"Much Ado About Nothing"
(See P. Ryan, pp. 66-68, June 1997 Proceedings)
Lieutenant Commander Erick W. and Mrs. Megan B. Gerdes, U.S. Naval Reserve-Captain Ryan's statistics belie his conclusions. By his own reckoning, 7.7% of female Sailors on board the LX Y. Spear (AS-36) were transferred for conventional disciplinary reasons. Add the 17% pregnancy rate and you're talking about 24% of them being non-deployable. Captain Ryan thinks this is a "success story"? What is his definition of failure?
We can only wonder if Captain Ryan is trying to send backward signals by getting the truth out while simultaneously toeing the politically correct feminist line. He acknowledges 63 pregnancies on his ship, and admits they create a "management headache" but concludes that the experience of these tenders as "pioneers of gender integration" has been "a quiet success." Yes indeed-real quiet.
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