Posted on 11/16/2016 11:26:27 AM PST by nickcarraway
“If you train the same, if you can keep up, you can mentally do it, why not?” one veteran said.
Women can hold any job in the U.S. Military under the Obama Administration, a policy that may change under the Trump Administration.
Last year, after a series of intensive studies that took years to complete, Defense Secretary Ash Carter ordered the military to open all combat jobs to woman, allowing them to serve in some of the military's most demanding and difficult jobs, including special operations forces, such as the Army Delta units and Navy SEALs.
Some female veterans, including Marine Veteran Kelsey Hampton, say they hope all jobs in the military will remain open to women.
“I think that if a woman and serve in combat and keep up with all the men that they should be able to - I don't think that they should withhold the opportunity," she said.
However, others, like Congressman Duncan Hunter, whose name has been reportedly short-listed for Secretary of Defense in the Trump Administration, says combat roles should not be open to woman.
"It doesn't do anything to make us more effective or efficient at getting the job done and killing our enemies and protecting our allies. It's just a distraction," he told the Washington Times.
Hunter says agrees with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, on reversing the decision to open direct land combat jobs in the infantry and special operations to women. Steve Diamond, Navy veteran and F-14 mission commander, said the rules are different in combat.
“The rules of a civilized society do not and should not apply to the savage world of combat," Diamond said. "What matters there only is who survives and who wins, so any notion of equality doesn't matter.”
Diamond says the U.S. should mirror the Israel Defense Forces, where women are placed in combat roles based not just on testing, but actual field experience.
“Hence there are certain roles that they are prohibited from and there are certain roles they are encouraged to be in because they do them well,” Diamond said.
Some other women veterans we spoke with, some of whom had been in combat situations, say the issue is complicated, and there are times when it doesn’t make sense to have women fighting side by side with men.
Some estimates say that if all combat jobs were closed to women, it would mean there were approximately 300,000 fewer jobs for women in the military.
Others, like some officials on Congressman Hunter’s staff, say that number is overstated and it is likely that not all combat jobs would be limited.
Diamond said women could still reach the highest ranks in the military, even if combat roles were limited.
“There is no reason at all why women who are in the rules they perform cannot reach the highest level that's a completely different animal than whether not they should be and every single combat role," he said.
Hampton says she thinks keeping all jobs open for women is a motivating factor, and she has enjoyed the competitive nature of being a Marine. “It did push me to want to do it more to keep up with the guys and do everything that they were doing but I didn't have the opportunity back then, so I think it's a great thing for women to get the opportunity,” Hampton said.
She says the preparation in the Marine Corps ensures women can achieve new heights. “If you train the same, if you can keep up, you can mentally do it, why not?” Hampton said.
Ash Carter is a queer. He needs to be replaced ASAP and with a straight MAN, baby!!
The fag’s the first one to be fired. Pathetic how he destroyed the army.
Turn the role of women in the military back to what it was in 1960 period.
“Last year, after a series of intensive studies that took years to complete...”
That is not what happened. Obama ordered it and intimidated the Generals and Admirals into accepting it. The ‘studies’ were a white-wash.
Hasn’t Carter already said he was resigning?
He did it to save face since President Trump would have canned his candy assume quickly
They don’t perform the same physical fitness tests. If a woman wants to be in an infantry unit, she needs to be able to perform and pass the exact same physical requirements that a male would have to.
I’m also waiting to see a woman dead lift a 200lb man with an additional 40-60 lbs of gear and fireman carry them 100 yards with no assistance.
Are we running a military or a Federal jobs program?
Its all about my feels...
... as well as how security clearances are conducted.
Playing with numbers again. There are NOT 300,000 women who are willing to fill these combat positions.
Oh, horsecrap! There maybe a total of approximately 300,000 combat jobs in the entire military. The rest are support, logistics and administrative jobs.
Bingo
For countless reasons, women in combat is one of the greatest follies of the obama years - years that were magnificent for their follies and fiascos.
Unlike say-to-day activity, in which idiotic social experiemnts can be tried by the ill-informed and misguided, the military keeps us all alive.
Weaken that and our fine troopers will die, and eventually we’ll all die.
I like the idea of “follow the Israeli’s”. Nobody re military stuff is more right more often than the jews.
Seems to me just for one example that women might be competitive with men or even better on flying drones using a joy stick in a safe rear area office that’s either in theater or on the other side of the world.
Out ground pounding and hand to hand combat with other men in the trenches though is an absolute farce NOW and FOREVER !!!!
The number of women who would qualify would be so few that it would be an impediment to a military unit 2 half to observe gender differences in combat situations.
That would be an unnecessary difficulty to place upon the unit just for an occasional female who might be able to meet the standards
An opportunity. As if the organized murder of combat is just a "job opportunity"! What kind of sick mind dreams up this stuff? Women have no place whatsoever in or around combat. They don't have the stamina, the testosterone/murderous capabilities, and the combatants sure as heck don't need the distraction women would provide.
No.
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