major dad Pointed This Out to Me Just Now
Here’s the picture with the caption as it appears in today’s NYT:
Sgt. Theresa Lynn Flannery during an attack in April 2004 near Najaf, Iraq.
Schmaybe it’s just us, but the guys behind her don’t look all that concerned. Matter of fact they look downright complacent ~ chillin’ with their water bottles and corn nuts. Probably could have come up with a better, less dramatic line describing the scene. But the article’s good, for the most part.
Fun, Media, Military Thingies | tree hugging sister | 
August 16, 2009 5:26 pm
Subscribe
That is a good article. Pretty accurate, and a good reflection of the reality of women in the military. I never worried about the gender of the soldier, just if they could pull their weight, or if they were goldbricks.
As for the photo….just speculating, but maybe the troops in the background were taking a break during a prolonged attack, after being rotated out of the line. But, yeah, a better photo could have been used.
I was thinking along the same lines, jeff. You can see the shell casings laying around, so something’s been going on, just not at that moment. Maybe where, if you have to move on the roof, you do it fast and furious.
But when you first look at the picture, you’re like, “Battle…?”
That’s a low parapet, probably fairly exposed if you stand up, so yeah, fast and furious would be needful.
But at least Islamic Rage Boy isn’t in the photo. Then it would be REALLY suspicious! ;-p
She almost looks like a cartoon character. That rifle makes her look tiny.
If I were to be an advocate for women in combat, this is not the picture I would choose. It would be like showing pictures of Ewoks to try to scare the enemy.
One of the officers in the NYT article says that the women keep up just as good as the men do.
First, that’s probably a sign his men aren’t being pushed very hard.
Second, in Africa they’ve shown that 10 year old boys can hold up pretty good to the strain of prolonged combat, at their pace anyway. That doesn’t mean we should start drafting ten year olds.
Given it’s the NYT, this also could be a subtle way for them to scare women out of the military. You know, a woman’s work is never done, even with assault weapons.
Guy sitting on right: “Hey sarge, get me a cuppa coffee, would ya?”