Richard D. Hooker Jr.

About the Author: Richard D. Hooker Jr. is a captain in the U.S. Army and a social science instructor at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. A 1981 graduate of the academy, Hooker served in the invasion of Grenada. He has a doctorate degree in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

The issue of women in combat, thought to be resolved by the demise of the Equal Rights Amendment and the conservatism of successive presidential administrations in this decade, is riding the crest of continuously evolving social mores and changing views of sexual politics. Changes in definitions of sex roles and the removal of many traditional barriers to women in the US Army and the other military services insures that this emotional and...