Pic Of The Moment: Women In Combat: Stay Classy, Conservatives

[tclambert]

23. Lyudmila Pavlichenko--309 kills in World War II.

She was one of about 2,000 women snipers the Soviets used against the Germans. They put her on TWO postage stamps.

Chris Kyle, America's most lethal sniper, possibly had 255 kills (160 confirmed). White Feather, the legendary Carlos Hathcock, had 93 confirmed kills during the Vietnam War. One of Hathcock's kills was the notorious "Apache," a Viet Cong sniper and torturer who terrorized American troops in the mid-1960s. Apache turned out to be a woman.

These few stats do not mean that women are inherently better snipers or soldiers than men. Vasily Zaytsev had 225 kills in one 5 week stretch during the Battle of Stalingrad (the bloodiest battle in human history with about 10 times the death toll of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs put together). Zaytsev may have had between 400 and 700 kills total. (The score-keeping was a little sloppy back then.)

My point was really that the Russians had pretty good success with women as snipers, and combat soldiers, and combat pilots during World War II. To fight a war without women fighters is just to fight with one hand behind your back.