Posted on 12/07/2012 3:29:54 PM PST by neverdem
Recently The Post reported that four women serving in the Army, two with Purple Hearts, had filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the militarys combat exclusion policy. Combat exclusion is code for being kept from serving in the close-combat arms of the Army, Marines and special forces. These units are made up of soldiers whose purpose is to kill the enemy directly. They also do virtually all of the militarys dying: Since the end of World War II, four out of five combat deaths suffered by men and women serving in the U.S. military have been in the infantry, which includes more than 6 percent of the active-duty military.
--snip--
Ive been studying the band of brothers effect for almost 40 years and have written extensively on the subject. We know that time together allows effective pairings or battle buddies, to use the common Army term. We know that four solid buddy pairings led by a sergeant compose a nine-man, battle-ready squad. The Marine squad is slightly larger. We know from watching Ranger and special forces training that buddy groups form often spontaneously. But the human formula that ensures successful buddy pairings is still a mystery, and thats the key stumbling block in the debate. Veteran SEALs, special forces, Rangers, tankers and line infantrymen will swear that the deliberate, premeditated and brutal act of intimate killing is a male-only occupation. But no one can prove it with data from empirical tests because no such data exist from the United States. They just know intuitively from battlefield experience that its true.
To be sure, women soldiers may be fit, they may be skilled and they may be able to hang. Many have proved with their lives that they are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. But our senior ground-force leaders,...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Wonderful, and beautifully put, truth.
Thank you. Truth is beautiful.
Most vets think that we passed the test, which is true in manworld.
It either
A)Is time.
or
B)Will never be time.
Saying it’s not time “yet” doesn’t make any sense, what do they expect will change?
Skydancer:
I hope you take the time to read and reply to wardaddys post here. I would like you to engage his points.
I am sorry - I thought that I had pinged you to my reply#58 yesterday, but noticed just now that I failed to type your name correctly.
Great post LJ...really wonderful
we share some past history...quite a bit
I have my own Stephen Gaskin stories from here in middle TN
quite a character...and then some
I was just giving the short, short version.....
I used to listen to him at the Family Dog, and then elsewhere (Park?) when the F.D. didn’t happen for some reason, maybe that’s when they tore it down. He didn’t sound half bad on 2 tabs of acid... In fact he looked sort of nice, all purple and everything.
Thank GOD those days are long gone.
Even the craziest stuff taught me and helped put me where I am today. Thankful I survived with at least some brain cells intact and not horrid diseases.
fascinating LJ...truly
you are a bit earlier on the hippie trip timeline than I and at the geographic epicenter
though as a southerner..we had our moments
my last trip was here at aged 21 here:
http://archive.org/details/gd77-05-17.sbd.weiner.18554.sbeok.shnf
I too had an illustrious left leaning libertarian youth with tinges of romantic radical idiocy
but as you pointed out the really silly politically correct stuff was hardly known then...
not it is dogma universal for progressives
i mean the college radicals were coarse chauvinists with the girls by any measurement...Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rueben and particularly the Weathermen passed around women and their emotions no better than rock stars with groupies
like a modern day ergot malaise plague ..lol
one cannot underestimate the effect LSD had on all that mess...and I confess to taking my part...
even though I ditched the progressiveness ,..what little I ever liked really...once northern liberals started harping on my southerness like they were so much better than me I was pretty much over it all..a lesson learned living in Manhattan from 80-88
and I confess I also smoked marijuana pretty regular from 1971-83 and 90-91 and am still around it quite a bit though I haven't partaken in 21 years...I know a lot of people..almost all righties given where I live...who never quit
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