Controversy about the Army’s “anything goes” attitude toward women in land combat has just gotten worse.  As the Center for Military Readiness has been reporting since 2004, Army officials have been redefining and circumventing regulations regarding female soldiers, without authorization by the Secretary of Defense, and without the legally required advance notice to Congress. 

On November 1 a female soldier, 2^nd Lt. Tracy Lynn Alger, 30, was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED ) in Iraq.  She was in a direct ground combat-collocated forward support company—a battalion level unit that is required by current Defense Department regulations to be all male.  

We honor and respect the sacrifice of Lt. Alger, the 91^st of 92 military women who have died in the war since 9/11.  Having volunteered to serve America “in harm’s way,” Lt. Alger could have been killed by the same IED even if she had been in a legally open support position. 

Nevertheless, it is wrong for the Pentagon to be violating regulations and laws affecting our female soldiers.  Nor is it right for the Department of Defense and the Army to ignore the law mandating official notice to Congress, approximately three months before implementation of proposed changes in the rules affecting women.  

The original Defense Department notice of the death of 2^nd Lt. Tracy Lynn Alger, which has since been deleted from the DoD website but is still visible on the Patriot Guard Riders website, erroneously placed her in the 3^rd Battalion, 187^th Infantry Regiment, 3^rd Brigade Combat Team of the 101^st Airborne (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, KY.  Under Defense Department regulations, “tip of the spear” Direct Ground Battalions such as this are open to male soldiers only. 

Shortly after I asked questions of Public Affairs officials in the Pentagon and at Fort Campbell, a corrected notice was issued.  As I expected, the revised notice, which is not identified as a correction, indicated that Lt. Alger was serving in “F Company,” which was “assigned” at the brigade level but “attached” to the previously identified infantry battalion. 

All soldiers deployed to Iraq are “in harm’s way,” but female soldiers are exempt from direct ground combat units, such as infantry battalions, and from support units that “collocate” or embed with infantry battalions 100% of the time.  I called Fort Campbell to confirm that F Company was indeed a forward support company (FSC) attached to the 3^rd battalion, 187^th infantry regiment.  That was the description used in a Nashville Tennessean article published on November 5, which is no longer posted on the newspaper’s website. 

Lt. Alger’s placement in the collocated forward support company, bureaucratically disguised with an “assignment” to the brigade level (on paper only), constituted a violation of current DoD policy and the congressional notification law.  This may be the first time that the Defense Department has released written evidence of the increasingly common bureaucratic ploy, which the Army once admitted could be seen as “subterfuge” to circumvent current policy and law. 

In 2004, the Army initially denied that there were any female soldiers in combat-collocated forward support companies (FSCs).  In January 2005, however, the Army finally admitted to the Boston Globe that there were “scores” of women in FSCs, which collocate or embed with Direct Ground Combat battalions, such as the infantry. 

Female soldiers have a right to know that their “conditions of employment” in the Army have changed, without authorization, and without the required advance notice to Congress.  The Army continues to use semantics and sophistry to mislead the public and members of Congress about his unauthorized practice. 

If it is a good idea to “employ” female soldiers in or near direct ground combat battalions, the Army should comply with the law in making changes openly, subject to congressional oversight.  Anything less is unfair to our courageous women, men, and the military as a whole.