US Navy on alert as sex war hits subs 
      Matthew Campbell, Washington 



     
      AMERICA'S enlisted men and women are giving new meaning to the term 
"comrades in arms". President Bill Clinton's drive to build an army whose 
diversity of race and gender makes it "look like America", has led not only to 
sexual harassment scandals, but also to rampant sex in the ranks. 

      A new book on women in the armed forces provides an unusual glimpse of a 
sex-obsessed military in which streams of rules about "fraternising" - a 
euphemism for sex - among recruits have not prevented armoured personnel 
carriers, tents, and even underground bunkers from becoming love nests for 
passionate soldiers of the so-called New Army. 

      The book, The Kinder, Gentler Military by Stephanie Gutmann, is raising 
eyebrows - and blood pressure - in the Pentagon, where admirals are wielding it 
as ammunition on the latest front line of America's battle of the sexes: 
submarines. 

      To the horror of an older generation of officers moulded in the cauldron 
of cold war tensions, the Pentagon has been powerless to prevent the imposition 
by Clinton's civilian defence advisers of a gentler vision of military life. 

      Under this new age ethos, female recruits have grown to 20% from 12% a 
decade ago; and having successfully installed women in warships, fighter jets 
and "boot camp" training bases, a Pentagon committee on women is pressing for 
their right to serve in submarines. 

      The committee is demanding that the navy refurbish the submarine fleet, 
building female-friendly craft with separate bunks and bathrooms guaranteeing 
privacy to women. The admirals are not amused. Even at a time when questioning 
the policy of sexual integration is considered a "career killer", they have dug 
in their heels. 

      Beyond the enormous cost involved - submarines would have to be lengthened 
at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars - commanders fear that mixing women 
with men for weeks on end in the tight confines of a nuclear submarine would 
create a hotbed of hormonal conflict. 

      "That sort of thing would be an invitation to promiscuous behaviour," said 
Frank Gaffney, director of Washington's Centre for Security Policy. Gutmann's 
book suggests such fears may be well founded. 

      When the USS Eisenhower was refurbished to accommodate women and set off 
in 1994 with its first mixed crew, the American press proclaimed it a resounding 
example of harmonious coexistence of the sexes. This was more accurate than 
anyone had imagined: the voyage turned into a "love cruise". 

      "Finding really cool, illicit locations for sex seemed to be part of the 
game," writes Gutmann, quoting a former naval officer who singled out the ship's 
laundry room, photography lab and chapel. 

      For those who lack such inventiveness, shore leave provides an easier 
forum for fun. Ordered not to go to brothels or strip bars, a group of male and 
female sailors from the USS Abraham Lincoln in 1998 holed up in a Hong Kong 
hotel and participated in what the navy called a "group sexual incident". 

      One of the female sailors reported that she had been sexually assaulted 
and three women and seven men were discharged from the service. 

      From the dismissal of Lieutenant Kelly Flinn, the air force's first female 
bomber pilot, on adultery charges, to the sentencing of a male sergeant on 19 
counts of rape, the military has made an industry from the investigation of 
sexual complaints. In some units, simply looking at a woman for more than three 
seconds can be deemed harassment. As a result, the military has been accused, 
even by liberal commentators, of owing too much to radical feminists in its 
interpretation of what constitutes sexual misconduct. 

      Clinton, the commander-in-chief, who famously accepted sexual favours from 
a White House trainee, may count himself lucky. Male submarine commanders can 
only shudder at what the military's sexual arbiters would make of an environment 
in which the corridors are so narrow that crew members cannot pass each other 
without touching. 

      These days accommodating pregnancy has become such a priority in the 
forces that women sent home to give birth even before the Gulf war began were 
awarded medals along with combatants. On American bases special exercise classes 
are held for pregnant soldiers. 

      Even more alarming for military planners are the lower training standards 
evolved to accommodate women: the obstacle course at one base has been renamed a 
"confidence course" so as not to intimidate women; and while men must be able to 
throw a grenade 35 metres, women can pass muster by tossing it over a concrete 
wall. 

      It does not bode well, say critics, for America's combat readiness. 

      "When we are involved again in a real war," writes Gutmann, "the fiercer, 
angrier, most blood-lusting force will win." That is not a description of 
America's new age army