Key is set a standard ..... Male or female. If the six mile run is 38 minutes then everyone regardless of sex meets that standard.
Same for all qualifications be they physical or mental.
Can’t wait for fat out of shape weaker wannabes when your getting shot at. That’s why some males fail the courses now.
If the standards are lowered on mere PC basis then “special” or “elite” etc is just a lable versus ability.
Meeting physical standards set forth is the key. Do not lower the standards . If a troop, again, male or female , can meet the standards then they should be allowed in.
My opinion...
“Do not lower the standards”
That statement assumes the standards haven’t already been lowered.
As one example, the Army Physical Fitness Test has had two sets of standards for around 3 decades. Due to political pressures, the military is simply incapable of keeping equal standards. They never have been able to do it, and they never will.
Infantry Combat OPS and a six mile run are not the damn same.
For those who have humped the bush through thick bamboo and wait a minute vines,the nam’s(mountains), the swamps in waist deep swamp water with 40 mags of 18 rounds each, some 8 or so grenades from smoke to concussion, to WP, and; we’ve had our ruck loaded down with an extra battery for a PRC 25 plus a 60 mm mortar round, and; add 100 plus M60 7.72 mm rounds dangled around our necks, while carrying some 60-70 plus pounds in our ruck plus extra on our web gear,while walking and sweating all day, then freezing at night, no chance for a bath/shower nor did we want a damn bath/shower as we damn sure did not want the enemy to smell soap or anything.Please Think. We took a pill before every OP that would constipate a horse for 4-5 days, and; we had to take a brown bomber when we came back to even defocate. No one has time to drop his drawers for a crap on a combat OP.It is risky as hell to have to find water as the enemy will be where water is. So drink it out of bomb craters filled with rain. Now, imagine your men getting wounded in waist deep swamp water and you as a LT or CPT are up front next to one who cannot walk due to a leg wound or both. How are you going to carry him and his equipment out of that swamp? What about those leeches that we used to get on our legs, arms and occasional in a private area? Do women want a leeches on them? I do not want my wife nor any woman to go through what I did. I do not want to see 18 women blown to pieces like I did men, nor do I want to see 30 plus wounded or their body parts laying exposed on the ground. I do not want to see any females guts hanging out, nor any private parts blown off. I really do not want to have to take a woman’s fatigue/jungle pants off to try to stop a femoral artery from pumping.
I wish folks would listen to Gen Brady who commanded a medical unit in RVN. He received the CMH, but; he can tell you how woman effected HIS medical BN’s readiness. Medical Evac BN’s are not INFANTRY. They are very damn important. Please google him.