GENERAL-CHARACTERISTICS OF US AIR-FORCE AND US ARMY RATED MALE AND FEMALE AIRCREW

The issue of women flying military combat aircraft has been controvers ial. We conducted a comprehensive survey, via anonymous questionnaire, of all U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force rated female aircrew and an equal number of age- and duty-matched male aircrew. We are reporting on the general information section of the questionnaire here: age, time in t he military, flight role, desire to remain in the military, marital st atus, number of children, spousal encouragement of career, type of air craft flown, aircraft mishap and injury history, and reasons for exten ded periods of illness/medical incapacitation to fly. Males' and femal es' responses in most areas surveyed were very similar. However, women were more than twice as likely to have been medically grounded for a period of more than 30 days. Not all the excess groundings were due to pregnancies. The responses to this section of the questionnaire indic ate that female military officer aircrew are similar to their male cou nterparts, About 20% of married female aircrew do not postpone pregnan cies in deference to their military careers.