Women can also be fighters, and as such as are due the same respect as men if wounded or captured. They are also bound by the same rules prohibiting illegal acts against other fighters or civilians.

International humanitarian law, which grants general protection to all war victims, regardless of gender, provides extensive specific protection for women in war. If these rules were better observed, the suffering faced by women in war would be greatly reduced.
 

Vietnam's 'Ma' Barker

Infamous nickname steels Navy ICU nurse Lt. Colonel Ann Barker through hellish duties in Vietnam.

    When the corpsmen at the Da Nang Naval Hospital in Vietnam nicknamed her 'Ma,' Ann Barker took no offense. At 35, she was the older woman in a world filled with 19-year-olds. Her fragile, blonde good looks veiled a forceful, no-nonsense edge reminiscent of her infamous 1930's namesake. A wily sense of humor and a mercurial wit challenged her subordinates. To her gang of corpsmen, she was indeed "Ma" Barker.

From piloting to protocol, Vietnam expanded the role of women in war.

By Elissa Kaupisch

During the Vietnam War, more than 265,000 U.S. women served their country around the world. Between 10,000 to 11,000 women actually served in Vietnam. About 7,500 of those were in the military.

    Early in the war, military women were not posted to Southeast Asian combat zones in significant numbers, despite their requests for deployment. However, large numbers of civilian women served in Vietnam in administrative and clerical positions, the Red Cross and the USO. Army and Navy nurses were first to enter the combat theater.

     About 80 % of the U.S. women serving in Vietnam were Army, Navy or Air Force nurses. Nurses serving in Vietnam were commissioned officers at least 21 years of age who generally served one-year tours in country. Navy nurses served two-year tours. Many were recruited from student-nurse programs, and the government, in return, paid for their final years of education.

     Army nurses stationed in Vietnam often cared for North Vietnamese Army or Viet Cong prisoners of war, and civilians. Navy nurses were assigned to hospital ships such as the USS Response and the USS Sanctuary, and to the Naval Support Activity unit in Da Nang. Air Force nurses cared for patients on evacuation flights and at casualty staging facilities.

     During the war, thousands of civilian women served in the Red Cross, USO, CIA, U.S. Agency for International Development and other government agencies. Some served in humanitarian efforts, including Vietnamese orphanages and Operation Baby Lift.

    Servicewomen were trained to operate construction equipment and small craft; mange ship's stores; refuel aircraft on the ground and in flight; and to control motor-vehicle, air and harbor traffic. Women also served in the DoD Special Services, organizing recreation and entertainment.

    Others specialized in physical and occupational therapy, intelligence, protocol, journalism, aerial reconnaissance photography, weather, data processing, supply, finance and security. Many served as military aides. worked on classified projects or held administrative and personnel positions, State-side, military women supporting the war effort undertook challenging new jobs in computer technology.

    Eight U.S. servicewomen died while serving in Vietnam. Five deaths were accidental, two were non-specific. Lt. Sharon Lane, an Army nurse at Chu Lai, was the only American woman killed by hostile fire. She was killed during a rocket attack in 1969.