Ref: “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.”
Your comments reflect the cynicism I and many other men developed over the course of our military careers — and it always cast a shadow of doubt about such integration. I really believe General Odierno wanted to avoid the pit falls of previous experiments which lowered the standards. He developed the best program structure to ensure the best possibility of success and failure on a level playing field with the same standard. When we look at the fact that they could only find 100 women from across the Army who could meet the screening standard to attempt pre-Ranger and then only two percent of those could go on to complete the course,I do not believe we will see a massive influx of unqualified women. The integrity of the program has been preserved and the fighting ability of the Regiment maintained.
That said, the real test will come from the Rangers in their class. There are a lot people expressing their doubts about the standards and the actual performance of the women as Ranger students. But so many of them do not have first hand observations. When we see their classmates and the Ranger Instructors who graded them refusing to wear their tabs and saying they did not meet the standards and were passed anyway, then we will know they did not meet the standard. v/r Bill
Did we see any aviators in the Navy refuse to wear their insignia as a result of the Cary Lohrenz or Kara Hultgren?