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Last time I was a commander over a training CO (2005 Ft Knox) - I started seeing that...and actually - since you brought that up — I was conducting range op’s for the M16A2 - and it had rained - and the firing positions were full of water - and out of the soldiers coming through that week...I was asked by the COL who showed determination and stood out as a soldier — there was only one I could think of - a female that once in the water never moved - laid there - and finished her entire firing course until done - everyone else was either laying to the side or would get up between lanes....

Which goes back to my other comment - as an MP - females I served with in combat (Iraq 03-04) - did what everyone else was doing,...one that I served with in FT Leonard Wood lost her arm from a RPG...perhaps the 11B series is on the brink of collapse due to no one wanting it - or no those that sign up are far from ever achieving it...

I have served with really outstanding female service personnel and like you, I have observed some females who were more professional than a whole pack of males. The difference is direct combat. It is a whole different environment than any other human experience and it requires an almost superhuman set of capabilities. There is a tendency among combat support and combat service support specialties to look down on the "lowly grunt" but the infantryman has to have the capabilities, the wits, the team and the talent to win and survive while doing it. Infantry is no place for the weak, the stupid, or the distracted. A buddy of mine once said that we have three types of combat troop; the Killer, the Filler and the Fodder. Killers amount to no more than 20% - they are the ones that can retain their focus in the nightmare of a firefight and actually aim their weapons and kill their enemies. Fillers make noise, a lot of noise, and if you're lucky, they don't hit you or bystanders. They make up the main proportion of people on the line. Fodder are going to die no matter what you do for them. They are the ones that didn't pay attention to their training, walk on the skyline, don't dig in when you stop, smoke at night, open gates, walk in the middle of the trail, etc.

Adding ladies adds yet more complication. Now we will have the young men focusing on something other than what they have to be focused on and we will have less success and more dead and wounded.

I admire the patriotisim, honor, and fidelity of the young ladies who would volunteer for this duty but combat is not the right place for them.