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.
That isn’t what my CCW instructor said.
I think women should be allowed to pilot planes in high-intensity, crisis situations - like this Christian woman did:
I had the privilege of working with vets getting back into civilian life, and the statement you replied matches almost verbatim what an Army Ranger with numerous combat deployments under his belt, told me.
This link better:
And I should clarify that I’m not being sarcastic in this instance, what was the record of this CCW instructor that his/her opinion is worth something?
THere won’t be enough fit men because they have feminized the military.
Men are not attracted to the idea of serving with women like this, generally.
It used to be, appropriately, a macho and gung ho thing - “The Marines Are Looking For a Few Good Men.”
Now the miserable stories above. Not attractive to most.
Not getting enough new enlisting to just replace those qualified people leaving. Generals don’t necessarily want to open up combat units to women. But there are not enough fit males joining or heaven forbid, of draft age, that can man a weapon and take the fight to the enemy.
What branch were you in?
If you think women are wusses, wait until you encounter a millennial. You will be begging to have some of those other women back.
Women have a place in the Army as support. They have no place on the battlefield. They do not have the physical strength for the battlefield. Also men have an instinctive feeling to protect a woman. This degrades an effective force on the field of battle.
I have zero problems with a female combat pilot so long as she can attain the same standards of proficiency as all other combat pilots. I do not want a woman on the ground in a fire fight. Israel learned this painful lesson in the 1967 war. They have since modified where women can serve in their army.
“Fellow Veterans and fellow Freepers, your missing something here. Look at today’s 18-22 year old males. Unfit, undisciplined, pussified safe room seeking, non warriors.”
You’re missing something. When girls are flooding in and doing everything, what entices a young male to go do it? Like it or not, it used to be a manly thing to do.
It’s the same reason boys don’t line up to get into girl scouts.
You remove their ability to be admired when little Cindy from the block is also strutting around telling everyone that she’s a Ranger!
The only benefit of a co-ed military is to free males for the more physically demanding duties.
I was totally rear-echelon myself. I would call my years on active duty in the Army “uneventful” — except for a lot of office politics that I could just as well have experienced in any corporate job. That and an on-again, off-again relationship with a fellow officer, which cured me of any significant future desire for relationships.
Much like W.C. Fields’ crack about the beautiful blonde who drove him to drink, I never wrote my erstwhile lady friend to thank her. I’m 60, and a lifelong bachelor, having never really gotten over her.
Still, I’ve been spared such real-life experiences as being dragged into family court and deprived of half my assets and the affections of my children.
Yes, I should have written to thank her.
Ultimately, men and women are going to relate to each other as men and women. It doesn’t matter if you put them in uniform or give them some kind of corporate title.
I hate to tell this gut, but medical units often have women.
Female nurses were at Bataan for example.
But in the past they were not soldiers but civilians, often wives or nursing nuns who cared for casualties.
Like I said those REMF jobs rewards after coming off arduous duty. Women shouldn’t be filling those positions.
To suckup all the "cush" jobs?
Diana,
What rank did you receive in the military, if I may ask?
It will continue. Not because of any quota. It will continue because if we ever get into a real shooting war with Russia or China, we will need all hands on deck.
I am not suggesting for a second that recent wars are not “wars.” In am referring to a matter of scale.
The addition of sexual tension and the divisions that always causes plus the unnatural position of making women kill would have to preclude their inclusion into combat units.
The problem arises when you break a leg and the efficient orderly and accurate bean counter who has the same AFC or MOS or Rate can’t heave anything up the ladder but her pen and clipboard. They don’t back fill by se, but by job. The combat calc of women is 2x for every one you have assigned, and if at all possible, the backfill needs to be a guy.
Agreed with all the comments in the OP. Saw many a gal in CS/CSS units do nothing for the whole of the assignment. Deployments? As a planner it was standard to count the females in the next up unit, multiply that number by .9 and start the personnel process request for that many supplemental slots in the TOE. We knew that 90% would not be deployable from jumpstreet.
Regarding performance under stress- some did well ( of that original 10% or so who actually went wheels up) but most usually were found in the rear with the gear doing what you said- the paperwork, unable and unwilling to be one of the “guys” and suck it up regardless of what was asked.
The few who wanted to be on the team wound up finding out the hard way that no, they cannot hump the gear for 10 hrs in the 120 heat and be able to do the mission when we got there. Had more ground and air evacs of broken gals than wounded/killed guys.
All said, my oldest daughter is an Airman who does her job with aplomb per her commander. She is personnel. Deployed twice to IRQ, never left the wire for good reason.
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