Women in war going to front of the action

ABOARD THE USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT -- Keeping an eye on incoming fighter jets, Aviation Boatswain's Mate Gail Giberson hauls steel chains and wheel chocks across the flight deck to tie down planes as they return from missions over Afghanistan.

It's tough work for the 5-foot-2-inch 20-year-old, but not unusual in today's U.S. Navy, where women have jobs on combat ships that were once the preserve of men.

More than 800 of this aircraft carrier's 5,500 sailors are women, from fighter pilots to forklift drivers.

"Sometimes I need help doing certain tasks ... but the guys I work with are pretty incredible. They joke around all the time, which makes it a lot easier," said Giberson, who's from San Diego. "They treat me like one of the guys and it's good for morale. If I need help, I ask them ... I pull my weight as much as them."

Like men, women are enlisting for the money and a chance to see the world.

"I wanted to see a lot of stuff and get some experience before figuring out what career to do," said Giberson, who joined the Navy in August 2000.

Working 12- to 14-hour night shifts wearing steel-toed boots, a protective helmet, goggles and ear protectors, her face spattered with grease, her life is less than glamorous.

But being on the flight deck, amid the constant roar of jet engines as F-14 Tomcats and F/A-18C Hornets catapult off into the sky, she says, is "the most exciting place on the boat."Women have been in the Navy since before World War II, but couldn't serve on combat ships until nine years ago, when Congress eased the ban on women in combat roles.

15 percent of force

Women are still not allowed on submarines and are barred from serving in units whose main purpose is ground combat. Women now make up about 15 percent of the active-duty military.

As on many vessels, sleeping quarters and bathrooms had to be modified on the Theodore Roosevelt, which was designed in the 1960s, to ensure the privacy of female sailors.

There are also strict regulations against fraternization between the sexes. A couple caught having a sexual relationship are likely to spend time in the brig.

The carrier's commanding officer, Capt. Richard O'Hanlon, a 25-year veteran, admits he was skeptical when women were first assigned to combat ships, but said the effect has been positive and the problems minimal.

"Probably like most people I was afraid of the unknowns," he said, but "the way it turned out it was probably a bunch of artificial barriers that we had all put up in our minds which really in the light of day didn't hold up."

Female sailors have created "healthy competition" and filled a recruitment gap, O'Hanlon said.

Cmdr. Diana Cangelosi, who is in charge of the ship's combat direction center, said there have been changes in attitude since she joined in 1981.

Then, around 30 percent of male sailors supported women being in the Navy; now it's 90 percent, said Cangelosi.