Posted on 10/08/2014 8:46:16 AM PDT by Sean_Anthony
The Obama administration's plan for a new military quota system and lowering standards, Americans must demand an end to this dangerous, ideology-driven military policy
The Center for Military Readiness (CMR) has released a 64-page report analyzing ongoing research by the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) about the effectiveness of integrating women into direct ground combat (DGC) units. The Interim CMR Special Report pokes a giant hole in the Obama administration’s assertions that standards of effectiveness can be maintained irrespective of the biological differences between men and women.
In January 2013, with all the attendant fanfare, Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta lifted a 1994 ban on women serving in smaller DGCs, insisting that “women are contributing in unprecedented ways to the military’s mission of defending the nation.” The move was recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and each branch of service has until January 2016 to seek special exemptions to the change. Panetta argued that women already make up 15 percent of the military and have already faced “the reality of combat.” He further insisted everyone is entitled to see if they can meet the qualifications for being in a DGC.
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
I have a unique perspective on this. I attended West Point, and women did the Infantry training along with us.
And these weren’t ‘average’ women. Most had excelled as athletes in high school.
How did they do? Not as good as the men.
And in real combat, ‘not as good’ is a very bad thing.
We’re just built different. Political correctness can’t change that.
bkmk
The only case for lowering physical standards to allow more women (and weaker men) into ground combat roles is when you need to militarize the whole population to repel an enemy.
Israel is in this position.
The USA is not.
As a former Infantryman and squad leader, I can tell you that the vast majority of MEN can’t hack the physical demands of the job. Your normal high school kid in the 80’s had to spend weeks of intense physical training in order to get into shape. Even then, we washed out 30% of my class. I’m told that today, many are in such poor physical shape that they have to be sent to a remedial course before going to Infantry school. I can’t even guess the wash out rate now.
How many can run/jog for 3 miles without stopping even if they are not timed? Not many I would venture. How many can do 10 correct push ups or pull ups? Even fewer. My comments are not gender based, rather an observation on the current generation.
When I graduated Infantry school, at a minimum you had to complete a timed 5 mile run, pass the PT test (40 push ups, 40 sit ups, 2 mile run in 16:00 min) and pass a 15 mile forced march with battle rattle (35 lbs ruck, weapon, harness, water, etc). And that was just good enough to get you assigned to a regular Infantry unit. Airborne, Air Assault, Ranger, Green Berets, etc all required even tougher standards.
Didnt the first class with women at the Point result in them ending the traditional 20 ? Mile march with full packs and gear because not one female could finish it?
“Airborne, Air Assault, Ranger, Green Berets, etc all required even tougher standards.”
I have some bad news for you. I went to Airborne school in 1990. Outside every mess hall in the Airborne training area, there is a pull up bar. We had to do a certain number of pull ups before entering for chow. There was a purpose to this - with the T10C parachute, you steered by pulling on the risers with your arms, and it took a lot of upper body strength.
But there were women there. So alongside every pull up bar, there was another one, around 3 feet off the ground. The women would lie down underneath the bar, and do a fake pull up. I guess they didn’t have to steer?
Another story. Before we jumped, the jumpmaster would check your parachute. This involved running his hands along the harness, through the crotch area, to make sure your straps weren’t crossed (crossed straps could slice your private parts in two when the chute opened). Every part of the pre-jump inspection involved physically touching the rigging, and this was no exception...
...until one day our Jumpmaster was a female. She skipped that part of the inspection.
BTW, many women pass Airborne and Air Assault School. Most are cadets, either West Point or ROTC...or members of support units in the 82nd or 101st.
Both schools involve a lot of fear, and Air Assault involved a huge ‘suck factor’...but really they weren’t as demanding as regular Infantry training. We slept indoors every night.
I’m not exactly sure what you are referring to. You may be referring to when the Plebes march back from Lake Frederick to the barracks, after they complete summer training. I think that was about 18 miles.
They followed the group with trucks, and people who fell out got in the truck. Even though 10% of the group was women, they were the majority in the trucks.
I was the tallest in my squad, meaning I marched in the very back. And the shortest was a woman, who was at the front. Over the course of the road march, she started to fall back. The cadre would tell the guy behind her to push her and not let her fall back...but she eventually worked her way through 12 people and was directly in front of me. And I absolutely was not allowed to let her get behind me. So I ended up taking her M-14 (now carrying two including my own), and physically pushing her up a large hill. She still couldn’t take it, so somebody else took her pack (now carrying two). And we both pushed her up the hill.
This was a big hill, and when we got to the top, we all took a break for water. The cadre (who had been nearly starving us for weeks) came to this woman and gave her some quick energy food to prepare her for the walk down. I kept the rifle, the other guy kept the pack, and eventually we made it.
I have very specific memory of this road march, btw. It was blazing hot, we were filthy after a week in the field, half starved, the cadre were constantly yelling at us...but it was a benchmark event, as it meant we had completed summer training. As we entered the main post area, we went up Thayer Road, which is lined on one side by officer housing. The officer wives were so horrified at what we looked like, they started hosing us down with garden hoses as we passed by - just to cool us off. It was great.
I was in a mech unit in Germany. 1st Bn 52nd Infantry. We had a “hard charging” Ranger get assigned to our unit for his overseas tour. For weeks all we heard was how BA the Rangers were and how they would do this or that in a fight. How they didn’t need “cars” to carry them around.
Our next training was gunnery at Grafenwoehr. Our Ranger buddy got to see the full firepower of a mech platoon. Four M2s, 4 Dragons, 8 M60’s, 8 M203’s, and a dozen or so M-16..... firing the full battle complement of ammunition. After that one platoon finished their live fire, our Ranger buddy turn to us with a rather pale look and said that he was glad that he would never have to attack one of our defended positions.
A good article but who thinks Obama cares about genuine military readiness?
Women are wonderful people and bless them for having the patriotism to contemplate joining the infantry - but it would only bring disaster if it is enacted.
1. We have already addressed the physical side of this discussion but for some reason our "leaders" seem to think that infantry combat has become clean and sanitary, like a video game. It isn't clean and sanitary and at it's best is carefully choreographed murder. Infantry kill people and often get killed in the process. It's what they do. We have enormous trouble getting normal young men to break that psychological barrier, good luck with young women.
2. Magic. All of our young men and women are loaded with hormones and if we place them in close quarters in some fly-infested dungheap under life or death stress, magic will happen. When there are some members of a unit getting lucky, the other unlucky members hate the lucky ones. Those who have their lover in the same unit will do their best for that person - and usually at the expense of the rest of the unit. There is no place for magic among combatants.
3. More on the physical standards. They are really too light as they are now. Look at the video of troops operating in Afghanistan now: loaded like pack mules with helmet/armor, water, ammunition, grenades, rockets, mortar ammunition, medical kits, food all in well over 100 degree heat at high altitudes. If you aren't fully up to the best physical shape possible, you'll lag behind, causing the unit to lag behind with you.
It's a bad idea, period and we need to fire any military leaders behind this scam.
Combat outside the wire isn’t the most sanitary thing, either. Nobody’s talking about that.
No, but it can prevent anyone from pointing it out (unless you are here on FR).
My question is this: if women are incapable of stopping a fellow college student they know from having sex with them, how on God's green earth are they going to stop a guy intent on killing them in combat? There won't be any Moonbat Brown and some cockamamie law there to help them.
Fudging the standards and winking and nodding won't save these women in combat. We are not doing them a favor.
Israel does not use women in forward combat positions.
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