Free Republic

An Army officer writing in a prestigious journal says the services should not overemphasize physical strength when deciding whether a woman qualifies for direct ground combat. Col. Ellen Haring, on the staff of the U.S. Army War College, says commanders need to downplay obstacle courses and judge a service member’s ability to stay calm and think quickly. The Pentagon has lifted its ban on women serving in the infantry, tanks and special operations, and the branches are examining all their physical standards in preparation for introducing women into these units in 2015. Some military analysts fear the Pentagon will discard...

Senior military personnel are considering now giving women different military training than men, The Washington Times reports. The effort was proposed by Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Niki Tsongas at a recent House Armed Services Committee hearing because so far, she says training systems do not “maximize the success of women.” Though the armed services have promised that combat standards will be the same regardless of gender, senior officers are considering initially separate training systems. Army Lt. Gen. Howard Bromberg, serving as deputy chief of staff for personnel, considers separate training programs to be more about considering all soldiers as individuals, citing...

A third pair of female Marine lieutenants has failed to complete the Corps’ Infantry Officer Course at Quantico, Va. The Marine Corps Times embedded a reporter with the latest class of candidates. It reported Wednesday that one of the women was pulled for falling behind schedule. The other made it to the course’s end but did not meet its standards, as did six men, the newspaper said. Corps commanders have said they will not lower standards to ensure that women can qualify for direct ground combat units. The Pentagon last winter lifted the ban on women in such jobs, but...

(CNSNews.com) - Why shouldn't women in the military have the same opportunities as men do? Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel asked on Thursday. It's not a matter of lowering standards, he said. In remarks at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, Hagel was asked how he feels about putting females on the front lines of combat -- "based on our social background of men being the protectors of women," as the questioner put it. Hagel's reponse: First, I think everyone understands, and this is the right thing, we can't lower standards. We have high standards. We should have high standards. Our...

Military leaders are ready to begin tearing down the remaining walls that have prevented women from holding thousands of combat and special operations jobs near the front lines. Under details of the plans obtained by The Associated Press, women could start training as Army Rangers by mid-2015 and as Navy SEALs a year later. The military services have mapped out a schedule that also will include reviewing and possibly changing the physical and mental standards that men and women will have to meet in order to quality for certain infantry, armor, commando and other front-line positions across the Army, Navy,...

Well, it appears that TRADOC is now well into the process of attempting to destroy the greatest armed force that the world has ever known. Training and Doctrine Command has launched “two major efforts in support of this full integration of women soldiers.” TRADOC has started a scientific review working with U.S. Army Medical Command, U.S. Army Research Institute for Environmental Medicine and Army Research Institute to assist in the development of gender-neutral physical standards for all Areas of Concentration for commissioned officers and military occupational specialties for enlisted soldiers.In addition, the “TRADOC Analysis Center is examining the institutional and cultural...

PARRIS ISLAND, SC (WMBF) - The next war fought by American troops will be fought by men and women on the front line. Today, women are allowed - even encouraged - to serve wherever they're needed. And that has every branch of the military racing to develop a plan to make sure they are not only willing to fight, but ready for the job physically and emotionally. At Parris Island the new role of women in the Marine Corps is changing tradition and attitudes about training at one of the nation's premier boot camps. It has never has been training...

In January, Obama’s soon-to-resign Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that women will be assigned to combat missions in the U.S. military. The object, we were told, was “to provide a level, gender-neutral playing field” so that women can enter combat positions, since not being permitted to fight holds back careers. This assumes that the purpose of the military is advancing careers, not defending the country. Thus, women will march alongside men into the meatgrinder of war if Congress doesn’t stop it. Feminists have been pushing for the change for at least 20 years. In 1992, the Presidential Commission on the...

Former Tucson lawmaker Terri Proud, who was just hired by the state Veterans' Services Department, was fired Wednesday in the wake of her statement in a news story that menstrual cycles might be too problematic for women to be in combat. The department director who hired her has resigned. Joey Strickland submitted his resignation letter on Tuesday, shortly after the Arizona Sonora News Service story on Proud appeared in the Star. Proud was a personal appointee of Strickland's to the $40,000 administrative assistant position and didn't go through a formal hiring process. She was terminated Wednesday, before she even officially...

The only two women to participate in the Marine Corps Infantry Officer Course (IOC) failed ongoing tests to determine which infantry positions should be available to women, according to the Marine Corps Times: The women failed the introductory Combat Endurance Test, a punishing test of physical strength and endurance, officials at Marine Corps headquarters said Tuesday. The latest class began March 28 at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., with 110 lieutenants participating. Ninety-six men passed the initial endurance test. Twelve men and two women — the only female Marines taking part — failed. The two women both volunteered to participate...

Did anyone else hear Gen Dempsey's interview on NPR yesterday afternoon? He said that they had to bring women into combat, as only one in four young males in our nation were eligible for enlistment due to the national dropout rate and the increased number of legal problems experienced in the young male demographic. Therefore, they had to allow women to enter previously restricted combat fields in order to meet the military requirements. He stated that the physical standards for these fields needed to be "dusted off" and re-examined, as it might be possible that intellectual and other personal attributes...

Seven Myths About “Women in Combat" Written by G.S. Newbold, Lieutenant General, USMC (Ret.) 17 March 2013 Published here with permission from the author. Written By: G.S. Newbold, Lieutenant General, USMC (Ret.) Marine photo / Cpl. Jennifer Pirante Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Michelle Berglin trains for an upcoming deployment at Camp Pendleton in January. Myth #1 – “It’s about women in combat.” No, it’s not. Women are already in combat, and are serving well and professionally. The issue should be more clearly entitled, “Women in the infantry.” And this is a decidedly different proposition. Myth #2 – “Combat has changed”...

President Obama and Sandra Fluke both callthemselves lawyers and “reproductive rights activists” without giving you any indication that they understand the Constitution or basic biology. I’m not a lawyer, but I understand the Constitution. I’m not a reproductive rights activist, but Iaced Biology 101. So I can tell you that Sandra and Barack are wrong when they classify women in combat and contraception as “women’s issues.” Military combat and contraception coverage are not women’s issues. They are freedom issues and freedom is just as important to men as it is to women. Liberals love dismissing “freedom issues” as “women’s issues”...

Truth To VAWA: Libs wink at violence against women by Daniel Clark Congressional Republicans’ halfhearted resistance to the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act has been portrayed as evidence of the GOP’s “War on Women” – a campaign that we know exists because Jay Leno’s wife tells him so, and that’s corroboration enough to satisfy most news editors. The bill would have sailed through, if not for the addition of several Democrat amendments. The most controversial of these allows non-Indian men who are accused of assaulting American Indian women on reservations to be tried by the tribal courts, thereby...

The real war against women is the announced plan of the Obama administration, using outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta as the fall guy, to assign women for the first time in American history to fight our nation’s enemies in military ground combat. That’s real war, with real guns, real bullets and real deaths. This war doesn’t involve only women who have volunteered to serve in our military. It’s a real war against all 18-year-old American girls, because for the first time in our nation’s history they will be required to sign up for the draft and be ready for...

The military leadership is proving to be a solid ally of President Obama in political Washington, adopting his social revolution and willing to serve as backdrops to the White House's campaign-style drive to win the budget battle with Republicans. The armed forces have launched an unrelenting lobbying effort on Capitol Hill with a flood of briefing charts to defense staffers. They show the damage that automatic budget cuts called "sequestration" would do to the troops -- and to jobs in congressional districts. The charts coincide with the White House push to blame congressional Republicans for the spending cuts, which begin...

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says that he is hopeful that making the combat roles of women official will create a greater environment of respect for women, which in turn may have an impact on instances of sexual harassment and assault. “I believe it's because we've had separate classes of military personnel, at some level,” he said at a press conference Thursday. General Dempsey was quick to add that sexual assault is “far more complicated than that – but when you have one part of the population that is designated as warriors and another part...

This one’s long but stick with it. The good stuff doesn’t start happening until after we’re treated to the thousandth iteration of Charlie Rangel’s master plan to end war as we know it by reinstituting a military draft which virtually no one supports and which Congress will never again feel safe voting for. A draft which, incidentally, he thinks should now include women: “Now that women can serve in combat they should register for the Selective Service alongside their male counterparts,” Rangel said in a statement. “Reinstating the draft and requiring women to register for the Selective Service would compel...

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says Hillary Clinton inspired his decision to allow women in combat. “And in many ways, I have to tell you, it was her inspiration that encouraged me to move forward to be able to bring down the last barriers for women in the Department of Defense and to give them the ability to have a chance to engage in combat. I thank you for that inspiration,” Panetta told Clinton at a Pentagon ceremony on Thursday. …

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he would “feel not only comfortable but proud” if he had a daughter serving in a front-line combat position in the U.S. military. … Sen. McCain has seven children, including four sons and three daughters. His son Jimmy served in the Marine Corps and two others—Jack and Doug—are or were Navy pilots. …