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.