As I read through this article some sections hit home. Especially with the other thread on sexual harrassment and rape at the airforce academy. Which is appalling, but we really need to look at this social experiment. Please note the dates the aircraft carrier left in July and women are still leaving pregnant? Some body is having sex aboard ship.
The link to the full article is
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dy ... ge=printer
<b>Fraternization is prohibited aboard the ship. Nonetheless, since the carrier left its home port of Everett, Wash., in July, as many as 20 female sailors have been taken off the ship because of pregnancy, said Cmdr. Gerry Goyins, the ship's senior medical officer. Goyins said there was a cluster of pregnancies early in the deployment but the pace slowed after senior female enlisted crew members warned young female sailors that getting pregnant is "not what sailors do."
He said that the Lincoln's pregnancy rate was considered low for an aircraft carrier and that some ships report a dozen each month. The Navy requires pregnant sailors and aviators to be removed from any ship that is more than three hours from obstetrical care, Goyins said. The women are not discharged but are assigned shore duty.</b>
<b>They say they are less concerned about discrimination and harassment than about whether they can balance military careers with domestic life.
Generally, the Navy requires seamen and aviators to alternate shore duty with sea duty. A woman who wants to have a baby must schedule it during shore leave but knows that after as little as three years, she will have to leave her child to go to sea.
Motherhood would force her to walk away from the military, Stilling said. In her three years of marriage, she and her husband have lived apart for 23 months.
"I can't imagine subjecting a child to that kind of separation," she said. "This is a great experience, at least until you're 30."</b>