How women are scaling barriers to combat

[davidn3600]

Cpl. Jacqueline Beachum steels herself for the daunting task ahead: saving a fellow Army soldier who lies unconscious a few yards away. Focused and determined, she makes her way across the ground toward her wounded colleague. Then comes the hard part. She has to drag the soldier to safety even though, at 270 pounds clad in full body armor, he weighs about twice what she does. Summoning all her strength, she grabs his vest, tugs on the body, and starts sliding him across the ground.

Finally, when she has pulled him 50 feet – a safe distance from danger – she stops. And listens. The sound she hears isn't gunfire but ... applause and hoots of support from other troops.

Beachum isn't in a theater of war but in a mammoth motor-pool warehouse at Fort Stewart, Ga., stockpiled with rockets, mortars, and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The soldier she saved is a dummy, and one of the main obstacles she had to face was a clock.

Staff Sgt. Terry Kemp, in charge of training a unit of men and women here, timed the drill with a stopwatch, quietly encouraging Beachum as he strode alongside her. The result: Beachum, a medic who served in Afghanistan, pulled the "soldier" to safety in less than 20 seconds.

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The tests are part of an attempt to answer one of the most pressing questions facing the modern military, one that will shape the look of the armed forces of tomorrow: whether women can handle the most grueling rigors of war as well as their male counterparts.

http://news.yahoo.com/women-scaling-barriers-combat-160101508.html

[MADem]

1. And once women in combat reach critical mass, they'll issue everyone an exoskeleton that

enables them to lift hundreds of pounds with one arm and turns soldiers into walking, runnng, jumping ... forklifts!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powered_exoskeleton