Insight: A change of perspective

By Ed Pierce
Managing Editor

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s claim last fall that new military fitness standards may exclude women from certain combat roles to ensure every combat position “returns to the highest male standard” made me think of something from my own military past and why I eventually decided to put it behind me.

Ed Pierce, left, is congratulated by retired U.S. Air Force 
General Jimmy Doolittle, a Medal of Honor recipient, for
winning the 1981 Airman of Year Award at The Pentagon
in Washington, D.C.  COURTESY PHOTO 

During an assignment to Germany in 1978 while serving in the U.S. Air Force, my unit received its first-ever female airman to be stationed with us. Many of our unit’s members were opposed to this because we were on call to deploy immediately to the front lines in the event of war. My colleagues thought that to have to make special accommodations for a female airman was wrong and made us weaker from a combat readiness standpoint.

This female airman was nice to everyone and had been through a similar experience at her previous unit. Male airmen were resentful of her and wouldn’t talk to her unless it was for official Air Force duties. Behind her back, airmen in my unit made fun of her, told jokes about her, and did everything possible to make her time with us as miserable as possible.

Initially I fell in with that group, I’m sorry to say. And as pleasant a person as she was to work with, I would barely say a word to her when I was assigned a shift beside her. This resentful treatment by members of our unit toward her went on for months, even when we were deployed to the field for a major military exercise called “Reforger.” Along the border from where our encampment was, members of our unit could see Russian tanks lined up and you could sense what we were doing mattered to ensure peace.

One afternoon I was working with a Tech Sergeant from our unit who was my supervisor. We stopped to take a break for lunch, and I asked him to tell me about his military career.

As it turns out, he was from the area around Memphis, Tennessee and was one of 11 children whose parents were sharecroppers. The family was very poor, and their home didn’t even have electricity or an indoor bathroom. To escape that life, he joined the U.S. Air Force and in the early 1960s became the first black member of his unit assigned to a base in Virginia.

While there he endured prejudice on and off the job. Members of his unit wouldn’t speak to him unless they had to because of his race and went out of their way to do everything possible to make his time with them as miserable as possible. He told me that one summer night, he returned to his dorm room in the barracks on base to find that someone had spray painted the word “Boy” on his door.

It became an unbearable situation for him, but he made it through to the end of that assignment and said he was glad when he was reassigned to Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. As the social climate in America changed during the late 1960s and the Civil Rights movement slowly gained acceptance, his Air Force service focused on his ability to perform his job and less about his race.

By the time that I had enlisted in the Air Force in 1977, race had little impact upon a military career and the opportunity for advancement was abundant.

My conversation with this Tech Sergeant was enlightening to me and made me realize I was seeking the same thing from my military career as the female airman assigned to my unit. We both sought tolerance and to be measured solely by our abilities to do the job. I was embarrassed by my previous interactions involving her and vowed never to treat her as an object again and apologized for my behavior.

In 1981, I was nominated for “Airman of the Year” while serving at The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and was given a time a week or so later to appear before a board interviewing candidates for this honor.

During this interview, I was asked my thoughts by a member of the interview board about women serving in combat. I answered that if there is only one military pay structure and women are paid the same military salary as men, I saw no reason why women should be excluded from duty in combat. I said women are physically equal and as capable of flying combat missions as pilots as men are and that applies to every military position I could imagine.

Several weeks later. I was informed I would be receiving the “Airman of the Year” award and my answer about women in combat is what separated me from the other candidates for the honor. I attended a luncheon where the honor was presented to me by retired Air Force General Jimmy Doolittle, a Medal of Honor recipient for leading the first U.S. raid on Japan during World War II.

My military service ended in 1985 and much of it is just a memory to me now. But one thing I learned during that experience is that a person’s capabilities cannot be limited because they are a man or a woman and treating someone otherwise is myopic and dismissive. <