Shoot Like a Girl: One Woman's Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front

This is a great book and a very easy read.

You can hear the matter of fact statements and cadences in Ms. Hegar's prose that make it clear to you she is first and foremost a soldier. Her descriptions of flight, battle, work, the drudgery, all put you right there with her. It is harrowing and exhilarating. She is understated, in the best way. And that serves her well when, as you read this book, it becomes apparent that she also has another battle, this one against the entrenched biases and judgments that go against women, and particularly women in the military. You pull for her, mostly because she gives that sense that she is a soldier, and every soldier should get her due.Some people will say that women need to be protected from combat and becoming prisoners of war, or that they are not fit for it, or that they will cause men in combat to perform less effectively. These same people will tell you that it is an honor to fight and to die for your country. They are lying in one of those statements. It is either not an honor but is really a burden that we do not want women to have to bear. Or it is an honor and we are being damned unfair to prevent half our population from having the opportunity to attain it.Allowing women to serve in combat was, is and always will be the only real feminist argument. Everything will flow from that. For one thing, it will sure curtail sexual harassment in the military. It will change the way we see women. The workplace cannot be more exclusive than the battlefield. Besides, we have a volunteer military. The women who will serve in every combat role next to men will be the ones who want to serve.Mary Jennings Hegar for President! Now, more than ever.-Gerald Weaver

Mary Jennings Hegar was an all-American girl from Texas. She had an abusive father, a loving mother and step father, and a dream to fly airplanes in war. She did that, and much more. Reading her memoir, Shoot Like A Girl, was a real treat for someone who explores women in leadership and has a son going into the Army (me!). Her candid telling of a life still living highlights how her indomitable will and positive outlook helped her overcome setbacks that would challenge the strongest among us.What I enjoyed most about her book was that it opened a door for me into the world of war, through an authentic woman’s lens, which isn’t to say it was soft and fluffy. In her writing, Major Hegar ret. (known as MJ) shoots like a girl, and she shoots straight. MJ was one of those heroic women “on the front lines” before women were officially allowed to be there. She flew medivac helicopters in Afghanistan during three tours of duty, and served in the California National Guard fighting wildfires and running rescue missions in between. She saw death and was wounded herself in a harrowing string of events when her helicopter was shot down with wounded aboard. Her sharpshooting helped everyone escape alive.Her journey to become a combat pilot was equally as harrowing.I really enjoyed MJ’s story, and appreciated the vision of heroism she gave me as I read Shoot Like A Girl, but it was at the end she earned my undying gratitude. When she finally stepped out of the cockpit due to a physical disqualification (her knee injury finally caught up with her), she was unable to qualify for other combat jobs due to the restrictions about females in combat. Shortly after this, in 2012, the ACLU gave her the opportunity to stand up for women’s rights to be on the front lines officially. Believing the rules that brought women into combat only in special circumstances were broken, MJ “broke ranks” with the brotherhood in one sense and joined an ACLU suit against the Defense Department and co-founded the Combat Integration Initiative to fight for women’s right to serve.In her book, MJ points out that the women on the front lines are forced to serve in a segregated way in combat and were unfairly disadvantaged, prevented from training with their units to become full-fledged team members. Perhaps worse, women in combat not recognized for their heroism and sacrifice in the way their brothers in arms were. Her friends and other men in the service supported her and the other women represented in the suit, and in 2015 the Defense Department moved to open all positions to women, a policy that is still being put into effect and some worry will suffer under the Trump administration despite statements by Secretary Mattis that indicate he has no plans to change the policy.Great read. I learned a lot.

A few people complained that the writing in this book was stilted. Maybe it's because I'm used to editing military analyses but I didn't find anything to complain about in her writing style. It does kind of read like an after-action report. I will agree that she didn't seem to spend enough time on the parts of her story that were really important. On the other hand, she said at the beginning of the book that there were things that were still hard to talk about so I was willing to cut her some slack. The book was an easy read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This book is wonderful. I was hooked in the first 30 pages.

I loved the book. I was an Air Force wife for many years and understand the military community. I am impressed with the author's successes. I felt terrible when I read about the persecution and abuse that she underwent by higher-ups. I wish she had been able to retire from the military after many years of service. She deserved that the the military would have been a better place had she been able to stay in. But under the circumstances, the terrible abuse, I can see why she eventually left the service. This was a great read, and I passed it on to my sister-in-law, who spent six years in the Air Force. I know she'll enjoy it.

I had a hard time putting it down. It was one of those books that you wish kept going.

Good book

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