Posted on 02/12/2018 1:41:00 PM PST by MarvinStinson
The U.S. Marine Corps will no longer require prospective officers to pass a punishing combat endurance test to graduate from the service’s Infantry Officer Course.
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller quietly made the shift to standards in November, altering the test from a pass/fail requirement to just one of many exercises measured as part of overall IOC evaluation, the Marine Corps Times first reported on Thursday.
The course is considered among the military’s toughest training programs, with about a quarter of all students failing to complete it, according to the Washington Post. Most of the 30-plus women who have attempted IOC dropped on the first day during the combat endurance test.
Only one female Marine has graduated from the course since former Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that all military combat roles would be open to women in 2015.
Marine Training Command officials rejected the notion that the change slackens service standards and said it brings the exercise back to its original intent of assessing the "retention of knowledge, skills, and fitness achieved" at IOC, Military.com reported.
"Over the past 40 years, the Marine Corps has made multiple modifications to Infantry Officer Course (IOC) program of instruction (POI) to reflect the requirements of the operating environment," Training Command said in a statement. "The quality of the course remains the same."
Officials said a Marine’s score on the combat endurance test would "inform" their overall graduation assessment.
Though some have proposed abandoning the test as a fail point in IOC, others have said such a change would lower overall Marine standards.
Marine 2nd Lt. Emma Stokien argued in a 2014 op-ed that removing the required passage of the test would negatively impact female integration into the service.
"Changing this rite of passage will be doing female Marines no favors in trying to be infantry officers," Stokien wrote in War on the Rocks. "Female Marines often have to work much harder than their peers to earn the same respect, and entering the infantry under the dark cloud of even perceived lowered standards will make this a practically impossible challenge and potentially cause real harm to unit cohesion and the faith between leader and led."
No, but I am starting to suspect that Mathis is way more PC than I have been led to believe.
Creatures have no “Gender.”
They usually have a sex, which eliminates any reason to have a gender.
Only words and inanimate objects such as threads and fittings can have gender.
.
As the SF fire department did decades ago. They lowered all the physical requirements and the female recruits got a judge to prohibit the films of their failed attempts at the lower standards being shown on local TV.
As my wife said and still does, “ I want the biggest, baddest, meanest, SOB coming up the ladder to get me if we have a fire”.
Any idea what billet the single female officer who passed IOC is filling?
Besides plain curiosity, I ask because passing IOC is a prerequisite for Intelligence Officers (MOS 0202) as well as for Infantry Officers (MOS 0302). She may be working on a headquarters staff somewhere rather than leading a platoon.
As for lowering the standards, I’m not so sure. They still have to take the multiday combat endurance course/test which hasn’t been changed. So now what they are saying is if you can’t make it on Day 1, it isn’t an automatic fail.
So, is Day 2, 3, etc. going to be any easier? Are you kidding, this is the Marine Corps! If you are all broken down at the end of Day 1, what do you think your performance on subsequent days is going to be? If you manage to somehow not quit and get to the end but perform poorly, how do you think that is going to “inform” the judgement of the tough as nails IOC staff on whether or not you ought to be a Marine Infantry Officer?
It is not just the women that crash and burn during the test, there are a number of male 2nd lieutenants that don’t make it as well. At present, they all get a fail that ends their chance of being an Marine Infantry Officer. There probably are a number that, with further conditioning/training (or just better luck) might make excellent Marine Infantry Officers. By making a bad day not an automatic fail, maybe some latitude is being shown here towards salvaging some of them as well. Again, they have to pass the same tough jury to graduate.
By the way, if you look at the number of Infantry Officer billets in the Marine Corps (and I have as part of my work as a defense analyst) you would find that MOS 0302 is sort of the Officer utility infielder MOS. There are many more MOS 0302 billets than are required to staff its infantry battalions. By several hundred percent. This initially struck me as strange until I realized that by specifying MOS 0302 you 1) got a trained general purpose type leader, 2) in a expansion of the service for a big war effort, you will already have a trained pool of junior officers on hand to build out the force with and 3) in a big war, you are going to go through that pool of junior officers pretty damn fast.
Just for reference purposes, my USMC service dates are 1967 to 1990. Two tours with the infantry; radio operator on an infantry battalion in Vietnam (3/26) and as a an infantry battalion Logistics Officer (S-4, MOS 0402) with 1/6. Private to Gunnery Sergeant ; MECEP; then 2nd Lt to Captain. Turned down promotion to Major to retire. Knees could not take the running anymore (blew one out in OCS, blew the other out a few years later on Okinawa).
IOC was never an option for me. After my first knee operation, the surgeon said to take it easy on my knees or I would be walking with two canes by the time I was 40. Took his advice. Knees (both) finally needed replacement in 2015. Unfortunately, there is no surgery to fix my lower back (injured it doing sit-ups but really it’s mostly old age).
Semper Fi!
Obviously,the enemy will go real easy on women captives...
Of course,that is if the women soldiers don’t get their entire squad killed...
Oh well,lots of men will be safe from combat ,because women will be taking their places...Women realllllly want to be soldiers,right?????
Obama, Eric Holder and their stooge Thomas Perez sued to have the sane thing done all over the US.
I love uninhibited women NOT wearing uniforms.
I'm sure Ivan or Chan will Know the difference when their bayonet twists in Lady Marine’s Uterus.
Stop with the nonsense. Do you know what a typo is?
Women infantry officers are a disgrace to the Corps today. Men in a combat unit should never have to serve under a female officer...never.””
Agreed, see post 26 for a possible role. If women are equals why do we have sports competitions, like the Olympics, segregated by sex? We live in a feminized, homosexualized world where men, especially white men are demeaned and disrespected as a matter of hatred for masculinity. Let women compete with men in all sports. When I was marine age, I could do 25 pull ups. I’m 67 now, and can still do at least a dozen, I wrestled in military academy and have been shooting since I was 10 YO.
I dated a female cop, briefly, who told me she could handle male criminals. Naturally I was skeptical of this 140 lb female, I said ok, put me in any position you wish, and let me see if I can escape—I reversed the situation in less than 5 seconds. She was shocked and wanted a second chance—same result without an ounce of exertion.
If the Romney and Sununu boys won’t volunteer this is what you get. The problem will be solved by resuming the draft.
And once again, the lowering of standards occurs so women can pass the test. This was expected and of course is exactly what liberals stated would never happen.
JoMa
Personally, I like the requirement for some sort of national service obligation. However, first you need a plan to gainfully employ all those draftees and then you need to fund it.
Even during the worst part of the.Cold War when the armed forces were much larger than now, the actual percentage of draft age men who were called up was small in comparison to the total numbers in their respective age groups. There wasn’t enough force structure to absorb all of them. So there were plenty of deferments and exemptions. College? Yes. Family bread winner? Yes. Farmer? Sure. Critical industry? Yep. Criminal? No thanks. Homosexual? The door is over there. Physically unfit to serve? Gee, what a shame. And, of course, there were a lot of men who just sweated it out year by year hoping their number would not be called up until they passed out of the prime eligibility zone.
As for me, I registered for the draft on my 18th birthday, enlisted in the Marine Corps the same day, shipped out for boot camp a week later and received my draft notice about midway through boot camp. So I was more or less destined to serve.
The Armed Forces have become so pathetic. Our ship supported operations at SEAFLOAT and SOLIDANCHOR and as such we were sometimes a refuge for the SEAL team assigned there. They were nice men and appreciative of what we could offer. At the same time, they projected a presence not dissimilar to that of a tiger. They were the first generation of SEALS and lived in the moment with the wisdom and skills of wild animals. Any truly capable combat unit should project a like presence, and that is not possible in units including LGBTQ types and women. Our ship and boats could end up in a firefight, but I never had any interest in reaching their level of intensity.
Glad I am OLD CORPS; plenty of jobs for women in the Corps, just not in combat.
Just out of high school in June 67; fought fire in So. Cal. with the USFS until Oct of that year then enlisted with the USMC.
Got my draft notice while with 1/12 up in I Corps.
Told my Battery Gunny I had to go home to be drafted, he just smiled at me and said “TO LATE”.
Can you imagine being the Platoon Leader trying to keep your Grunts on the leash, when the enemy is torturing and raping a female Soldier or Marine, within earshot of the boys? Whoa Mercy. Hard enough to get them to dial back, when it’s a male.
What a thoughtful comment. You must be very proud.
Maybe we should bring back militias nationwide. If all these military leaders can seem to do is make these fine forces softer in the name of PC, then backup will be needed in case of invasion. Plus, Congress can arm and discipline the militia, per Article I, Section 8.
Only men should be involved in bar fights, needless to say. Those men not stupid enough to get into bar fights should get their women the heck out of there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.