Posted on 01/29/2013 7:18:17 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
The head of Special Operations Forces (SOF) says he supports the integration of women into the elite force.
“It’s time to do this,” says the organization’s top officer, Adm. William McRaven.
“We’ve had women supporting direct Special Operations for quite some time,” he added in remarks Tuesday morning at the Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict conference in Washington.
The necessity, he said, is ensuring that all special operators are in peak physical condition. “The one thing we want to make sure [we do is] we maintain our standards,” McRaven said. ....
McRaven said that he has been reading recent Pentagon guidance about establishing “gender-neutral standards.”
Currently, he said, “we have no gender standards,” since it is only males who have been going through Ranger and Navy SEAL training, for example.
It’s important that there is not a two-tiered standard of physical requirements going forward, he adds.
That said, McRaven says he has no doubt that some women will flourish in the elite SOF community. “I guarantee you” that there will be females who come to the basic underwater demolition (BUD/S), the Navy SEAL course, “and do a phenomenal job.”
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Thanks for the ping, but I am studiously avoiding threads with titles like this one, where I don’t even have to read the content to know it’s about yet another political Pentagon asslicker who proclaims how great it is that finally women can show they’re just as good at warfare as men.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Well, you can find this info from other sources.
BTW, I’m not advocating women in military. If you’ll read about 588th regiment there were plenty of rivalry based cat fights including plain sabotage. Anyway, Soviet experience worth learning in you are interested on this subject.
A good example comes to mind is LT Kara Hultgren, the Navy's first F-14 fighter pilot. Hultgren crashed on final approach whilr coming aboard the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN-72) in 1994. The court of inquiry found the cause to be pilot error. Hultgren was one of two women being groomed for senior command by the Navy. She was being fast tracked to be a squadron commander and eventual CAG (carrier air group) commander.
The problem was that the 29 year old Hultgren was not a good pilot. In fact the two women pilots being groomed for the senior slots had at least 7 Class A accidents between them. Class A accidents are very serious affairs in the naval aviation world: one Class A will get a pilot probationary status and two will usually get him permanently grounded. That's how it works for male pilots, but not for the girls being groomed.
Hultgren got herself into an aircraft emergency situation that was beyond her ability to recover from at low altitude. She crashed but her RIO (radar intercept officer) survived.
Details:
“On October 25, 1994, Hultgreen was killed when her F-14A, BuNo 160390, crashed on approach to USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of San Diego after a routine mission. Finding herself overshooting the centerline, Hultgreen attempted to correct her approach by yawing the aircraft. This led to the left-hand engine suffering a compressor stall and lost power—a well-known deficiency characteristic of the TF30-P-414A engine when inlet air was no longer flowing straight into it. The F-14 NATOPS flight manual warned against excess yaw for this reason. Loss of an F-14 engine results in asymmetric thrust, which can exceed rudder authority, especially at low speeds.
After aborting the approach, Hultgreen selected full afterburner on the remaining engine, causing an even greater asymmetry. This, combined with a high angle of attack, caused an unrecoverable approach turn stall and rapid wing drop to the left. The radar intercept officer (RIO) in the rear seat initiated ejection for himself and Hultgreen as soon as it was apparent that the aircraft was becoming uncontrollable. First in the automated ejection sequence, the RIO survived. However, by the time Hultgreen's seat fired 0.4 seconds later, the plane had rolled past the horizontal, and she was ejected downward into the water. She was killed instantly. The entire event unfolded in less than 20 seconds.”
If they weren’t getting ready to lower the standards, there wouldn’t even be discussion of ‘gender neutral standards’. Sounds like the way they are going to avoid a two-tier system is to make the one standard achievable by some women.
Understood. Didn’t mean to bring on the grief...
Well, the extremely hot ones could.
Uhh, seems that uhh, you got your answer there. Pwned.
Mostly aviation and a few snipers. Not exactly ground combat.
Aircraft have hydraulic systems or tabs to handle the air load so strenght is not an issue. A sniper lies in wait and picks you off from long distance.
Do you agree?
Not USSR propaganda. You can find this info in other publications that pre-date Wiki.
Those women were kick ass but, they’re was some dude from Poland that chalked up more than 500 kills during the war.
Wish I could recall his name. My recollection is he was slight of height and the weapon was a POS. Still, he learned the arm he had and shot it with excellence.
As a result of a brief heart problem he had when he was a young kid, which he put on the medical form, he was immediately rejected........
I think the girls on the syncronized swimming team would immediately qualify.
Good summary Gunny...I was in class 36 in the 60’s; I lettered in water polo and swimming in college. During boot camp I qualified for BUDS and was the top swimmer in my class and lasted through week 8...was injured during training and couldn’t walk. My class started with 103 and graduated 33. Injury takes a big toll.
To this day, in my late 60’s, it still bothers me that I had to drop and I still wonder, What If?
The ONLY way women will qualify is if the standards are lowered.
Regards
They will pull all the instructors into a meeting and tell them that GI Jane WILL qualify, no questions or comments. Some poor NCO will have to make a choice. Pass Jane or get replaced.
>>>Those women were kick ass but, they’re was some dude from Poland that chalked up more than 500 kills during the war.
Wish I could recall his name. My recollection is he was slight of height and the weapon was a POS. Still, he learned the arm he had and shot it with excellence.<<<
Simo Haya. He was Finnish, not Polish. His weapon was Mosin, iron sight. He claims 505 kills. It’s a pretty impressive score but I’m not sure if he counts like sniper.
Mila had 309 kills at the end of her career in 1942 (she was wounded several times, barely survived and was discharged) and it was an official record at the time. She was a kind of allied celebrity for Time magazine, toured USA, visited FDR. Colt made a custom 1911 to present her, so did Winchester with it’s rifle. Woody Guthrie has a song about her.
>>>Mostly aviation and a few snipers. Not exactly ground combat.
Aircraft have hydraulic systems or tabs to handle the air load so strenght is not an issue. A sniper lies in wait and picks you off from long distance<<<
Exactly. That is the point. Not to mention most of the above died about 21 yo anyway.
>>>Mostly aviation and a few snipers. Not exactly ground combat.
Aircraft have hydraulic systems or tabs to handle the air load so strenght is not an issue. A sniper lies in wait and picks you off from long distance<<<
Exactly. That is my point. Not to mention most of the above died about 21 yo anyway.
Hell no. McRaven is another power mad sellout who sees himself moving up and up. He’s kissed Hillary’s ass in public, etc.
I really didn’t figure you WOULD agree, but.... loved to hear it from you, esp. with the additional about McRaven.
Although she isn’t a Navy Seal, this article by Katie Petronio, Marine Corps Captain, is relevant, IMO.
From the article:
“It was evident that stress and muscular deterioration was affecting everyone regardless of gender; however, the rate of my deterioration was noticeably faster than that of male Marines and further compounded by gender-specific medical conditions.”
snip
....”I am confident that should the Marine Corps attempt to fully integrate women into the infantry, we as an institution are going to experience a colossal increase in crippling and career-ending medical conditions for females.”
http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/article/get-over-it-we-are-not-all-created-equal
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