Sorry. I meant to add a few bits but Rob got there anyway.

A friend of ours was an army doc up till about three years ago. She was about as front line as you get. Being quite athletic, she was usually first responder with paramedics, out of the helicopter where the casulties lay. Fairly front line by my reckoning.

I still can't see what this thread was about? The slow exising of sexism in the workplace has been going on for ages. When I worked down the pit, The Mines and Quarries Act 1954 stated that women couldn't work underground. Together with some military exclusions, that remained after The Sex Discrimination Act 1975. What is happening now is the final righting of wrongs.

Sorry Michael, but to say you can achieve rank doing admin is about as sexist as it gets. It really is. To then say you have no opinion unless you did your national service or whatever chance of fate put you in a uniform is a bit like saying "Here's me arse, please kick it."