Total B.S. My wife is seriously one of the best female athletes alive and one of the few women I have known that could do it.
If the standards were not lowered in any way, I estimate that maybe 3 out 100 servicewomen could do this. Of those 3, 2 would be physically broken before the end of a four year stint in the infantry. Sorry, women’s bodies are just not designed to carry 100 lbs of gear on long marches and jump out planes with said gear.
They would just forbid packs above a certain weight. Or force everyone into vehicles no matter how it would affect the mission.
My daughter made it into the SFPD academy. The physical standards to do so were VERY high. The academy is 8 months and VERY tough. She is VERY smart and DAMN tough. She left during the last 3 weeks because of an injury (and was asked multiple times to come back again).
What does she say about combat? No. Bad idea. Women aren’t physically designed for it.
Yeah, she can take down a man outweighing her by 100 pounds. But she can’t carry him any distance while wearing a full complement of combat gear.
PS: I love the irony of San Francisco having just about the toughest police training in the country. Schizo town.