Posted on 04/08/2015 7:44:07 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
An 18 month trial period allowing female Marines to attend the Marine Corps’ Infantry Officer Course will end without a single female graduate, reported the Marine Corps Times.
The opportunity for female volunteers is part of a larger effort to determine the feasibility of allowing female officers to take part in ground combat operations. If anyone had successfully completed the course, they would not have earned the occupational designator or entered the infantry, since the program was only an experiment.
The IOC began accepting female officers in September 2012, but by July 2014, only 20 female officers had volunteered, and none had completed the course. Only one volunteer made it through the initial Combat Endurance Test.
In October 2014 the Marine Corps broadened the requirements for applicants to encourage more volunteers, making hundreds more Marines eligible. But new applicants also had to have a first-class score on the male-version of the Physical Fitness Test.
Seven more women volunteered, and three managed to pass the Combat Endurance Test, but none successfully completed the course.
The most recent and final course began April 2 with two female officers, but both were dropped the first day after failing to complete the Combat Endurance Test, a spokesperson for Headquarters Marine Corps told the Marine Corps Times.
The goal was for 100 women to complete the course, but only 29 in total made an attempt, and none of them passed.
The number of volunteers, their pass rate and their performance will be considered along with other data, such as the success rate for female Marines in completing a separate Infantry training course in North Carolina.
The information will be compiled for Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., who will make a recommendation to the Department of Defense on whether to allow female troops to take part in ground combat operations.
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
Another glorious day in the history of the corps! Gung Ho Gung Ho Gung Ho!
Can’t see it. The Corps too stubborn.
What few people realize is that the female officers who have attempted the Marine Infantry Officer Course have been the strongest and toughest that the Corps could find. Most of them were collegiate athletes, and all of them have failed the course. But IOC is much different from sports, challenging the kind of physical and mental strength, endurance, aggressiveness and sheer will required to lead Marines in ground combat. It is never enough for Marine infantry officers to keep up with their Marines - they must LEAD their Marines!
Ground combat is a gruesome task for strong men led by stronger men. Even the toughest are broken and slaughtered. Marine Corps infantry is no place for social experimentation, and pretending otherwise is a recipe for disaster. I credit USMC leadership for not compromising our standards, but it is past time to put this phony issue to rest.
OMG! THE Bea Arthur! Yes, she definitely could kick butt.
She is the same height as me.
That is a wonderful thing. Too bad leftists are trying to thwart God and while doing so they are destroying our country by destroying our society.
My wife has a photo hanging on the wall of my TBS platoon sitting on the ground, leaning back on our packs and getting debriefed after 3 or 4 days in the mud. Dirty, camo grease painted faces, tired, aggravated (when will this idiot debriefing get over so I can get a hot shower & see my wife!) and generally MEAN looking. The photo was from a USMC Officer recruiting booklet. I ended up front & center in the photo. Mrs BN likes to say that shes married to a "Poster Marine", but she doesn't mention that by now I'm old, short, fat & grumpy.
Semper Fi. I appreciate WMs, but they DO NOT BELONG IN COMBAT! (Unless the situation deteriorates to a level requiring something akin to Haile Selassie's Mobilization Order upon the invasion by the Italian army)
"Mobilisation Order by Emperor Haile Selassie - Abyssinia 1936
' Everyone will now be mobilised and all boys old enough to carry a spear will be sent to Addis Ababa '
' Married men will take their wives to carry food and to cook. Those without wives will take a woman without a husband. Woman with small babies need not go '
' The blind, those who cannot walk, or for any reason cannot carry a spear, are exempted.'
' Any one found at home after receipt of this order will be hanged.'
Is it politically correct to say BS?
For the sake of meeting some arbitrary politically correct standard the DOD politicians (and that’s what Pentagon flag officers are) will cave and reduce the physical standards, reduce unit cohesiveness, and completely mess up the interpersonal dynamics of a combat unit. Just adding a female in combat as a grunt will cause unintended consequences to the Marines. She is incapable of physically doing what a Marine needs to do whether it is lifting ammo or moving a wounded comrade. She may represent only half a Marine.
But then what do I know because I believe in the draft, especially as method to get young people involved and filling many non-combat non technical or materiel type jobs, and have these jobs done much less costly than through contractors.
I despise these PC concepts because it is a major factor that elites have used to muzzle and divide us as a nation by making some special and others forced to sacrifice. It gets a life of its own because the media wields a big stick that they use to gain power and others kowtow.
VIDEO: Bill Whittle describes another way Obama is undermining the U.S. Military.
I also indulged in a bit of the martial arts and am well acquainted with the hard fact that the average female Black Belt will usually get trounced by the average male who doesn't have a Belt, but knows how to handle himself. Speed with power trumps.
without a single female graduate
No surprise to me. As one who has humped a pack throughout many years of service (both in the Marines and Army) I can tell you that the extreme physical labor is not for most women. I have met a very few that possibly could have made it but those never had the desire.
a woman can produce a human being
But they need a man’s help to do it!
Their ligaments cant take it. The knees and pelvis cannot take the strain. They don’t enough of a shoulder girdle to allow for a powerful upper body. They don’t have the testosterone.
Clearly.
... but I thought GI Jane was real... So thinks many low info voters.
The goal was for 100 women to complete the course, but only 29 in total made an attempt, and none of them passed.>>>>>>>>>>>>
They needed a few hundred Muslim jihadhist rapists sceaming for their capture.That would have been good motivation. Oooops I forgot, that would not have been politically correct.
No pain, no gain.
Get rid of the liberal guidelines and you will have women who can complete the course, but they would be women in name only.
I predict the same result for female Ranger School candidates.
Her reply was, "Why would I want to give up the best part of being a lady to prove I'm not a man?"
Any real athlete could have predicted this.
Viva Le Differance!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.