Do they call them ladies like they would the men.
When I see women in the NFL (and they would love to have them), I will believe this crap.
It’s not even completely about their strength
And if I have to explain it....well you ain’t never gonna get it
There is obviously a need for female operators in certain situations so I applaud any woman who can get through Ranger School.
Every society will always have its warriors.
There will be fewer or more depending on the nature of the society.
And they aren’t always in the armed forces.
stranger ranger blog ping-a-ling
This is the best after action review of Females in Ranger School that I have seen. It is very well written and provides an in depth discussion of how this experiment was crafted and executed. Rather than going for the headlines of two women who earned tabs, your account points out that 100 women started in the Ranger School/pre Ranger training sequence. Two graduated, and I believe one is still in the Florida phase.
That is a reasonable outcome given the physical demands of the course, particularly the requirements for upper body strength. Your conclusion is spot on, only a very few will ever meet the standard, and likely few will choose to take that path. Unless, of course, the Army adjust the standards so that success rates approach those of the men. In my view, that is the likely next step.
I have heard about the howitzer crew demo, but I had never gotten the details, thanks. As for Wilder, I did bump into her once at VII HQs at Patch Barracks. She had a big role in the Hillary campaign in 2008, I wonder if she has reappeared this time around?
If you look at career Rangers, even the toughest and strongest men are seriously beat up and worn out by the time they retire from the physical wear, tear, abuse and injuries they received while in the service.
The Israeli army has had large scale experiments integrating women into front line combat units which demonstrate that women receive serious debilitating injuries that lead to permanent disability at an astronomical rate compared to men when placed in conditions that replicate actual combat conditions.
Israel is a special case given it's civil defense requirements so training women for combat is a necessity.
For the United States, women in front line combat will degrade military effectiveness in any engagement were soldiers are pushed to the limits of endurance and, more importantly, is going to result in many women taking early separation from the service due to serious permanent disability resulting from constant physical wear and tear combined with serious , debilitating injuries from training and actual combat.
As always, this will be a self correcting problem when we discover the long term physical consequences of women spending years in the military units such as the Rangers or Marines. In fact, this is already a known problem as the injury and disability rates for women are already high for women not in front line combat units.
This is not some hypothetical because we know what happens to the strongest, best trained and most physically fit men. In fact, a majority of men cannot meet the physical requirements for induction into front line combat units.
Just look at the toll such service takes on the men and multiply by factor of 10 or more to get a prediction of what it will do to women.
This does not even consider the fact that men in the military are exposed to all sorts of nasty chemicals that no women of child bearing age has any business being exposed to.
A most interesting and objective piece, thank you for writing and posting it here.
I understand a strong, capable woman with a desire to push to her limits, to find what she’s made of. I work with some women like that, they’re flight medics. But these women are similar to the kind you mentioned- they’re always feminine but not flirtatious, always capable, but funny as hell. They make mistakes and own up immediately- they never think of blaming anyone else.. They fight themselves, not the world. Anything they have to prove is an inner battle, not against men.The guys they work with are their pals, not their competition.
But war- that’s another story. Too much at stake, too much depends on brotherhood, trust and cohesion.
My son was in Iraq, 101st AB. He chose the infantry after 9-11. He had several reasons. One of them was -infantry is all men. War is tough enough.
While I’m not a great fan of Huckabee, I agree with what he said at the first debate- our national defense is no place to work out social experiments.
Screaming Eagle Mom
Apparently the author is of the opinion that course requirements weren’t lowered, softened, or otherwise modified to accommodate the girls.
That is a bit difficult to believe.
This might interest you...