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DACOWITS

Summary of December 4-5, 2006 DACOWITS Meeting

The Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) met on December 4-5, 2006. This was their second business meeting of the year.

At the August business meeting, the five DACOWITS members decided to study the numbers, promotions/retention rates and other factors of women serving in the Judge Advocate General/Medical/Chaplain Corps in all of the services. This issue had been suggested and strongly supported by Dr. Chu, Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness). In May, the DACOWITS office had requested Service data to support this effort. The members conducted three installation visits to collect focus group comments related to this study. The installations visited were National Naval Medical Center (Bethesda, MD), Maxwell AFB (Montgomery, AL) and the Army Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School (Charlottesville, VA).

Based on Service data, focus group comments and Caliber Associates research (supporting contractors to the DACOWITS office), a draft 2006 report was prepared by Caliber (it was also referred to as the 2007 report as that might be the actual date of release). The December meeting was used to thoroughly scrub the JAG section of the report. Rear Adm. Bruce MacDonald, Navy Judge Advocate General gave an excellent briefing. His brief mentioned that in 1967 three female “law specialists” were on active duty and Capt. Mary McDowell affiliated with the new JAG Corps becoming the first female JAG officer. He also noted that the Navy has had one female flag officer in the JAG Corps (Rear Adm. Jane Dalton—former legal advisory to the CJCS—held a “tombstone” flag position, a billet where you serve as an O-6 but are allowed to retire as an O-7 according to statutory guidance).

A Manpower and Reserve Affairs Panel was held on the second day of the meeting. Ms Darlene Sullivan (Army), Dr. Lynda Davis (Navy and former DACOWITS member), and Lynne Schreider (Air Force) spoke about possible issues for DACOWITS review next year. The Air Force noted they were downsizing by 40,000 personnel and want to ensure it is done correctly in terms of skill sets, not demographics. AF also noted that women are “engaged in combat” as they go about their duties and need more infantry skills to protect themselves. They are also reviewing training centers to determine if women are given harsher training than men (the discussion focused on pilot training).

The Navy provided a copy of their 2007 objectives and noted the possible impact of civilianizing jobs on women who are more likely to be in medical and clerical billets. Civilianizing too many billets in any one job field would sever the “real-world” check that military people bring to the table and would also lose substantial experience in the talent pool. The impact of multiple deployments on the families of SEALS is also a Navy concern. Considerable effort is being given to health issues including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury and health and productivity issues (obesity and financial concerns). Navy is additionally monitoring the impact of the Individual Augmentation (IA) program where one military individual leaves their regular billet for a set period of time and goes to a combatant area to replace and Army/Marine Corps member. This program helps share the burden of conflict across the Services but does have an impact on those individuals serving as IAs.

The Army noted work on Guard and Reserve family issues, training for responders to sexual assault, and family care plans. The IG is reviewing the issue of response to sexual assault. The Army is reviewing their EO policy to incorporate disabilities as a dimension of review. More and more disabled soldiers are attempting to stay on active duty and guidance is needed to ensure they are treated fairly. Diversity awareness training is being given to Army member of the Senior Executive Service and the location of current ROTC units is under review to determine if they should be moved to other locations in order to gain access to minority populations.

As the current chair and one other member will complete their terms next year (in May and January 2007), the remaining three DACOWITS members discussed what they could realistically accomplish to support a full report next year. They discussed various options such as requesting that additional members be named to the Committee, selecting limited topics for review and increasing the number of installation visits that each member would accomplish. No resolution on this issue was made. A meeting will be held in January 2007 to review the remaining two sections of the report (Medical and Chaplain Corps).