First female general to lead Parris Island Marine base says women can handle combat

washington post ^ | ap

[Morgana]

PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. — The first female Marine Corps general in charge of its tough-as-nails basic training site on Parris Island says she’s confident women in the Corps will be able to handle combat.

Brig. Gen. Loretta Reynolds says the Pentagon’s lifting of the combat exclusion against women earlier this year means commanders will be able to “just use the talent that they have. Just use it where they need it. That’s awesome.”

Reynolds was the first woman to command a Marine base in a combat zone when she was put in charge of Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan in 2010. As head of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force’s headquarters group, she oversaw the base in Helmand province that grew to house 20,000 Marines.

She also commanded a communications battalion in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 in battle-scarred Fallujah.

[man_in_tx]

Thank you for your supportive words! It seems even many conservatives somehow feel a need to defend women in our military academies.

Let the history of our military since they were introduced speak for itself.

[man_in_tx]

I cannot argue with your logic!

Frightening, though it is!

[Bigg Red]

I cannot argue with your logic!

***
How I wish someone would prove that my comment is utter nonsense. It’s strange to have the wish to be called a raving lunatic for a statement I have made.

[man_in_tx]

I understand where you are coming from — implicitly.

[man_in_tx]

Let’s use logic, shall we?

If one woman makes us better, then more women will make us even more so.

If more women will make us more so, then ALL-FEMALE Ranger Companies, SEAL Teams, Special Forces Teams, and Marine Force Recon Battalions will be better yet!

If this is true, I strenuously call upon our PC Military leaders to step to it.

Get those men out of the way, and fill our special forces with females... and... okay.... a few GLBTQ-type males — in the interest of.... DIVERSITY!

Now, I KNOW the Chicoms and Norks will be shaking in their boots (with lust — in anticipation of the rapes they will commit at our women’s expense).

[man_in_tx]

I do have to say that I am somewhat disappointed with US Marine Corps Commandant, Gen Jim Amos.

I actually knew him professionally about 100 years ago. (No: I was not a Marine.) Of course, we lost touch with each other about 99 years ago.

When I knew him, Jim Amos struck me as the real deal — intelligent, sharp, dedicated, physically fit, and a genuine Christian.

He rose daily at 0400 to run before a long day at the office — not something most Marine Corps aviators do.

He had already (obviously) been selected to move up the ranks at the time, so he was soon gone from my obscure orbit.

I sometimes wonder — given the kind of guy he was — why he would not resign over Panetta’s decree (given to all four branches) to get women into every job within three years.

I remember when Generals would resign over principle — though, to be honest, they were usually Army generals.

Somehow, I guess, those days are gone — for both the Army and the Marines.

[Cvengr]

FWIW, they are Force Recon Companies and Recon Bns. Force Recon belonged to the flag ranks, while the Recon Bns were frequently split up in direct support of Grunt Bns and Regts in MEUs and MEBs. Some Force Recon teams are dispatched to MEBs or MEF Fwd, but usually have other missions.

[Cvengr]

Makes you wonder how in one Commandant’s tour, the Marine Corps has now gone to accepting homosexuality and now placing women in infantry billets, and now while Mattis resigns, a female flag rank takes over PI.

The Commandant is responsible for providing the manpower to the CinCs. These records don’t manifest much for performance with integrity.

[FreedomPoster]

>>I have long maintained that it was wrong to allow females to matriculate at our military academies — something that, IIRC — began in the 1970s during VietNam.

It was after Vietnam. The Fall of 1976 was when the first class started, so the class of ‘80 was the first graduating class with women. I knew several people in that class, including the best man in my wedding and one young lady (who I had dated). They were the class ahead of me in high school. Saigon fell in 1975, and we were essentially out of Vietnam by 1973 as a combat force. Some would even say 1972.

Gerald Ford was President and signed the law that enabled women at the service academies that came from a Dem Congress. Dems were holding all the cards politically because of the downfall of Nixon.

It’s worth noting that this went on during the time of the push for the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have been a disaster, and which was stopped largely by conservative Phyllis Schlafly, who is worth reading up on. And of course since she’s a conservative political figure, the Wiki page is a thinly-disguised hit piece. Back in that pre-Internet era, she did it largely with direct mail campaigns and organizing through conservative churches.