When Major Mary Jennings Hegar was serving as a captain in Afghanistan, her aircraft was shot down by enemy fire while she and her crew were taking back injured soldiers. Though injured, she completed the rescue mission   while under fire on the ground and received the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross for "outstanding heroism and selfless devotion to duty." However, Hegar did not get prizes for serving in combat  , for it is illegal for women to be in official combat  positions and to get the benefits that come with them. Hegar and three other service women filed a lawsuit  in federal court in San Fransico on Nov. 27 in a long-overdue challenge to the Pentagon's   ban. Many military women who _ 14% of the 1.4 million active members of the military object to the policy because it stops them from applying for some 238,000 jobs and excludes   them from certain promotions. It is particularly unfair because it doesn't protect women in service. Fully 85% of women, who have served since Sept.11, report having served in a combat zone or an area where they were faced with combat or immediate danger according to the lawsuit, and half reported being involved in combat operations. At least 860 female troops have been wounded and 144 killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The ban does another bad thing: drive talented women out of service. Hegar says she is asked to leave the Air National Guard for a Reserve Liaison position because she is excluded(,) from jobs she would like to apply for. Another woman who is suing, Captain Alexandra Zoe Bedell who was sent twice to Afghanistan, left active duty last year, because of the combat exclusion policy. It is hard to see how the Pentagon could meet this burden. Clearly, women are capable of taking challenging, dangerous combat assignment, because as the careers of Hegar and others like her have shown they are doing it now. The Pentagon's policy is based on "outdated idea of women", just the sort of thing the Constitution forbids. But the Pentagon should not wait for the courts to order it to treat female service members equally. There can be little doubt that a court will eventually do just that and little doubt that, in the very near future, the no-combat rule, like the racial segregation   of troops and "Don't ask, don't tell," will seem like an ancient relic   of unenlightened   times. Many military women objected to the policy mainly because   _   .
it had an effect on women's rights it was unfair to protect women in service it prevented them from some jobs and promotions it was opposed to women's volunteering for combat