Having briefly served on the staff of the Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces, I read R. Cort Kirkwood’s “Life on the Front Lines” (Vital Signs, March 1994) with interest. His report on the commission is exactly correct. Particularly depressing is that so many of the Naval Academy and Military Academy graduates on the commission considered equal opportunity to be more important than military readiness. Even more depressing is that no senior military officers are now willing to voice any opposition to current plans to put women in combat. Apparently none of them are, or desire to be, real men—or leaders of real men.

        —Andrew G. Van Sant
Annapolis, MD