Replies

I served in four units as permanent party: I Corps Group in Korea, the 1st Cavalry Division at Ft. Hood, the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea and the 5th Mech. Infantry Division at Fort Polk. I don’t recall the female soldiers at any of those postings hurting the Army. Most of my direct supervisors and one of my company commanders were female soldiers.

Well, your experience was far different than mine and those I've heard of. I was 3ID, infantry, so no women except for one support company in each battalion. Our support company was roughly one third to one half female, and, in any given formation, a good half of those women were pregnant. A pregnant woman means someone else has to pull her weight, even in the rear, but when we deployed to the Middle East, all of the pregnant ones stayed behind. Of course, once we got to the Middle East, the remaining women had ample opportunity to get pregnant, especially if they wanted to leave. How many did that, I couldn't tell you, because my buttocks went out into forward areas where I didn't see any women for months.

I did, however, get the chance, now and then, to talk to guys in support units, truck drivers and the like, who were full of horror stories about their female peers. Secondhand info, I know, but entirely plausible from what I had seen so far.

Here's another example to look at: remember Jessica Lynch and her unlucky platoon? The media tried to pump up her role in the firefight to make her out to be GI Jane, but we eventually found out that it was a guy in her platoon who did the shooting she was credited for. Why would they pump her up? Political correctness, my friend, the same political correctness that infects the services more each day that women are present, that won't allow us to recognize women's inherent physical inferiority. Now imagine what the outcome there might have been if that platoon had been all-male, trained in combat tactics and kept in top shape. But no, political correctness prevents us from saying that women can't do as well in a tough fight, and we also know that women can't adhere to the physical standards set for men, so forget the 42 pushups, 72 situps and 15 minute 2 mile run. Instead, let them be as fat and soft as they want to be so that we can say we've got a equal opportunity Army for women. And by the way, since the women can't handle the regular training, let's dumb it down for the men in their units also.

And as long as we're giving in to political correctness, let's make the fellows have to take "sensitivity training" periodically so that they can get in touch with their sensitive sides, and know how to bow down to female over-sensitivity even when in a combat zone. It's also a wonderful thing to have your career-minded officer corps more worried about the latest social engineering than about being combat-ready.