NO EASIER FOR WOMEN

FORT DRUM — Women in the military wear the same uniform, carry the same gear and have the same mission as men. They also come back with some of the same mental health problems as their male counterparts.

"Women have a tendency to build very strong family relationships and a lot are not prepared to see the death or to see their comrades injured," said Judy G. Carbonell, a former officer who served 17 years as an active duty and Reserve nurse.

"Women want to fix, and they see their fellow soldiers as brothers or fathers, and to see them injured or mentally struggling can be difficult because they don't know how to fix it."

Mrs. Carbonell was deployed for 22 months and worked at one of the largest medical facilities in Kuwait at Camp Arifjan. There she was responsible for her team of nurses and acted as the sexual response coordinator and dealt with instances of sexual assault.

According to a study done by the Women in the Military Service for America Memorial Foundation Inc., as of November, there were 73,902 women, or 13.6 percent of the force, serving in the Army. Among the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force, there are 200,337 women, or 14.3 percent of the 1,401,757 service members.

Throughout her service, Mrs. Carbonell found that there are many times a woman cannot do the same job as a man — not because they don't want to, but because women and men are built differently.

"I never wanted them to think that I wasn't as strong or even stronger than the men. I never asked to carry less gear or asked for favors," she said. "I think a lot of women do the same thing, and they can't do it and they get injured. We need to train them to stay strong and teach them that they don't have to keep up with the males."

Mrs. Carbonell, who is 5 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs 132 pounds, said she would regularly carry her 60-pound gear bag, wear her 26-pound vest and carry her two weapons, her M-16 rifle and M-9 pistol. She admits she has knee problems and backaches from the weight, but said she didn't expect to be treated differently.

But, she said, women need to be able to go to the chain of command and talk about physical problems they could be having. She said this includes things like hygiene and pain surrounding a woman's menstrual cycle.

"The female soldier cannot be afraid to go to their commander and speak about these issues," she said. "But they can't use them as a crutch, either. That tarnishes the pot for all women, and that's where the stigma of women in the military comes from — not from the males, but from the females."

Capt. Judi L. McKee-Sanders, commander of Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 85th Infantry, Warrior in Transition Unit, said she thinks issues women have with reintegration and dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder need to be handled differently.

"Women's PTSD is different. I wouldn't say it's more severe, but it's more compounded," she said. "People think that because women are not in direct combat, that they are not in harm's way, but they are in that combat environment so they are still hyper-vigilant."

She said that women are well prepared and trained to face those stressful situations during a deployment, but she thinks more needs to be done for women coming back from war — especially women with young children.

"The little ones could have formed a bond with the caretaker and there can be that guilt for having left their child," Capt. McKee-Sanders said. "We need to help females with reintegration and how to deal with their children because their relationship is so much different from a male's. We need to recognize that difference."

Her special concern is that women in the military are not properly equipped to deal with any kind of verbal or sexual assault that may happen.

"The issues are coming out of those gender issues and the stereotypes of a soldier being a pretty girl and being friendly with the male soldiers," she said. "We could better prepare our women before going downrange, but I think leaders are becoming more cognizant on that."