Informal service: In the Israeli military, gays serve openly, women can let their hair down and

[unhappycamper]

Israeli troops are a visible presence throughout Tel Aviv and Jerusalem -- including female soldiers with their hair in a ponytails and their uniforms tailored to fit just so.


Informal service: In the Israeli military, gays serve openly, women can let their hair down and everyone is on a first-name basis
By Nancy Montgomery, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, November 15, 2009

TEL AVIV, Israel — Female U.S. soldiers training in Israel recently couldn’t help but notice that their Israeli counterparts looked very different.

Their hair hung down their backs in loose, fetching ponytails.

“How is the mask going to fit over it?” asked U.S. Army Sgt. Delvona Maria, a practical-minded chemical specialist with the 5th Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery, who, like many U.S. female soldiers, wears her hair pulled tightly back and pinned up. “How would you get a seal?”

And the Israeli women sported sandals on their feet, with nicely painted nails.

“The flip-flops?” Maria said, incredulous. “No. We’re around heavy equipment.”


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66112

[MineralMan]

1. Let's make it a model for our military.

We're such morons about such things.