During all the months she spent hauling freight and supplies around Iraq, Spc. Amy Bellerive says she never once fired her weapon in anger.

But there were times, Bellerive said, when she came close. Danger from insurgents and terrorists was everywhere.

“We say it’s a trucker’s war. Wherever we go is the front line,” said Bellerive, 33, a native of St. Peter, Kan. “It’s kind of hard to hide our big green trucks while we’re rolling down the road.”

U.S. policy prohibits women in the armed forces from participation in combat units, but it allows them to serve in so-called support units such as Bellerive’s 731st Medium Truck Company.

But the distinction between “combat” and “support” has grown hazier during America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Iraq war’s most famous soldier, in fact, just might be a woman – Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the former POW.

The new prominence of women serving in war zones – and the sight of some returning home in body bags – has caused some discomfort in Washington, D.C. The U.S. House of Representatives last week turned back a bill that would have further restricted women’s roles in the military in an effort to keep them out of ground combat.

The debate seems likely to continue.

“I think they can do the job. There’s no question whether they can do the job,” former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., said during an April speech at the Dole Institute of Politics in Lawrence. “I think they ought to be doing other things that are just as helpful, not getting shot at. Save that for the men.”

Joy Moser, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Adjutant General’s Office, said last week that more than 10 percent of the state’s Army and Air National Guards, which total 7,600 members, are women.

Women “can be in a support role, and it’s done by the position and specialty title,” said Moser, who served 24 years in the military. “Women can be in some (jobs), but they can’t be in others.”

A female Israeli soldier training to be an infantry instructor holds a rifle as she takes part in a training exercise just outside in southern Israel. U.S. policy prohibits women in the armed forces from participation in combat units, but it allows them to serve in so-called support units.

Making those distinctions can be difficult.

Moser said the policy also allowed women in command positions with the headquarters of artillery units, but it doesn’t let them serve in artillery operations necessary to obtain the necessary promotion.

“Women can be mechanics,” Moser said, “but to fix some things you have to be on the front lines.”

In mid-March, a U.S. House subcommittee pushed through a bill amendment that the Army said would have closed at least 21,925 positions in ground support companies to women.

Last week, the bill was gutted and replaced with a milder measure that would extend the time required for the Pentagon to notify Congress – from 30 days to 60 days in session – before it opened or closed positions to women.

‘Precious self’

“The women-in-the-military issue is past,” said Rep. Ike Skelton, of Missouri, ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, who also fought the original proposal.

That’s not likely. Few observers expect the issue to go away.

“I highly value the contributions made by our women in uniform,” U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun, a Kansas Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement released to the Journal-World. “I also agree with the clear majority of Americans who do not believe it is in our best interests to place women on the front lines of combat.”

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Bellerive said she joined the Kansas National Guard almost four years ago to continue family military service started by her grandfather in World War II. Boot camp, she said, was “one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.”

She’s back in the United States now after her sojourn to Iraq. Last week she was hauling freight through Western states during a California-based training mission.

Bellerive doesn’t want to lose her job.

“My opinion is, I feel that women provide a valuable service in combat support. We do as good a job as the guys do,” she said. “When we signed up to serve in the armed forces, we understand you could be killed, you could be hurt, you could be wounded.”

She added: “I don’t think it would be right to tell me I did my job in the military, and I did a good job, but I can’t do it anymore because somebody doesn’t want me to get my precious self hurt.”