Posted on 01/27/2013 4:53:00 PM PST by NKP_Vet
WALLACE: And hello, again, from Fox News in Washington.
Colonel Martha McSally was our nation's first female combat pilot, logging 325 hours in the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan and she joins us from Tucson.
Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin was one of the original members of the Army's Delta Force and former head of the U.S. Special Forces Command.
Colonel, General, welcome to "Fox News Sunday." I have to say, I have been looking forward to this discussion.
RET. LIEUTENANT GENERAL JERRY BOYKIN: Thank you very much, Chris.
RET. COLONEL MARTHA MCSALLY: So have I. Thanks for having us on.
WALLACE: Right. Here's how Defense Secretary Panetta explained his decision this week. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEON PANETTA, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Not everyone is going to be able to be a combat soldier. But, everyone is entitled to a chance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: General Boykin, you dismissed this as another case of the Pentagon using the military for a social experiment. I'd like you to tell Colonel McSally directly, knowing her background, look into the camera and tell her why she is unfit to serve in combat.
BOYKIN: Well, Chris, you need to frame it correctly. It's not an issue of women in combat. Women are in combat already and have been since 9/11, in fact, prior to that. And Colonel McSally is a great example of how women can be used effectively in combat. General Boykin has said. be considered for what they bring to the fight.
WALLACE: Well, let me just --
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“Chair” force officer...
Her, not you. ;)
You should do a little research before spouting.
The IDF made this mistake long ago and now do not allow women into their special forces, infantry, or armor.
I saw this and it is exactly how she came across.
No time (or habit) to read the article. Is McSally, as the name indicates, a female?
Yeah, that’s the thing about being an Air Force pilot ... on a good day, you go back to hot steaks, cold beer, and an air-conditioned hooch.
On a bad day, you end up dead.
On a really bad day, you end up bunking with John McCain and dining with Hanoi Jane.
The point is that ground combat specialties have intense physical requirements that most women and most men can't do. Women can't because they are big enough or strong enough. Most men that can't for the exact same reasons. If we ever sacrifice that standard then we will get extra people killed in this war and the next.
I already fear for the Navy. Bombs don't get lighter, fires don't get cooler just because you are weaker. It doesn't matter if 99.9% of your career is spent banging away at a keyboard if you get killed during that .1% when you needed to move a huge piece of metal or close a water tight door to survive.
I agree with one thing, privacy is an invalid argument. Screw privacy.
There are two problems
1) the standards will be relaxed for women. Perhaps not officially but commanders will be required to explain why the job can’t be done by a woman, and no answer will be adequate. Women already have lower standards for every measurement of physical fitness in all the branches.
2) discipline. Put young men and young women together and they will do what young men and women do. It will hurt moral and lead to real and false charges of assault.
In the end it will damage readiness and cost lives.
How many of those hours were spent actually delivering ordance on target?
During those 325 hours how many USAF aircraft were lost to direct enemy action?
Several years ago I almost bumped into an female AF LtCol. At that time ACC aircrew wore stars on the cuffs of their flight suits to denote total flying time and combat hours. When I asked about her combat time I discovered it was as a Lt. on AWACS aircraft miles behind the lines. When I down played her combat time she asked about me. Said my first hours of combat time were earned as a Lt, the the belly of a BUFF, over Vietnam. After she recovered he balance I said: “There's Combat time and then there's combat time.” And left her with an open mouth.
Not so. She ran as a conservative here in AZ in the last election and lost to a super liberal democrat, Giffords right hand man. Having said that I still do not want to put women into hard core ground combat. I have seen too much damage done by scheming females on board ships and in other areas where propinquity creates tension. " A Fire in the paint locker" so to speak.
An important aspect of this which isn’t often discussed by the feminists is: What can our female combatants expect when they captured by our current enemies?
I imagine it won’t be dinner and a movie.
Wonder if there will be quotas, too? Not enough women passed the physical tests? Why? Must be something wrong.
“Wonder if there will be quotas, too? Not enough women passed the physical tests? Why?”
Why? Because the commander, first sgt, senior enlisted and so on are trying to keep women out. They’ll all receive a letter.
I find it amazing this was done without Congressional input.
Perfectly stated.
>>1) the standards will be relaxed for women. Perhaps not officially but commanders will be required to explain why the job can’t be done by a woman, and no answer will be adequate.
You are quite correct! As with everything this regime has done, the unspoken truth is the most important part. McSally said that only “qualified” women should fill combat roles, but we all know that when enough “qualified” women are not available, there will be questions as to why women fail to qualify. Then, the standards will start to drop, unofficially of course!
If women are such great war-fighters, then lets just form Amazon units and let them fight on a level playing field with the male units. This would be a great opportunity to prove the equality of the sexes.
Wallace sounds a little combative to the general. Fox has become another “news” network conservatives should avoid.
Why not put a man and a woman of the same weight in a boxing ring and any woman that beats the man gets to train for the Infantry.
How many of those hours were spent actually delivering ordance on target? NONE
During those 325 hours how many USAF aircraft were lost to direct enemy action? NONE
If you read her history it says she first flew into combat during Desert Storm. What combat? The Iraqi Air Force NEVER engaged us in combat. What few planes they had flew straight out of Iraqi airspace. Desert Sheild/Storm was a turkey shoot. And, when she deployed to Afganistan, what kind of aircraft did she encounter? What kind of SAMs, other than ragheads throwing rocks at her? The Air Force has basically had no mission in Enduring Freedom, except medivac and cargo.
McSally commded, and flew in an
A-10 Warthog squadron.
One of the more interesting aspects I have personal knowledge of is the reluctance of some women to join these warfare specialities. I had a three star tell me one of the disappointing problems they were having was getting women to take pilot slots. Even when offered a pilot slot many of them chose a flight officer slot instead. Neither of us could fathom wanting to be in a plane and not be at the controls. When I went through Annapolis the available ship driver billets for women went unfilled as many of them chose shore jobs.
Well that proves my point. How many tanks and armored vehicles did the Iraqis have or Afganis have for a warthog to shoot at?
that is what we always said in the Army, the air force was the “chair force” and if you stood around with your hands in your pockets that was “air force gloves”
Martha didn’t fly in Desert Storm. She deployed to Kuwait in 1995, after the war, and flew less than 100 hours patrolling the peaceful skies of Iraq. To put it in perspective, I was also flying then, in 111s, and once flew 90 hours in 17 days. That should give an idea of how little she did in her “first combat tour”. It wasn’t until a few years later that the Iraqis started shooting at us on patrol.
So the rest of her “combat time” was flying over Afghanistan in 2004, unopposed. She never faced organized AAA, never faced a SAM, and never faced an enemy air force. She lived and worked out of a base with 10,000 Americans. She could eat pizza every night if she wished, or Baskin-Robbins ice cream. She had private quarters.
You have the best argument.
You have the best argument.
You have the best argument.
You have the best argument.
You have the best argument.
Sorry! Don’t know what happened!
” the air force was the “chair force””
Yeah thats what I always say about those Forward Air Controllers. You know the guys who went into Afghanistan before the marines or army. Attached to the Afghan army they called in strike after strike all while basically being the only Americans for a few hundred miles.
Oh well, I was in when the world was safe for democracy and we were of course, spoiled and dumb. Sorry, didn’t mean to offend. Yes, I am aware that the pilots are always the ones who get shot down behind enemy lines and imprisoned. Had no clue about air traffic controllers—that is interesting to know.
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