This is response to "How the Army views female GIs" (letter, April 13). I think that the selective reading going on is ludicrous. The letter writer never says that the battle buddy policy is bad or unnecessary, or insinuates in any way that she doesn’t intend to abide by it. She is simply saying that it should not be enforced more strictly with women, which is true.

Being former Army myself, I can attest that the battle buddy policy is enforced much more strictly on women than men. Sometimes even walking across the street to get dinner while in theater, I would be told to go back and get a buddy, while I would see men walking to the chow hall alone all the time.

The funny thing is, no one seems to argue that this practice doesn’t exist — they just feebly attempt to justify it. What is this talk of "if she were attacked by multiple people"? What does that have to do with being a woman? A man would be just as doomed to fail if he were surrounded. This talk of weight classes is also ridiculous. I’m 5 feet 9 and 175 pounds — are you telling me that there are no men in the Army smaller than me? Why should they be able to walk alone but not me?

People are always quick to harp on the likelihood of sexual assault, but what about kidnapping? That has become a growing concern in theater. And as much as people like to conveniently act as if the threat is equal across the board, the vast majority of kidnapping attempts are against men.

Quit focusing solely on sexual assault, and enforce the rules the same across the board — one gender isn’t any less vulnerable than the other.

Julie BordersFort Riley, Kan.

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