MICHAEL AINSWORTH/DMNArmy Capt. Rachael Franklin, an Apache helicopter pilot, is among the growing number of women embracing combat roles in the military. 'Being a female, you can't go infantry or armor, so you do the best you can,' she says.

Military women fire off far more than typewritten memos these days. And the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan have been their proving ground. More women than ever are close to combat or have actual combat roles, and the government and military leaders continue to struggle with the question of where and how to set limits.

Capt. Franklin, 27, is an Apache pilot, one of three female attack helicopter pilots who deployed to Iraq this fall with the 1st Cavalry Division's 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment based at Fort Hood, Texas.

The last of the division's 19,000 troops arrived in Iraq in December, following the Air Combat Aviation Brigade overseas for a second yearlong deployment in Iraq. The troopers relieved another Fort Hood unit, the 4th Infantry Division.

Now, in one of the few direct combat roles open to women, her mission in the skies over Baghdad is to stalk hostile forces threatening U.S. troops - and destroy them.

During a break from grueling pre-deployment training, Capt. Franklin climbed into the cockpit of an AH-64D and explained why she chose the Apache.

Other helicopters fly faster and carry more troops. But Apache pilots can dive up close to a target and unleash the fury of Hellfire missiles, rockets and 30 mm cannons.

Though women are still barred from infantry and other ground combat units, this is the first war in which female U.S. troops have been authorized to shoot back. And they have - as helicopter gunners, military police, and even truck drivers forced to defend themselves on a battlefield with no clear frontlines.

Lt. Col. Christopher Walach, the 1-227th's commanding officer, said female soldiers and leaders are integrated into every aspect of his battalion, from maintenance and support to administration and piloting of their fleet of Longbow Apache helicopters.

The women did "an absolutely outstanding job preparing themselves, their soldiers, and their equipment for combat," said Col. Walach, 40, of Las Vegas.

"But I look at all my aviators as aviators. We all receive the same training. We all perform at the same high level. It's immaterial, male or female," he said.

Today about 15 percent of the military is female. Advocates for women in the military say their contributions are vital as the armed forces struggle to keep pace with the demands of fighting two wars.

But the frontline service of these women has reignited another conflict - the battle on the home front between those who feel women soldiers should be entitled to the same opportunities as their male counterparts and those who believe the armed forces have already pushed them too far.

Congress debated legislation last year that would have barred women from ground combat support units. A compromise amendment signed into law this year required that the military get congressional approval before it makes changes that put women in new direct combat roles.

Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Wilma Vaught said the Iraq War has forced the military to use female troops in new ways and has disproved some of the myths about how they would perform.

"It's the nature of the conflict and the size of the force we have deployed," said Gen. Vaught, president of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation. "We have to use everybody we've got."

Capt. Franklin, a tall, self-possessed young woman with freckles and eye shadow around her blue eyes, alternates between seriousness and giggles when she reflects on her career as a female attack helicopter pilot.

"That was the most combat role I could do as a female. The most challenging, the most interesting," she said. "That's the main purpose of the Army, to fight. And being a female, you can't go infantry or armor, so you do the best you can."

After what was generally seen as a positive performance by women in the Persian Gulf War, rules excluding women from jobs that directly exposed them to hostile fire or capture were rescinded. Women cannot serve in armor, Special Forces, field artillery or combat engineer units, but they can fly attack helicopters and attack aircraft that provide close air support for them.

Capt. Franklin's choice of aircraft carried a great responsibility, not just as a woman, but as a human being, she said - the responsibility to kill.

More than 70 women service members have died in Iraq since the start of the war. Women have been captured. They have dragged wounded soldiers to safety. They have shot their way out of ambushes and earned the Silver Star for exceptional valor.

Although many female troops insist that their lives are worth no more than the next man in uniform, the nation has grieved more deeply for the mothers, daughters, sisters and wives who became casualties of these wars.

Sgt. Tawana Varice, 35, of Natchitoches, La., a soft-spoken mother of two boys, joined the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment after the unit returned from Iraq. She was a truck driver, but was reassigned as a clerk.

A female truck driver had been killed in combat in Iraq, and the battalion commanders weren't eager to put another woman in harm's way, she said.

Eventually, Sgt. Varice went back to driving a truck, and she is now one of several female drivers in the battalion. But it took awhile for her commanders to relent.

Also of concern is the impact of repeat deployments on families and military moms, who account for about 35 percent of the 346,000 female troops serving in the active duty and reserves.

Others say the reality is that mothers carry more responsibility for home life, which makes it harder for them to serve in the military during a time of war.

"I think we do have other things to think about," said Capt. Kennon Etheridge, 27, of Milledgeville, Ga., a 1st Cavalry Division preventive medicine officer with a young stepson. "I think guys, maybe they can leave their families easier. Girls, they have to make other arrangements."

Many female soldiers wait to marry or have children until they leave the military. Others do their best to juggle the demands of service and home.

Spc. Holly Jensen, 30, of Copperas Cove said her biggest concern before deploying with III Corps 7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment was lining up enough home improvement projects to keep her husband too busy to miss her during the year in Iraq.

"I don't get in those battles," she said. "You know what? We're here and we're doing the job, just as well [as men] and with just as much pride. "

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