By the time I got out in '93, it wasn't common, but it was happening.

Yep - I would have started in '92. When they opened it up to women, I briefly considered transferring, but since I had been able to take 2 years of college during high school, going to an academy would have meant starting from scratch after 3 years of college.

going to an academy would have meant starting from scratch after 3 years of college.

Now, that would have been of the suck. I can see why you chose not to go that route.

Yeah, I remember the announcement pretty clearly because it was the first time I realized that I was old enough that certain doors had closed to me.

I don't know about your experience, but one of the reasons I'm okay with not having done it is because in my experience, being a woman in the military is a constant battle to prove yourself good enough, tough enough, and strong enough. I could never carry enough, walk as far, do as many push-ups, etc. as the guys I was with. It had nothing to do with my ability to do my job, but I got tired of always feeling inadequate before I'd even lifted a finger.

Happy Anniversary, Hec and JZ!!!

Man, Extreme Home Makeover must be saying to itself "There's some bitch in Maine ain't crying yet. Time to kick it up a notch."

Happy Anniversary to Chez Zmayhem, who had one of the loveliest weddings ever, plus the way-cool soundtrack!

Much love for the smart competent Bitches around this joint.

Hello, Bitches. I know I don't usually post in these parts, but, you know, slow Sunday night on the board, you do some poking around. And ...

Man, Extreme Home Makeover must be saying to itself "There's some bitch in Maine ain't crying yet. Time to kick it up a notch."

Right there with you. (Except, not Maine.) I can barely see the screen through the blurry. Geez.

Bart Simpson: Mom, this is the Catholic Church. You know chicks don't have any authority here.

MOMM (Merlot on my monitor)

I don't know about your experience, but one of the reasons I'm okay with not having done it is because in my experience, being a woman in the military is a constant battle to prove yourself good enough, tough enough, and strong enough. I could never carry enough, walk as far, do as many push-ups, etc. as the guys I was with. It had nothing to do with my ability to do my job, but I got tired of always feeling inadequate before I'd even lifted a finger.

Heh. I'm pretty hard-headed, I stuck it out for 14 years. It wasn't the covert discrimination that drove me out (or even the overt), but the fact that they'd done some rearranging with the ratings and my chances of promotion to E-7 got shot to hell right at the time they were trying to reduce the force by 10%. When promotions had already been reduced by 33% because of the realignment, another 10% just was the ass-kicker. I decided it just wasn't worth it anymore. That, and I had dependents and orders to an active duty squadron in Hawaii. I just didn't think, as a single parent, it was going to do my career any good. There's even more discrimination against single parents than there is against women, and if you're both? Oy.

Brunch with the Zmayhems and Sparky1 was very very good and fun. After we ate, Sparky1 and JZ and I wandered around the Haight and coveted things in the stores there.

I even bought small silly presents for ita, the Miracleborns, and my friend G, just because I found stuff that needed to be with each of them.

I'm home now, and have cleaned up the cat puke that was waiting for me. I should unpack some, but I probably won't.