WASHINGTON -- If or when the Pentagon lets women become infantry troops - the country's front-line warfighters - how many women will want to?
The answer is probably not many.
Interviews with a dozen female soldiers and Marines showed little interest in the toughest fighting jobs. They believe they'd be unable to do them, even as the Defense Department inches toward changing its rules to allow women in direct ground combat jobs.
The Marines asked women last year to go through its infantry officer training to see how they'd fare. Only two volunteered and both didn't complete the fall course. None has volunteered for the next course this month. The failure rate for men is roughly 25 percent.
For the record, plenty of men don't want to be in the infantry either.
