Aspin to Allow Women to Fly Combat Missions : Military: Defense chief will also call on Congress to remove restrictions barring their service on warships.

By MELISSA HEALY

April 28, 1993 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Les Aspin will order the military services to allow female pilots to fly combat missions as soon as it is can be done and ask Congress to lift legal restrictions that have barred women from serving on combat ships since 1947, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.

In a decision to be announced Thursday, Aspin will direct the civilian service secretaries to begin immediate planning for the integration of women into all combat aircraft units, including Air Force bombers and fighter jets, Army helicopters and Navy aircraft that operate from carriers.

Pentagon sources said that Aspin began a final round of consultations Tuesday with uniformed leaders of the military services, several of whom have resisted further combat roles for women. But they added that Aspin expects the senior officers to fall in line quickly following his announcement.

Aspin’s decision came just a week after his hand-picked civilian advisers on the Defense Advisory Commission on Women in the Services recommended that he act immediately to lift restrictions on combat roles for women pilots. Congress last year lifted the statute prohibiting women from serving in such units but left it to the Pentagon to decide whether and how to carry out the change.

But Aspin would bump back to lawmakers the issue of lifting restrictions on other combat roles for women in the Navy. Because women are barred by law from serving on combat ships, Aspin believes that he can open no further ships to women without a blanket repeal by Congress of the 1947 law.

Aspin also has left it to Congress to respond to a Navy proposal that would open at least four new classes of ships to women immediately and begin planning to open all Navy ships, including submarines and amphibious ships, to female sailors.

Under Aspin’s initiative, the new civilian Army secretary, who has not yet been named, would be directed to review possible new openings for women in combat engineering and field artillery units. The Army’s prohibition against women in combat slots is a matter of policy and not law and congressional action would not be required for change.

Ellen P. Murdoch, a Wisconsin educator who chairs the advisory commission on military women, hailed Aspin’s decision and said that the planned moves “would represent real progress for military women.”

“This has not been a hasty decision,” Murdoch said of Aspin’s bid to move forward on the issue. “Everybody’s had a chance to comment on it.”

Aspin’s order is expected to meet with mixed reviews in the armed forces, where the issue of women in combat has generated controversy in the last year. While the Navy has actively sought expanded combat roles for women, the Air Force’s most senior officer has continued to express strong reservations.

Army sources said that the Army is prepared to open combat helicopter crews to women but continues to resist further openings in ground combat units.

Opening an April 18 meeting of the women’s commission, Gen. Merrill McPeak, the Air Force chief of staff, said flatly: “I think it is a mistake to open up bombers and fighters to women.” He said that he was concerned about the impact such a move would have on the morale of male pilots.

The Marine Corps, similarly, has continued to hold out against opening its combat aircraft to female Marines. Last Friday, asked whether the Marine Corps, like the Navy, is exploring new openings for women, Commandant Carl E. Mundy Jr. told reporters: “The Marine Corps feels very good about the opportunities for women that we offer.”

Aspin, responding to the Navy’s proposal, said recently that he has been preparing a package of initiatives to open new combat positions to women. But he insisted that there must be consistency across the various services.

Some experts, however, expressed concern that Aspin’s interpretation of the Navy’s proposal could result in delays that would hurt women’s job opportunities.