Women at war: officially, American women can't serve in combat, but in Iraq and Afghanistan they're fighting--and dying--as never before.

• Author: Alvarez, Lizette
• Position: Cover story

Lieutenant Emily Perez, 23, was a West Point graduate who outran many men, directed a gospel choir, and read the Bible every day. As a platoon leader in Iraq, she led a weekly convoy south of Baghdad on roads pocked with bombs and bullets. Last September, she was killed when one of those roadside bombs detonated near her Humvee.

Perez, the highest-ranking black and Hispanic female cadet in West Point's history, was the 64th woman from the U.S. military to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The role of women in the military has evolved from serving as nurses in the Civil War to serving in support units in the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

But now, for the first time, servicewomen by the thousands are on the ground, engaging the enemy--and being wounded and killed in greater numbers than ever before. Of the nearly 3,500 U.S. soldiers who had died in Iraq or Afghanistan as of mid-February, 80 were women (compared with eight who died in the Vietnam war).

Pentagon policy officially forbids women, who make up 10 percent of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, from serving in combat roles. But the reality of the situation in both countries, where the front line can be anywhere, is making the rules hard to follow.

'IT'S ALL COMBAT IN RAMADI'

"[The policy] says you can have female medics, but they can't see combat," says Capt. Megan O'Connor, who served in Iraq for a year and a half. "It's all combat in Ramadi. ... They put the rules down on paper. It looks good. It reads good. But for a commander to implement, it's impossible."

In this 360-degree war and ongoing insurgency, women are in the thick of it, hauling heavy equipment and expected to defend themselves and others from an enemy that is all around them. They are driving supplies down treacherous roads, as Perez did, frisking Iraqi women at dangerous checkpoints, and handling gun turrets on personnel carriers.

"We are asking far more of our female soldiers than ever before in history," says Elaine Donnelly, director of the Center for Military Readiness, a conservative think tank.

The Pentagon says it is relaxing the policy in part because there aren't enough troops, men or women, and that the U.S. can't sustain its mission without women doing these jobs.

But opponents say that sending women out with combat troops, even in support roles, is illegal.

Conventional wisdom has long held that women were not suited to the battlefield--too frail, emotionally and physically, to survive combat pressure...