WASHINGTON -- Two months after settling into what she thought would be her dream job at Langley Air Force Base, security officer Nina Augustine got her rifle and shipped out.
She had expected to be staying stateside with her husband and 2-year-old son while serving as a general's guard on the base in Virginia. Then the call came last month asking if her bags were packed.
"I'm conflicted," Augustine said. "When you have a family, everything is conflicted." Yet she also thought, "Any woman who feels she can go out there with a big, heavy gun, the more power to her."
And off she went as part of the U.S. deployment against Iraq - the new face of the female American soldier, this one carrying an M-16.
Launching Tomahawk missiles, piloting F-18 fighter jets, returning fire if ambushed - all are possible in a day's work for American servicewomen nudging their way toward what will be the front lines if the United States invades Iraq.
The war could expose many more women to combat than previous conflicts, despite restrictions on what they can do.
Women now can command combat military police companies, fly jets and Apache helicopters, work as tactical intelligence analysts and more. If called, female chemical specialists will go to contaminated areas and female helicopter pilots will land infantry in combat areas, or evacuate them, during assaults.
After the Gulf War, Congress eased rules excluding women from combat, opening thousands of new opportunities. Still, they are not allowed into positions where they are most likely to see ground combat - infantry, armor, artillery and Special Forces.
As women flowed into the civilian work force and overcame other limits through the generations, the arguments for holding them back in the armed forces have largely endured: They are physically weaker, they might ruin the cohesion of an all-male unit, Americans just could not bear to see women killed.
"In the Gulf War, they thought if a woman came back in a body bag, everyone would freak out," said Linda Grant DePauw, president of the Minerva Center in Maryland that studies women and war.
"But women are embedded in the functioning of the entire military. You can't just pull people out on the basis of gender anymore. It's a different way of thinking about war."
More than 200,000 women serve in the active-duty forces, about 15 percent of the total.
Despite combat limits, women have found themselves in plenty of firefights and danger.
More than 400 died in World War II, most of them nurses; in the 1989 invasion of Panama, women flying helicopters landed infantry under heavy fire and women in military police units conducted infantry-style missions to search neighborhoods for guerrillas.
The question of how Americans would react to large-scale deaths of women has not been tested since the ban was loosened. In the Gulf War, 13 U.S. servicewomen died from causes including Scud missile attack, mines and crashes. Two were taken as prisoners of war.
In recent years, the Navy and Air Force have begun allowing women to fly fighters and bombers.
Lt. Cmdr. Pauline Storum, a Navy spokeswoman, said women are assigned to all units except coastal patrol boats, Navy SEALs, submarines and units directly supporting Marine Corps ground forces.
Except for submarines, Navy women can be assigned to all combat vessels, including aircraft carriers, destroyers and frigates. They can fly all aircraft.
"It's a level playing field because now any service officer can do the same job, can compete," Storum said. "Whoever is best will rise to the top, be promoted and do well."
The Air Force has also opened doors.
"There are not many fields that women can't be in," says Augustine, a senior airman who guards military bases and planes.
"It's kind of exciting and a little scary being my first time," said Air Force Capt. Kimberly Purdon, 26, a weapons system officer based at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. She has trained aboard the supersonic B-1 bomber for two years. By first time, she meant war. She was preparing for deployment.
"A lot of us are in the same boat," she said. "There is no distinction between men and women. We feel the same way about wanting to go over there and serve."
Air Force women, however, cannot be paratroopers. Nor can they be air combat controllers, whose job is to take over runways so military planes can land.
Other services, too, have lines women cannot cross.
For example, women in the Army cannot be assigned to combat units at the battalion level and below. A battalion goes near the front lines.
They can serve in infantry, armor, artillery and other units at the brigade level and higher; these units are behind combat battalions on the battlefield.
Female soldiers are likely to see their share of combat as truck drivers, MPs, signal specialists and aviators if the United States launches a ground war.
"They're not on front lines, not in trenches, not in foxholes, but they do supportive missions," said Army spokeswoman Dottie Vick at Fort Benning in Georgia.
In the Marines, women are not allowed in the infantry, artillery, tanks, amphibious assault vehicles and certain intelligence jobs, said Capt. Joe Kloppel. But many women have become Marine helicopter and jet pilots, a departure from the Gulf War, when there were none.
Researchers say women have made up about 6 percent of the force in the Afghan war serving on warships, flying refueling planes and deploying with infantry as military police.
In leaving her base for an undisclosed overseas assignment, Augustine knew she was walking into risk. She said of her weapon: "I carry it to work every day, I'm prepared, trained and capable of using it."
Does she want to? "Whenever you get to go home fully intact with your ammunition," she said, "it's a good day."
A look at American women at war:
-In the American Revolution, Margaret Corbin took over her fallen husband's cannon in the Battle of Fort Washington and was hurt, becoming the first woman awarded a disability pension by Congress for military wounds.
-War of 1812 - Two women served as nurses aboard a ship.
-Civil War - Women disguised as men served on both sides. Women also served as spies and nurses. Dr. Mary Walker received the Medal of Honor.
-Women have served in the American armed forces since 1901 when the Army Nurse Corps was established. The Navy Nurse Corps followed in 1908.
-World War I - Women who were not nurses were first enlisted in the Navy and Marine Corps. Only nurses served in the Army during the war, but the Army did hire about 200 civilian women who were fluent in both English and French to serve as telephone operators - also referred to as "Hello Girls" - and they were later given veterans' status.
-World War II - 432 American women were killed and 88 taken prisoner of war. They did cryptography and clerical work, among other duties.
-Korean War - More than 500 women in the Army Nurse Corps served in Korea, some in Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH units). The Marines mobilized Women Reserves for the first time. The Air Force and Navy also fielded nurse corps.
-Vietnam War - About 7,000 of the 2.6 million military personnel were women. Most were nurses, but others were air traffic controllers, aerial reconnaissance photographers, intelligence and language specialists and workers in security and administrative positions. Seven died in the line of duty.
-Persian Gulf - Women were administrators, air traffic controllers, logisticians, engineers, mechanics, ammunition technicians, communicators, radio operators, drivers and guards.
-Afghanistan - Women have deployed with infantry as military police, served on warships, flown refueling and fighter planes and deployed with infantry as military police.
Sources:
On the Net:
Military Women: http://www.militarywoman.org
The Minerva Center: http://www.minervacenter.com
Women's Research & Education Institute: www.wrei.org
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