The onky thing that should matter is if the SHTF and their post is overrun, then they can pick up a weapon and point it in the direction of the enemy and return fire.
As long as they can expect and fully understand that they enemy will surely single them out for prolonged torture in earshot of their comrades and be fully aware our troops have to be trained to resist exactly this sort of pressure, sure, let them.
Paraplegics can do that.
Yeah, that’s what non grunts think, “can they point a weapon and shoot?”. The problem comes when they get pregnant a week before a deployment and leave holes in your trained up squad. Or when they get pregnant while deployed.
Or when they flirt and get attention from NCOs and Officers....
You are a grunt, burning shitters, and you never seem to notice her getting that duty.
Your wives send you off with females to an emotionally intense environment. THAT’S good for morale.
Its a lot more than “can they shoot”.
In the real world, under the yellow sun, grunt work is a lot of hard physical manual labor. It is long long periods of time stuck away in boring places. Both of those are huge trouble if you have women there.
Shooting weapons is the sexy part everyone sees. But there’s a lot more to it than that.
“The onky thing that should matter is if the SHTF and their post is overrun, then they can pick up a weapon and point it in the direction of the enemy and return fire.”
Cool! We can stop wasting all that money on weeks of BCT, and just have a rifle range to qualify for getting in to the military.
But wait, the current and likely future administrations don’t want civilians to know how to shoot rifles...
I cannot tell if this is sarcasm, so I’ll bite:
The ability to fire a weapon is about 5% of combat arms activity. Being able to hump your own sack, carry a buddy, haul a mortar base plate, etc.
It’s not as simple and easy peasey as that. Would that it
were. - In combat, there are situations that call for
upper body strength that women do not possess.
Over 20 yrs. ago, a retired Army medical officer stated
that his unit got the “bug-out” order; which meant they had
to load a lot of heavy medical equipment on trucks. The
unit was mostly nurses and medical staff. The could not lift
the heavy machines. - They did not bug out. - In battle
conditions, you cannot just refuse to do whatever is needed.
If your buddy is wounded in combat, you may have to throw
him across your shoulder and lug him out to get him out of
the line of fire and to medical help ASAP. Try that as a
110 lb. female attempting to lift a 230 lb. male (or
heavier). Wishes are not reality.
Anyone whose base is being overrun can pick up a gun. But can they be inserted into enemy territory, and function all day for weeks on end with brutally heavy loads? If they are attacked by a man with a knife, as my SIL was, can they win in hand-to-hand fighting? Can they carry a 210 lb man out of harm’s way?
Infantry isn’t about picking up a gun and shooting it somewhere.
Why is that the only thing that should matter?
That is a low standard. Defense is less physically demanding than offense. To oversimplify it- you pick a good spot, set up good fields of fire, dig in, and wait for the SHTF.
It is the offense, moving by foot over distance and rough terrain (mountains, swamp, forest, jungle, etc...). Carry a heavy load that distance that can exceed 100 lbs of gear. Once you arrive, drop the gear where told, then advance to overrun some other poor bastard and make the SHTF for them.
There are few things in life more physically demanding and draining than an infantry foot march over distance and terrain.