MILITARY SEX SCANDALS NEED COOL HEADS

News that a staff sergeant at Southern Missouri's Fort Leonard Wood was court-martialed and given a dishonorable discharge for sexual misconduct adds to sad stories of more widespread rape and assault at the Army Ordnance Center at Aberdeen, Md. As the military has been forced into sexually integrated units, throwing 18-to-25-year-old men and women together under difficult circumstances, a certain amount of untoward fraternization might have been expected.

It is to be hoped that cool heads and justice will prevail as the military sorts through these difficult issues. The matter isn't helped by military-haters who want to turn our armed forces into a gigantic social experiment in the mixing of sexes. Surely, women have their place in honorable and devoted military service. But most Americans will never believe that combat is a fit place for the fairer sex.