retired colonel in the air force and president of grace after fire, and a former marine corps officer who served in iraq and afghanistan and has a new novel coming out called "green on blue about the complexities of surviving in war. about 290,000 women have served. and people hear that and it gets a little confusing. so explain to us what kind of jobs women are doing now, what they can't do, and what could change in 2016. >> essentially being in combat is not the same as performing a combat mission. i am in a field that would support combat operations and combat in a wide variety of ways. a lot of the death toll is very high among motor transport. many women were experiencing death and injury. however, we were not in an offensive tactic position, we were in defensive tactic positions. one is, if the enemy comes at you, do i know how to fire a weapon? do i know basic hand to hand combat skills? yes, i do. but i was not trying to perform offensive tactics in killing, that woulddy destroy the enemy as readily and quickly as possible. >> kim talk about that, these differences between offensive and defensive positions. >> i think you have to talk about the realities of today