This is the first that I have heard of this, I thought that the rifle qualification badges went back to the 1800s, but you guys didn't have them for some reason?
Here they are in 1967, looking like the basic most of us remember.
Posted on 05/09/2015 7:08:14 AM PDT by iowamark
The military is presently under a national spotlight regarding women in combat, with branches testing how women can physically handle grueling physical standards associated with combat arms training. A video going viral adds some interesting context to that. The video shows a U.S. Army captain, who is a woman, completing a 12-mile ruck march on a course that is open to women and outside of the discussion on women in combat arms — the Expert Field Medical Badge course. The competitive decoration is open to soldiers in the medical field and is one of the toughest decorations to earn.
In the video, Capt. Sarah Cudd grinds out the final steps of a 12-mile ruck march that had to be completed in three hours as part of the qualifications for the course. It’s one of the most grueling courses in the Army; a 2013 Army report describes the success rate as just 17%. Cudd, an Army veterinarian, joins those ranks in an extremely motivating fashion.
The video was posted to Facebook April 28, by Capt. Lloyd Mason, whose Facebook page describes him as the program manager for the Expert Field Medical Badge course at Fort Dix, New Jersey. The video has been shared more than 22,000 times since.
It’s fiercely motivating — Cudd can be seen gritting it out just a few dozen feet from the finish line. She crumples to the ground from exhaustion twice, and is slow to rise each time. The determination, however, is palpable, as is the energy and support from the onlooking soldiers who surround her. The crowd’s cheers grow as Cudd gets nearer to the finish line. When she finally crosses it, she’s surrounded by supportive soldiers; the cheers are deafening, and she immediately collapses. The time on the clock reads 2 hours, 46 minutes, and 53 seconds. She had three hours.
The U.S. Army’s Public Health Command shared the video to Facebook days later, saying Cudd “shows us all what ‘never quitting’ looks like.”
The Expert Field Medical Badge course also involves tasks surrounding tactical combat care, medical and casualty evacuation, warrior skills, and communication; as well as a physical fitness test; a land navigation course; weapons qualifications; and a comprehensive written test.
Task & Purpose reached out to a former Army combat medic, Samuel Innocent, who served with the 10th Mountain Division in Fort Drum, New York. He described the course as, “The second-hardest badge in the Army to get outside of the Infantry Expert Badge.”
Ansel, my goal is not to promote females in the military or the fire service, but I do believe in giving credit where credit is due. I have worked with many career military women who were very good at their jobs. In 1945 General Eisenhower stated, “During the time I have had WACs under my command they have met every test and task assigned to them . . . their contributions in efficiency, skill, spirit and determination are immeasurable.” Ansel do you think that Eisenhower was a liberal?
I of course agree that men and women have different capabilities, but that doesn't mean that women “are inferior as military people”. As I am relatively sure that you remember from previous conversations here... my wife and I had a large display for 3 weeks at the Western Washington State Fair this last year honoring Vietnam veterans. It was very well received and attended. According to the Fair people we had an average of 8,000 visitors per day during the 3 weeks that we were there.
One day, there was a guy who stood looking at Marine Corps Colonel's Class A women's uniform along with pictures of the veteran in Vietnam standing along side General Westmoreland. She was the first women Marine officer sent to Vietnam. She made full bird and was a dedicated Marine till the end.
A fat, disheveled, half drunk looking guy started objecting loudly to that part of the display and saying that other than a few nurses there were “NO WOMEN EVER” who were sent to Vietnam. Then he went into a bitter tirade about his objections to women in the military. Ansel, you weren't by any chance visiting Washington State last September? LOL!
Just after he left a group of women Vietnam veterans gathered spontaneously at the same spot. My wife said to them that a man had just left who said that none of them had been to Vietnam. They all wanted to know what he looked like and which direction he had gone. They said they wanted to beat the crap out of him and judging by their fitness level compared to his... I was hoping that they would not be able to find him. Our goal was to honor Vietnam Vets not get them beat up.
We have worked with, and know a lot of recruiters and have even had a couple in the family... you will not find one that will tell you they have ever been given a goal to recruit 50% women. The 2% cap you are referring to was included in the Women's Armed Services Integration Act of 1948. The act was repealed in 1968 not because of “liberals” but because it was a failure and was counter-productive.
So you are one of those who says, I’m not doing this, and then does it with determination and passion, and with nonsensical personal anecdotes.
Did you serve in the military?
You keep repeating that Eisenhower praised the skirt wearing WACs as though that has some meaning or relevancy to the situation that you are pushing today of women not typing and nursing, but instead of being in men’s jobs, that they can’t fully do.
You post so much nonsense, you yourself haven’t even been in the military that you are promoting females to fill, have you?
Ansel as always you are a laugh a minute. There are more jobs in the military today that are appropriate for women than there have ever been. Our niece is heading to Afghanistan in December; she is very good at what she does. Her dad is a Colonel and her mother is a retired 27 year veteran.
As far as “nonsense”... what have you shared other than your typical disparaging remarks. You should try and read your own posts sometimes. There is an unmistakable pattern. I have read them for years and can’t remember you ever sharing a relevant personal experience or any accurate, verifiable facts. You are simply an unhappy bully looking for people to pick on. It is very sad... my wife and I are just getting ready for Church and I will try and remember you in my prayers this morning.
More of your bizarre views.
Actually you don't know what goes on in the military, you just have a harmful agenda that you want to impose on them.
Ansel if you want to discuss this in a rational way in person and you live in the Northwest. This week on Friday we will be doing a presentation honoring veterans at the Lynnwood Senior Center. We will be at the “Heritage Dinner” at the Officers’ Club at McChord AFB on Saturday night. It is very good food and fellowship and open to people from all branches of the military. We will also be setting up a display at the Columbia Tower in Seattle for a USO fund raiser coming up in a couple of weeks.
I honestly am concerned about anyone who spews only vitriolic nonsense online day after day, night after night. If that is all that gives meaning to your life then I believe that you are in really bad trouble and I would like to find you some type of help. Maybe it is time for you to try and cultivate some true meaningful relationships. At the least try to get involved in a VFW or volunteer at the USO... something!
I worry about a man with issues like you seem to have with females being dominant over him physically, spewing troll nonsense on the internet, supporting the left’s goal of feminizing the military.
Your agenda for the military seems to be to harm it and weaken it, you seem to have no respect for it, except to the degree that it serves as an avenue for you to support liberalism within it.
What kept you out of the service?
2 yrs in ROTC and then basic as draftee. We took apart and cleaned M1 rifles. But most of us never touched a bullet, never touched an ammo clip, never went to the rifle range.
In Vietnam (mostly in Pleiku) we in the base camp were issued rifles. But when I went on guard duty in the tower on the perimeter I only had a rifle. No ammo. I had a phone wired to a base response center. I was to phone I n if I saw anything beyond the fence.
I did KP, like most everyone in the base camp. The cook pots were much smaller than the ones I had in the college cafeteria where college coeds and us guys in the kitchen did all jobs interchangably. Indeed, the guys not working in the kitchen described the lifting of heavy pots of food as “womens work”.
I was in the Army and was expert in basic, and I did KP in the Army and saw the commercial sized pots.
What years was it that the Army didn’t train soldiers in using weapons?
ROTC as freshman and sophomore at Wheaton College in 61-63. Drafted and served active 66-67. I got a 1 month early release and left Pleiku 1 week before the Tet Offensive.
This is the first that I have heard of this, I thought that the rifle qualification badges went back to the 1800s, but you guys didn't have them for some reason?
Here they are in 1967, looking like the basic most of us remember.
Nearly every high ranking female officer who has ever confided in me, expressed regrets about the sacrifices they had to make to achieve their positions. Very few had anything resembling a normal family life; most had never married or had children. That leaves many women feeling unfulfilled later in life.
My wife and I have both reminded young women who are thinking about a career in the military about the sacrifices that it takes to achieve a high position. I am not sure how that fits in with the “left’s goal of feminizing the military”. NO one who has ever known me has ever accused me of being a liberal or a leftist.
NO women has ever been physically dominant over me. I am however completely confident in my masculinity and not afraid to share stories of women who have been very good at their jobs.
I have been very fortunate in my life to have met many people who have been in harms way on numerous occasions, people who have been more than willing to make the ultimate sacrifice if need be... true heroes. I invited you to a retired officers meeting this coming Saturday evening where you likely would have met some of these men. None of them would treat people that they don't know with the level of disrespect that you do. When a person finds themselves in situations where one’s survival is far less than certain... promises tend to be made to God that prevent one from behaving badly in the future.
I am not able to recount many of my experiences in a forum such as this. I have been through much that I only discuss with trusted friends who have had similar experiences. I am sorry but I am not willing to even start down that road with a rude person who shares nothing but “troll nonsense” and whose only joy seems to come from trying to impugn the reputations and sacrifices that have been made by others. Your behavior here has been truly reprehensible.
Thanks for describing neurotic unfulfilled women, and this time they are not seeking to beat up Vietnam vets or shaming you physically.
Why won't you answer if you have ever served in the military?
You are wasting time dealing with this fool.
One thing to note is that he was in basic in the mid 60’s. That makes him at least 70 years old. Probably single, certainly disabled, and living in the old, old past. He reads a lot, but has no clue what life is like today. The youngest people he sees on a daily basis are the “colored” girls who bring him his steamed spinach.
He is not worth your time. Really.
Mounted US Special Forces, Afghanistan, c. 2001:
You never know.
LOL, says the liberal troll guy who wants to be known as Lieutenant, and who has never served.
By the way, your racist rant is kind of revealing, lieutenant.
Blah blah blah blah.
You do not know me. You do not know my background.
But we do know you. You are a sad, sad old man. EVERYONE on this site is sick of your bullying garbage.
Why don’t you simply read for a couple of weeks and not post. You add nothing, and you tear down good people. Your posts make people NOT want to be around here.
Judging by your biography of me, you really don’t know much about me.
Lieutenant (non military), do you know what a troll does? He gets on a thread to do just what you did, ignore the thread, ignore the topic, and instead show up purely to make a personal attack on a freeper that he is carrying a grudge against, from thread to thread.
Quit trolling, and quit carrying personal grudges from thread to thread.
I am a troll? How many threads have I come across where you beat people into submission by parsing their words, injecting your own, and brow beating them.
You are a bully. Perhaps the worst on FR.
You are always the first to call names, toss labels on people, and criticize. But you NEVER add anything to the conversation.
People are sick of it. Take a hint from the number of arguments you are in every, single, day.
It would be better if you simply left. It would be great if the power went off in your house. It would be even better if you started watching TV instead of boring us with your vast knowledge of nothing, and your tedious nature.
Please, do us all a favor and go away. You and your little cabal of bullies are no longer welcome here.
Of course you are a troll, look at this thread.
Lieutenant (non military), do you know what a troll does? He gets on a thread to do just what you did, ignore the thread, ignore the topic, and instead show up purely to make a personal attack on a freeper that he is carrying a grudge against, from thread to thread.
No, you were needlessly bullying the other poster. On and on and on. I am going to go where you are and call you on it.
Discussion is fine. What you do is not. I urge other readers to do the same.
There is a possibility you do not realize that you are a bully. I guess that is possible. You should be made aware of it when its happening.
So get used to me showing up and taking the arrows from you so that others don’t have to read your tripe.
And really, calling me silly names is the best you can do? I used to wipe people like you off my shoe after a walk across the back 40.
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