{"id":8822,"date":"2013-03-18T08:44:10","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T13:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=8822"},"modified":"2014-05-20T13:23:37","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T18:23:37","slug":"women-in-combat-veteran-services-discusses-the-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2013\/03\/18\/women-in-combat-veteran-services-discusses-the-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Women in combat \u2014 Veteran Services discusses the changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Centerpiece\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Women have recently been granted the right to fight in combat. With that change, debate has sparked over whether it\u2019s right or wrong.<\/p>\n

Sally Caspers, who served in the Air Force and is the coordinator for the Office of Veteran Services at Sinclair Community College said although she has never been in a combat situation, she feels the military has never suffered by allowing more people to contribute in any way.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who want to contribute, should get to contribute if they can do the work,\u201d she said. \u201cNot every woman will want to and not every woman will be able to, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the argument being made. I think the argument being made is if they can and they want to, they should be able to. Because who knows what skills you might be missing out on and it\u2019s an acknowledgment on the way war has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some men feel the same way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just naturally a patriotic country and we\u2019re definitely protective of women, but if you\u2019re getting paid the same thing I\u2019m getting paid and that\u2019s what you want to do, drive on,\u201d Brett Mack, an assistant in the VA work study student and retired veteran said. Caspers feels that it\u2019s a shift in thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of it being a \u2018no\u2019 all the time and finding exceptions, it\u2019s a \u2018yes\u2019 unless the unit can say why not,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She feels that it\u2019s dangerous not to acknowledge that women are in combat.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s admit women are in combat, at least at some level, so they are trained and equipped so that they don\u2019t come into harms way,\u201d she said. \u201cI really think it\u2019s more dangerous to not admit it, at least at some level, because then they\u2019re unprepared. They\u2019re a danger to themselves and they could be a danger to their teammates that expect them to contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caspers said with the recent law change, women serving in combat can now receive recognition for performing above and beyond. Women will also have the chance to move up in the ranks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s possible,\u201d she said. \u201cDoesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s going to happen or it needs to happen. It\u2019s just possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caspers said for anyone who has been touched by the military life \u2014 whether it\u2019s by previously serving, being a spouse or child of someone who served or is currently serving, the Office of Veteran Services is there to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try and do our job well so that we\u2019re giving accurate information the first time and we\u2019re thinking about what trouble the student might run into down the line instead of having them come back several times,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we\u2019re also a safe space to come in and ask the question you think you ought to know and you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mac said the most beneficial aspect of the office is the information they provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just a rolling information center,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The office is located in Building 10, Room 3024. For more information, call the office at 512-2745.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women have recently been granted the right to fight in combat. With that change, debate has sparked over whether it\u2019s right or wrong. Sally Caspers, who served in the Air Force and is the coordinator for the Office of Veteran Services at Sinclair Community College said although she has never been in a combat situation, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-2ii","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8822"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8825,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8822\/revisions\/8825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}