In Iraq and Afghanistan, women fly fighter planes and attack helicopters.

They are on the front lines on the ground, and nearly 100 have been killed in the nation's two wars. They are allowed to serve in many jobs, but not all.

There are no women crew members on U.S. submarines. In the Army, women are barred from certain specialties, including infantry, armor, field artillery and Special Forces, but the traditional no-go lines are getting more blurred all the time.

Spc. Tiffany Knotts, 24, is a Stryker vehicle driver at Camp Taji in Iraq with the 2/25 Stryker Brigade Combat Team out of Hawai'i.

For about six to seven months, Spc. Esther Tukumoeatu, from American Samoa, was a gunner on the 19-ton armored vehicle with Knotts.

Spc. Rebecca Buck, meanwhile, is part of the otherwise all-male "personal security detachment" for the Hawai'i Stryker brigade's commander, Col. Todd McCaffrey.

The Gulf War in 1991 brought about a change in Defense Department policy that resulted in approximately 30,000 Army positions being opened to women.

On Nov. 14, Lt. Gen. Ann Dunwoody, deputy commander of the Army Materiel Command, will become the first woman four-star general in the U.S. military.

SALUTE TO WOMEN

Through mid-November, the Army plans to honor the achievements of its women warriors in a commemoration coinciding with the anniversary of the fuller integration of women into the Army 30 years ago with the disestablishment of the Women's Army Corps.

The issue has also made it into presidential politics.

Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has said he would consult with military commanders in reviewing the restrictions that remain on women in combat, while Republican candidate Sen. John McCain's camp has said he supports the current policy.

Soldiers like Knotts, one of only a handful of women Stryker drivers in the Army, appreciate the opportunity to show what they can do. Knotts also said "it's awesome" to be part of the wave breaking traditional barriers to women.

"I think what the media (shows) ... to the world in general and on TV is that the females are not on the front lines alongside the guys, and that's completely untrue," said Knotts, who's from Riverside, Calif. "I do realize that the world's not ready to see female dead bodies on the battlefield, but basically, that is the reality of it."

She's seen combat in Iraq before. For several months in 2006, she was a Humvee gunner operating a roof-mounted 50-caliber machine gun in Ramadi.

At the time, she was part of a forward support battalion providing security for supply convoys — one of those jobs that's not infantry but sees plenty of enemy activity nevertheless.

On one occasion, she said, a rocket-propelled grenade sailed over her head and exploded about 20 feet from her Humvee.

One of her women "battle buddies" from 2006 had a support and logistics job, but ended up accompanying soldiers and Marines as they kicked down doors.

"She told me all kinds of stories of being maybe 20 feet away from an IED (improvised explosive device) or a trip wire," Knotts said by phone from Camp Taji.

"Just because we're females, doesn't mean that we're not (on the front lines) ... We are in harm's way."

Among the military members with Hawai'i ties who have paid with their lives for their service in Iraq and Afghanistan are Army Chief Warrant Officer Sharon Swartworth, Army Sgt. Maj. Barbaralien Banks and Marine Maj. Megan Malia Leilani McClung.

As of January 2007, there were about 70,000 women in the active-duty Army, 47,000 in the National Guard and 39,000 in the Army Reserve, officials said.

Those figures represented 14 percent of the active force, 13 percent of the National Guard and 23 percent of the Army Reserve.

ASSIGNED TO SUPPORT

Maj. Al Hing, a spokesman for the 4,000-soldier Hawai'i Stryker brigade, which operates in and around Taji and Tarmiyah just north of Baghdad, said the 225th Brigade Support Battalion has the highest concentration of women soldiers. Those soldiers regularly head out on combat logistics patrols.

The brigade's headquarters, 185th Military Intelligence Company and 556th Signal Company also have women soldiers. Hing said a small percentage of women medics rotate through missions in support of battalions.

About 33 percent of the brigade's women soldiers have jobs that consistently take them "outside the wire" or outside the security of a U.S. base, Hing said.

Knotts, the Stryker driver, is with the 556th Signal Company, which provides communications for the Stryker brigade. She said she hasn't driven the 19-ton, eight-wheeled vehicle off base because her commander, Capt. Ronnie Geronimo, hasn't had a need to go outside Camp Taji in the armored vehicle.

"Basically, we're a standby crew ready to go outside at any point in time," she said.

Knotts said she regularly drives the $2.3 million vehicle around base, and she went through the standard driver training in Hawai'i before the deployment.

IN RISKY ZONES

She believes that her earlier time on the roads of Iraq led a noncommissioned officer to pick her to be a Stryker driver.

"I guess he felt that given my experience, it would probably be a good idea for me to drive — that way I would know what to look for," she said.

Buck, 28, who's part of the brigade commander's personal security detachment, goes out plenty — almost every day in fact.

That can be by helicopter or Humvee, and then on foot.

"We walk a lot," said Buck, who is from Reno, Nev. There are no other women on the security detail.

"I think probably the female factor has more to do with this particular area — it's beneficial to have a female because the males can't search females," Buck said.

There have been "a few" close calls for Buck, who also was with another personal security detachment before joining that of the brigade commander.

A roadside bomb exploded nearby on one occasion, and on another, a foot patrol she was on took small arms fire.

But Buck said she loves seeing Iraq, and the excitement of the job.

"I love the fact that I'm part of a team. I have an excellent team. I have excellent leadership," she said. "I have the opportunity, if need be, to make a difference as far as if anything were to happen, God forbid. I know that I'd be there to take care of them."

There remain lots of opportunities for women in the Army, but also inconsistencies.

An Army spokeswoman at the Pentagon said airborne school is open to women, but Ranger school is not. In a Stryker brigade, women can be part of the unit at the headquarters level, or with the 556th Signal Company, as is Stryker driver Knotts, but can't be in most other Stryker units.

PSYCHED OUT

Disagreements continue over physical strength and the psychological impacts women would have on front-line combat units.

Retired Army. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman wrote of the protective and instinctual aggression that Israeli Defense Forces soldiers sometimes exhibited after seeing a woman soldier get wounded. He also said that Islamic militants rarely surrender to women soldiers.

Stryker driver Knotts sees both sides of the argument.

Women can be as strong as a man, and she says she can do more pushups than some male counterparts.

"Females are just as tactical-minded as males when it comes to war," she added.

But she does agree that males can be very protective.

"It's one thing to have your basketball buddy on the court and he gets hurt, and it's like, 'Suck it up man, just move on. Let's go,' " Knotts said. "But if a female gets hurt, then they (males) lose their composure. And in this job that we do out here, you lose your composure for two seconds and you are dead."