Pentagon Gives Nod to Big Names for Women's Panel

WASHINGTON (June 2) -- In a clear signal that the Obama administration hopes to make big changes at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has named two high-profile veterans and a prominent feminist advocate to a little-known but influential advisory panel on women in the military.

Retired Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, who made headlines as the Army's highest-ranking woman when she accused a fellow general of sexual harassment, was named chairwoman of the Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS), which is set to hold its first meeting Thursday.

Established in 1951 by Defense Secretary George C. Marshall, the civilian panel gives advice and recommendations on policies related to military women. Members serve without pay for a three-year term, visiting military bases and evaluating reviews of policies that affect servicewomen.

Often on the front lines of opening jobs and expanding opportunities for women in the armed services, DACOWITS also has been a backwater under administrations less interested in changing the military hierarchy.

Under the George W. Bush administration, the committee had 15 members. Its 2010 charter authorizes a total of 35 members to "be more robust to better address emerging and existing issues concerning our women in uniform," said Clifford Stanley, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

Since retiring as head of Army intelligence a decade ago, Kennedy has been active in Democratic politics and spoken out against the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays.

Also named to the committee:

• Retired Army Reserve Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer, the military nurse and Vietnam veteran who came out as a lesbian before the Clinton-era "don't ask, don't tell" policy and whose court battle to reverse her discharge was made into a movie starring Glenn Close. In 1998, she ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Washington state as a Democrat.
• Nancy Duff Campbell, a co-founder of the National Women's Law Center and a longtime advocate of broadening roles for women in the military.

DACOWITS "has provided invaluable insight into the issues facing women in the military services," Stanley said. "Their work is vital to development of informed department policy."

When the Navy recently announced it would allow women to serve on submarines, it was acting on a DACOWITS recommendation made in 2000.

That was the year, according to conservative advocate Elaine Donnelly, that DACOWITS "went off the deep end."

A Reagan appointee on the committee from 1984 to 1986 and now the head of the Center for Military Readiness, Donnelly said the newest members of the panel are "doctrinaire figures, staunch feminists and supporters of gays in military." She said that given the expanded roles women now fill, DACOWITS has outlived its original mission and the new members are "going to cause havoc in the military, cause lot of dissension and controversy and chaos and not help women in the long run."

The Obama Pentagon obviously doesn't see it that way.

"The department has made great progress in recognizing the contributions and concerns of women in military service," Stanley said. "However, there is still work to be done."