CNN: Secret Service needs more women.

That's the headline, anyway, but we'll lead with a blockquote. 

(CNN) – Two members of Congress on Sunday questioned the gender makeup of the Secret Service, speculating whether the recent scandal in Colombia could have been avoided if the agency had more women on its payroll.

“I can't help but wonder if there'd been more women as part of that detail, if this ever would have happened,” Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said on ABC’s “This Week.”

That makes me wonder what Senator Collins thinks that the women agents might have done?  Or to what purpose they might be productive?  Is Senator Collins suggesting that the women might have stood-in for the prostitutes? Or that the male agents might have moderated their conduct?

I don't have a problem with female cops, and I certainly never had a problem with female soldiers, but I know from long experience that when you put red-blooded Americans into a foreign environment, the horn-dog is going to come out of some of them.  Folks who would never have had an affair in their hometown are known ot let the standards slip when they're away from home.  The old saw about "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" has a certain basis in fact.  The old soldiers lament about "TDY rules apply.  Don't talk about it when you get home." has another basis in human behavior .  And, from my experience, it's not limited to the men. 

I could tell you stories about a Reserve field hospital full of nurses (about 200 females) that were deployed during Desert Storm, and found themselves far from home without the normal comforts or influence of children and husbands.  Let's just say that some of them found the steadying influence of their hometowns to be less exciting than the foreign lands that were filled with wholesome American soldiers.  I'm sure that when they all went home, they settled back into their lives with their families and told war stories.  Not all the war stories, but stories nonetheless.

Violating your marriage vows is a sin that will place your soul in mortal danger.  Violating the regulations of the Army, or the Secret Service is a sin that will place your career in mortal danger.  Endangering the President is a horrible thing to have on your record. 

But I'm not sure how the Senator thinks that female agents would have mitigated the damage.