Ranger School: All 8 Female Soldiers Enrolled in Army Combat Course Fail to Advance to Next Phase
The women survived the initial days of the first-ever Ranger School to include women, but failed to advance to the second phase. They will be allowed to restart the first phase.
recycling-not just for ‘greens’ any more.
How many guys didn’t make the cut? This shows somebody is trying to keep high standards and rightly so. Women have been in combat and continue to be as combat changes. I am against women in combat units.
How did you do?
Two (or more) considerations:
1) In the modern military how important is combat level physical abiliy? Although I was 2nd fastest in a 5 mile run in my batallion of several hundred and at 130 lb I could out wrestle the Sgt who was allegedly the best at hand to hand combat, my 1s Sgt made me personnel clerk for 2 reasons: #1 I could not keep rhythym when marching and #2 in hand to hand combat I did not have the instinct to finish a guy off.
Of the 550,000 in uniform in Vietnam when I was there under LBJ most of us were not fighters. We were supply clerks, cooks, truck drivers, mechanics, and other support areas. We were never trained in how to use a weapon beyond cleaning it. We were never issued ammo. We were never expected to fight.
Could women have done our jobs in Vietnam? Of course.
2) Combat ability is needed in some people in the military. Would you rather have Rhonda Rousey or me beside you in combat? Although most men are physically better than most women, a few women are better than most men. Maybe the military should be more oriented toward the individual and not toward the identity group of the individual.
3) Women complain of rape and harassment in the military. This is the real problem many don’t want to discuss.
My unit in Vietnam had 3 homosexuals. Two of them kept it to themselves and were not a problem. But the 3rd homo was constantly harassing and molesting other guys. Some unwanted advances were rejected in a calm, firm manner. Some were rejected in a violent manner. It was expected that all of us could and would handle the situation without going cry-baby to our superiors.
What is it that women in the military are not “tough enough” in character to handle the situation ?
When I was in Vietnam alcohol abuse was rampant and guys did stupid things when high. Are alcohol and drug abuse now a major factor in harassments? Does anyone understand why some units have a much bigger problem with this than other units?
In order to be recycled, you have to have demonstrated motivation and performance that indicate that you will successfully complete the course, given a chance to either heal from an injury or be re-evaluated in performance with a different peer group. Not all students who fail a phase get recycled. In fact, only a small portion usually do. Until now.
Now, the deck looks stacked to me since ALL of these female students are being recycled, but I expected as much. This is the first breach in standards. The Ranger cadre board has been compromised by the female observer Zampolits assigned to watch over these female students. The Big Army has decreed that there will be female Ranger graduates, bottom line.
Onward into the Brave New World.