U.S. Army Defies Bush

Human Events Online ^ | April 1, 2005 | Elaine Donnelly

[R. Scott]

Yup, extremely deadly, like my wife the past two days: heavily cramped, bloated, tired and a bit of virtigo. Not to mention requiring shower facilities to keep infection rates down.

From 1973 until my retirement in 1986 I always had women in my crew or – when I had to run an office for a couple years, as clerks. I never observed that problem. Maybe it was a case of working with disciplined people who knew that lame excuses might work at home or in school, but not in the (MY) Army.

[Redcitizen]

Yeah they would be more worried about who is going out with the female and put less concentration on the mission.

[canalabamian]

I think you for got the sarcasm tag.

If not then you are showing your ignorance to physical realities. I suppose you'd be better served by asking what Marines and Soldiers who've served in extended "close combat" would say about the 21st century "high tech" battlefield.

[dpa5923]

Never served a day in an infantry unit, have you?

[SFC Chromey]

This crap about needing a man to carry someone off the battlefield is complete silliness. Women are more calculating, can endure considerably more pain,and have little mercy.

---

I had 4 female troops in my platoon of 35 MP's and 2 were NOT capable of enduring the environment, let alone conducting themselves in a professional manner.

The two that could do their job (but don't ask for anything more than the minimum), had guys that they were screwing around with when they were off duty.

It is NOT as high tech of a battlefield as you think. There is no robot that is going to help you police up a body and load them into the vehicle for you. There is no robot or unmanned vehicle that is going to chase down the bad guys for you.

You can not outsource the split-second decision making and trigger-squeezing to a camera assisted robot.

If our hummer was hit by an IED, there was no robot pit crew to come to fix it. We had to fix it under fire in a couple of instances.

Oh yea, and of the 20 women in our company, I can count two that regularly changed their own tires when they needed changing.

Maybe I am biased having started as a combat engineer, but there are some things that few of the women could or would do that most men handled regularly.

[Redcitizen]

Hello to bannedfromdu.
I won't claim to be special forces or some hot MOS. I was in the Army from 1990 to 1993. I trained as an armor crewman and I also drove a fuel truck. I am an average guy. I weighed 165 pounds and had average strength. There are a few facts for you.
For an infantryman, the high tech weapons are still heavy and have to be carried by someone in addition to a basic load. Ever carried an M2 50 caliber barrel plus the tripod? And vehicle maintenance still has to be done. Example: HEMMT fuel truck tires have to be changed. To inform you,I had to change those tires.They were big tires. I had to put some serious effort into taking off the lugs. There were no air tools, especially in the field. It wasn't like I could pull into the local gas station and have someone do it for me.
Even for tanks, someone has to break tracks by using an over sized socket with a cheater bar for leverage and load up 40 rounds of 120 mm tank shells, clean the gun barrels and carry 5 gallon containers of oil.When a tank crew starts firing shells, the loader needs to be moving alot of heavy shells in a hurry. That is not the time to get weak because the target may be shooting back at you. 3 other people's lives are depending on you loading that main gun as soon possible.
It simply is a lot of physical labor just in peacetime. In conflict, there is round the clock operations. I went to Desert Storm. I slept 3 to four hours an night. I pulled guard duty, dug bunkers and foxholes. Then I drove for 4 to 5 hours too.
Yes it is a high tech battlefield,but the grunt work still has to be done.

[sarasmom]

I did, thanks to your ping.
SSDD.
According to the 2" crowd,in their alternate version of reality, women can only honorably serve as nurses and payroll clerks.
It suits their ego to deny women in combat support positions the actual lethal self defense weapons and training needed in a forward operating combat zones, if said weapons could also be used for offense.
It also suits the civilian Federal politicians too publically gasp at "the very idea of women in actual combat positions."
Meanwhile, the men and women who are actually in harms way from enemy fire, do the best they can with what they have to work with right now, today.
SSDD.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Yep, I pity the fool that underestimates my wife or my daughter. The youngest out-shoots her husband.

Great, let us know when he get pregnants during a deployment.........

[RipSawyer]

I agree that women are more calculating and show little mercy but the jury is still out on the pain tolerance, I have seen very little evidence to support the idea that women can tolerate more pain than men. I am on my second marriage, my first wife died of cancer. Either one of my wives used more pain killers in an average month than I have used in the past year and I am seldom pain free.

[Allosaurs_r_us]

"Great, let us know when he get pregnants during a deployment.........

 

What the hell kind of a comment is that? I will have you know my son in law has already performed his duty to his country and was commissioned during Desert Storm in the US Navy. He is an avid hunter and between him and I, we have taught her to shoot and for the last 2 years out hunt us. Last year she is the only one who brought home an elk. If she were called to service, since I believe her first responsibility is to my granddaughter, I am quite sure she could manage to be pregnant free in order to fulfill her duties to her comrades. I would match her against most men.

[Hank Rearden]

I wonder if he made the little brackets with his fingers when he said "land".

Yep.

Same little brackets he made when he used the phrases "limited government", "border protection" and "less spending" when BSing us with his blather-for-votes scams.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

It doesn't mean a damn thing about your son in law. It means even if they can shoot, women do not belong in combat units. There are a multitude of reasons, pregnancy during deployment being a rather obvious one that I assumed you would understand the significance of. I will not make the mistake again.

[Allosaurs_r_us]

 

First of all, I agree with you that women should not be in combat, but evidently not for the reasons you do.

 

"pregnancy during deployment"

 

This Sir, is an insult to her intelligence. What are you saying, that she would not be able to refrain from sex while in the company of men in uniform? Or perhaps you are inferring the men in her unit could not refrain from forcing themselves upon her. I assure you she would take this responsibility very seriously and would show the courage and stamina required to fulfill her duties even if it killed her. She is after all, a Patriotic American and her Fathers Daughter.

 

Women should not be in combat for the sole reason they are not physically built for such endeavors. Although there are a number of feminists who would argue this point, it is the cold hard facts. Not because of their plumbing.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Perhaps you might want to look at the numbers of pregnant women in the military. Doesn't do much for the unit readiness report.

[KingofQue]

That is when you send them on patrol.

[blam]

" Women are more calculating, can endure considerably more pain,and have little mercy."

I can vouch for that...I've been divorced three times.

[jb6]

That's very nice. I guess my wife is just lame. To bad, you had super women. Well, feel lucky. I saw plenty of females, almost all out of shape, some down right fat. One was on post a week before being pregnant, yeah and she filled a slot right upto the point the Brigade deployed and by then it was to late to fill it. Support roles are one thing, combat? Hardly. I went through ROTC and instructed infantry squad manuevers to ROTC too, where the cadets were supposed to be in top shape. About 10% of the women were, the rest couldn't heck it. They constantly tried to drop the load on other members or had to be passed up for heavy equipment so others had to do a double load.

I don't know what office you ran, but the key word is: OFFICE not trench digging or breaking track.

[jb6]

You make excellent points but for these "informed" arm chair generals, give them some dimensions and weights, like those 45lb HE rounds. Or that each section of track is a two man carry and a section is only two feet.

[jb6]

It suits their ego to deny women in combat support positions the actual lethal self defense weapons and training needed in a forward operating combat zones, if said weapons could also be used for offense

Oh the clerks get their weapons, everyone trains as an infantryman and Private Lynch and her bunch demonstrated how well they learn. The fire fight was over before it began, happens when half the weapons jam because it's to much effort to clean them.

[jb6]

Dude, you need to be here asap.