House Panel Backs More Separate Sexes in Basic Training

WASHINGTON — A House committee voted Wednesday to increase the separation of men and women in basic military training, a move that runs counter to the objectives of three services and alarms some feminists in the armed forces.

By a 30-23 margin, the House National Security Committee endorsed legislative language that would keep men and women apart in basic training units and in their barracks.

The policy change, included in a pending defense authorization bill, would require the Army, Navy and Air Force to make basic training platoons all male or all female by April 15, 1999. It would require that men and women be housed in separate barracks, not in separate wings of the same barracks, as is done in some cases at present. (The Marine Corps already separates men and women during boot camp.)

The change was recommended last year by an advisory group headed by former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker, a Kansas Republican. But Defense Secretary William S. Cohen tentatively decided against it in March, and some military women and their supporters fear that the new policy might undo changes that have given women a growing role in the forces.

The integration of women in boot camp “is very important symbolically,” said a woman who has been a key advocate of mixed-gender training. “If women can’t work with men in basic training, what does that say about their role?”

Congressional critics, citing some of the military sex scandals of the last 18 months, contend that mingling men and women during intense training is a dangerous distraction and sends the wrong signal about military service.

“All we’re trying to do is get basic training back to basic training, not social experimentation,” said Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.).

Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-Md.) said putting men and women together in training is something that “in 5,000 years of recorded history no successful military has done.”

After participating in fact-finding outings, some members of Congress reported that mixed-gender training was making bases more akin to coed sleep-away camps than rugged military centers.

Bartlett last year advocated the same kind of separation. But, facing strong opposition from female lawmakers in particular, that effort got nowhere.

In committee debate, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Torrance) declared that separation would “roll back opportunities for women.”

“It will not reduce sexual misconduct,” Harman added. “We learned long ago that a policy of separate but equal results in unequal opportunities.”

Kenneth H. Bacon, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said the committee’s vote is “just one phase of a legislative process” that will continue to unfold.

He noted that Cohen had concluded that the best way to handle the issue is to leave it to the services, which have “very strong views” on how it should best be handled.

In his response to the Kassebaum-Baker report, Cohen came out in favor of more exacting physical training standards at boot camps, better training of drill instructors and stricter oversight to ensure that men and women aren’t mingling socially when they shouldn’t be.

Despite his conclusions, however, some women in the military have said they remain unsure of how deeply committed the Clinton administration and senior military leaders are to integrated training.