Posted on 08/29/2018 6:50:55 PM PDT by daniel1212
As a medic I was overawed when I arrived at Ft. Sam Houston. There were SO MANY WOMEN. It was like some sort of strange paradise. At first. I realized very quickly that every OTHER company at 232nd Medical Battalion was as high as 70% female.. Very quickly as our combat deployment approached, I became increasingly convinced that my company was in for serious trouble..
Nothing was done to quell my misgivings when two females in the unit essentially got to sit out the deployment by becoming pregnant right before the deployment. During the deployment those doubts and misgivings became full fledged anxiety and fear. When we had incoming the women of my company reacted violently. Almost overnight shaking up occurred. Two of the females lead a campaign against one of the platoon sergeants because they were sure he was acting in a racist manner.
I kept my head down and did my job, and tried to be the best medic I could be, but I utterly HATED the FOB. One woman in an Air Force unit we were colocated with intentionally got herself pregnant so she could go home. What really filled me with outrage is after she got her positive results I overheard her saying she was going to get an abortion as soon as she got home...
Later when I was rotated through MEDDAC I was offered an opportunity to go to West Point. The commander at the time put off writing the recommendation until I was desperate. I ended up having to have the acting commander write the review. Both the commander and acting commander were women and the reviews they wrote made me look like the worst soldier they had ever laid eyes on. My interactions with many of the nurses that were commissioned were negative, especially when my manner was rigid and proper when addressing officers, or of expecting clear and concise orders, and tendency to act immediately or advise them that they were making my assigned duties more difficult than they needed to be.
My second and final deployment as a line medic for an infantry platoon was in many ways the experience I had actually joined the army for. I in no way mean to suggest that combat was joyful, but the way my platoon operated was such a relief. I felt more at home than I ever had in any other unit. During that tour as strange as it may sound I was more stressed on the FOB than I was out in sector, and despite losing guys in truly horrible ways, the platoon was closer, and a tighter group of people. Even when we were given nebulous missions and vague orders it always felt like things got done. We always moved with a sense of purpose.
I think the thing that sealed it for me that made me never want to work in a unit full of women again was something that happened in my first unit after my deployment. As so often happens personnel get rotated out. My platoon went from 20% female to 80%. Within a month all but one were pregnant, injured or proved they couldn’t lift a paperweight and one female medic, myself and one other male ended up doing an entire platoon’s worth of details (with myself and the other male doing all the physical work).
Women are wonderful. They can be talented, and thoughtful. When matched to their aptitudes they can absolutely be an asset to rear echelon units. I have met a few that might be able to keep up with the front line troops if they put in maximum effort. I have not met enough of those women to suggest women on the front lines would be anything other than a bad idea. As much as it pains me to say it, with the exceptions clearly in my mind, I’ve met more than enough of the “bad” females to make me seriously question their inclusion in the army at all.
More than once in my career and after I have heard of minor (and major) infractions being ignored because the person was a woman. I have witnessed women get away with talking back and utter disrespect to officers and NCOs and nothing happened. I have seen the corrosive effect it has on a unit when relationships spring up in a unit. More than once I have witnessed one man forced to do the work of three of his women counterparts because they simply didn’t have the strength, stamina, or in one case fortitude.
As harsh and brutal as it sounds, war is not the place you want anyone to be who is not at their absolute best. Your mission is to do things that can and will kill other people. Sometimes they your own, the enemy or innocent civilians. Screw ups are be lethal. It is neither moral or just to try to shoehorn in women into combat roles because of “equality” when the price of putting unqualified people into those positions is measured in body bags.
Well, I remember hearing from guys in my squadron who were in the same bar as the remarkable woman who dropped the first ordnance on Iraq. Very nice. Then the esteemed warfighter jumped up on the bar and shouted, “Who wants to see the first female pilot to drop bombs on Iraq NAKED?!”
A guy couldn’t do that my friends.
My answer: Admin and medical support only.
Typically the work routinely involved moving multiple loads of up to 150 lbs vertically in the personnel access hatch (PAH) which was a 30 foot long and 30 inch wide access shaft and ladder combination. These loads were tools, fixtures and spares necessary to keep the missile launch facility (LF) operational.
Of the five women initially assigned, two immediately requested REMF jobs and never worked in the field. Both were single mothers and wanted to have more time with their kids. Two became pregnant by their team mates who deployed to the field with them and also later were assigned to shop jobs (scheduler and training coordinator) because of the pregnancies. One later requested a discharge.
The remaining woman was the smallest of the group, nudging 5'2 and weighing no more than 90 lbs. She actually held her own and did it very well. Obviously she needed help with heavier lifting but she never quit and never complained. She also eventually married her maintenance teammate but never had kids and stayed on the job.
We kept on getting ones and twos after each tech school class graduated (about 9 months) but they would soon disappear into wing jobs or other squadron duties.
Neah Neah dear FRiend. While the men are fighting you can send them to go make you all a “samich”
It sounds to me like this guy has a chip on his shoulder. In my 18 years in the military, I have never run into those behaviors.
Most medical units do have a high number of women. That’s because medical personnel are not combatants.
Also, I do not think that the current fad with trying to get women into combat is going to last long. The fact is, even the strongest women are no match for most men.
I am also a veteran...
Unfortunately I saw a lot of this misconduct and behavior among the females when I served during Nam...
Being late or coming to work drunk or bringing their children with them and expecting someone else to work their shift was another tactic...
Or finally arriving then sleeping on the job while men had to do their work...
To make matters worse the take up the the cushy REMF jobs that used to be used as REWARDS for coming off of arduous and dangerous duty assignmants. It's bad all they way around.
When I was in the Air Force in the early 1970s we were notified that we were going to have 2 women in the shop. Everyone was excited/curious.
Mainly, it went OK but one day we sent one of them out to remove a fairly heavy unit (about 30 lbs.) from an aircraft but she came back without it. WTF we asked her. She said she unfastened it but it was too heavy for her to lift out of the cockpit, so we had to send one of the guys out to bring it back to the shop. Sorry liberals, but men and women are different.
The nurses at the forward evac hospitals were fantastic. For a week it kept receiving rocket/mortar fire and they had to get all the patients they could out of bed and on the floor below the sandbag line. I couldn’t be put on the floor because if a chest tube for a collapsed lung so this little 5ft nothing nurse stayed at my bedside till the all clear. I’m with Chainmail, I wouldn’t have wanted her in the bush on patrol with us, but she was fantastic at where she was and what she was doing. 50 years ago it seems matching MOS and assignments in the field was a bit more straightforward without the political ‘I wonder how this would work’ they seem to through now.
EOD is Explosives Ordinance Detachment in the US Army.
Ugly BUT did she do her job and do it well?
Most of the jobs in the military are not front-line combat positions. They're support positions. Keeping the ammo ordered, the spare parts coming, the equipment working, the paychecks and benefits to family members accurate. Mending broken bodies.
In the aviation field, I will say that some of the best air framers I've ever worked with have been women. Some of the best jet engine mechanics I've known have been women. I know fighter pilots who ask for these women specifically by name when they need their airplane fixed.
And here's another thing to chew on. Having a women in the rear taking care of supply and paychecks frees up a man for the front lines and women have been doing these roles since the Civil War.
I believe it's also related the whole tranny issue. Rather than muddle out who is allowed to do what (can a female-to-male tranny be allowed to serve in an infantry company, because the leftwing sacraments have made it a man, or is that person not allowed because it's still a women in reality?) Somebody just decided to say eff it and let everybody do everything.
Those cushy REMF jobs used to be used for a reward after coming off of a hard,dangerous or arduous duty assignments. Now split tails are camping out in those nice jobs.
Women are the last resort in any military, only for providing logistical support behind the lines when all able bodied male warriors have been exhausted. When you need someone to guard the home bases and factories because all the men have been sent to distant shores or the borders of your country to stave off or fight back an invasion.
Women create life, they are not supposed to take it away, and forcing them to do so is an abomination.
I stated my position.
The politicians don’t care if it works or not - it’s all about the identity politics.
When it comes to most men, there is sure to be a woman out there somewhere who can perform the same physical task at the same tempo. That man just might have to look hard to find one, but for most average guys, you might have to search a bit to find one. Go around half the ship.
But if an average guy wants to find a guy who can perform the same physical task at the same tempo, sometimes all they have to do is look to their left or right. So yes...there is always a woman who can perform physical tasks at the same tempo as an average guy.
But the negatives from a mission capability, logistics, and unit cohesion perspective aren't worth it, IMO.
:)
And I stated mine. Sexual Dimorphism isn’t just a hipster band from Seattle.
Go make me a “samich” and get off your cotton pony missy. Given where you are from, make it a grilled cheese.
LOLOL.
Now that you are triggered, women are fine in support roles, but front line combat? Hell no. Unless you are taking former womens East German swimmer PED’s you are not as strong as most men. Most men shouldn’t be on the front lines. Only the toughest roughest strongest rat bastards should be. This goes for combat aircraft too.
(-;
Someone has to make the samichs
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