do, as long as they have
the skills and as long as they can do the same as a male can do, I don't know about on
the frontline," Ms Bonner told AAP, speaking in a personal capacity.
"I assume some of them could but I have mixed feelings about it myself.
"If they are strong enough to carry the same packs as the men ... I suppose."
Bob Crosthwaite, OAM, acting state president of the NSW Returned and Services League
of Australia (RSL) gave conditional backing to women in frontline combat.
Mr Crosthwaite served in Malaysia and Vietnam.
"It is a personal view and the view of many others that if a person is selected into
the defence force, they meet a criteria," he said.
"If they meet their obligations during recruit training and training all the way through
to the frontline, I have no objections to that."
He said the NSW RSL was "disappointed" by the Skype incident, which has sparked six
separate inquiries into ADF culture.
It involved a first-year female recruit at the Australian Defence Force Academy being
secretly watched having sexual intercourse.
"We are disappointed at what has happened in the last few weeks in the lead-up to ANZAC
Day and the commemorations," Mr Crosthwaite said.
"We do support the ADF in all the outcomes of the inquiries, that is most important."
The NSW RSL announced on Tuesday that Corporal Benjamin Roberts-Smith VC MG, Australia's
most recent Victoria Cross recipient, will march with the SAS Association in Sydney on
ANZAC Day next Tuesday.
"It is very special, it is the acknowledgment of what the Australian troops have done
overseas and that particular VC has very strong merits," Mr Crosthwaite added.
Sydney's ANZAC Day commemorations begin with a dawn service at 4.30am (AEST) in Martin
Place and continue to the sunset service at the Cenotaph, also in Martin Place.
AAP mdg/tr/jnb
KEYWORD: ANZAC SYDNEY
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