Gettysburg veteran speaks out about women in the military

Capt. Katie Petronio with the U.S. Marine Corps, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is a few weeks away from having her first child. Petronio dealt with infertility as a result of the stress on her body during physically demanding deployments overseas. (THE EVENING SUN SHANE DUNLAP)

After two stressful and physically demanding deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Katie Petronio was told she was infertile.

And that wasn't all. Infertility was just one of many health conditions - including restless leg syndrome and severe weight loss - that Petronio, a 2003 graduate of Gettysburg Area High School, wrote about in her essay, "Get Over It! We Are Not All Created Equal," featured in the July issue of the Marine Corps Gazette. The essay drew national media attention from CNN, Fox, and many blogs.

In the essay, she relied her own personal experiences to speak against a congressional mandate aimed to integrate women into the infantry, saying men and women don't handle such stresses equally. A woman's biology can't handle the longevity of deployment, Petronio said.

In September, months later, Petronio, formerly Forney, sat in the backyard of her childhood home in Gettysburg, merely weeks away from giving birth to a son. Thanks to three months of fertility treatments, her pregnancy became possible, she said.

But Petronio still believes in her essay. The dangers to women in the infantry are still real, she said, although not everyone agreed on the issue.

Feminists, and some women in the military, argued that women are just as able as men to handle combat. People want equality, Petronio said. But she doesn't think equality is necessarily a good thing in the military.

Before entering

the Marines in 2008, Petronio's idea of combat came from movies. Then, she experienced combat for herself; she deployed twice, once in 2009 to Iraq and then in 2011 to Afghanistan.

In Iraq, Petronio was in charge of training female Marines on search and engagement techniques, which included teaching them how to interact and gather information from the locals. The program was called the Lioness Program, but has since been renamed Female Engagement Teams. That program expanded the role of women in the Marines, Petronio said.

Petronio felt fine the first couple months in Iraq, but the feeling wouldn't last.

She first noticed the numbness in her legs almost three months into her deployment. She was diagnosed with restless leg syndrome, a disorder that causes odd sensations and feelings in legs and increases the urge to move them.

It was the weight of her gear and the amount of time she spent in it that led to the diagnosis. Her average combat load weighed around 70 to 75 pounds, she said. She had to wear it most of the time since she was directly in enemy territory. The days without the full load of gear were "far and few between," she said.

Her diagnosis was only a part of what was to come.

In Afghanistan she

Capt. Katie Petronio talks about her views on women in the armed services on Sunday at her childhood home in Gettysburg. (THE EVENING SUN SHANE DUNLAP)

served as a combat engineer platoon commander, and was responsible for constructing patrol bases that many infantry units used and operated from. Sometimes she was required to repair an existing base, but other times she had to build one from scratch finding the location from a grid coordinate.

"It was exhausting, mentally and physically, but due to that hard work and dedication of my Marines, we were able to construct and repair 18 bases in one of the country's most kinetic areas of operation in seven months," she said.

Although rewarding, it was her experience in Afghanistan that completely changed her view of women in infantry.

After five months in Afghanistan, she had lost 17 pounds and developed severe muscle atrophy. Her work in Afghanistan, where she had to be constantly worried about the enemy, was more fast-paced than her work in Iraq. The physical and mental strain on her body was too much.

"The burden of command, the constant concern of enemy contact doesn't really allow you to relax so your body never fully recovers when you bed down for the night," she said.

But she didn't always feel so strongly about allowing women on the front lines.

"If you had asked me five years ago if females should be in the infantry, I would have said yes," the 27-year-old said.

***

Five years ago, she felt that she could handle whatever came her way. She was a star ice hockey player in high school with Washington Pride in Washington, D.C. and at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. She earned her black belt with the Marine Corps Martial Arts program. She qualified as a rifle and pistol expert.

That was before deployment.

Although deployment proved to be difficult, Petronio continued to excel. She was awarded three Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals and a Combat Action Ribbon. However, it was the weeks in full gear near enemy lines that caused the most strain. She knows women can conduct and lead operations, but it seems to be only a matter of time before the strain takes its toll.

The interest to open up infantry positions for women is part of a congressional mandate to review all laws and regulations regarding female service members. The Marine Corps decided to take steps in April to open up a trial period, allowing women to volunteer for infantry training. Both men and women would still need to complete training and pass a test before heading to the front lines.

That's why Petronio has spoken out. There was a time when she would have completed the training and headed to the front lines. Now she hopes that new female officers who believe they are strong enough will consider her story.

"As a combat-experienced Marine officer, and a female, I am here to tell you that we are not all created equal," Petronio wrote in her essay, "and attempting to place females in the infantry will not improve the Marine Corps as the Nation's force-in-readiness or improve our national security."

Petronio is currently the Training Support Platoon Commander at the Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Va., where she helps with training events.

Back at home, Petronio and her husband James are counting down the days until their son arrives. Their strong military background will influence the home, Petronio said. And she'll be strict.

But her son's decision on entering the military, she said, will be all his.

Source: http://www.eveningsun.com/news/ci_21547091/gettysburg-veteran-speaks-out-about-women-military?source=rss_viewed

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