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please refer to my post #12
Mass has its merits, even in jobs like maintenance, as I discovered while training to be a machinist and found out how an 80lb 4-jaw indexable lathe chuck could ovrebalance me. It is not simply a matter of strength. Mass, by itself, can be one hell of an asset when shifting heavy objects, which is a major component of a great many military non-combat tasks.

Bingo! You beat me to a similar reponse.

I'm the son of an Army armor officer. On the maintenance side, I've seen groups of men swearing while breaking track on an M-60. Large truck and diesel engine repair is not for lightweights. How many women were in the 507th Maintenance Company? How much less able to accomplish their mission were they because of the sort of things outlined above?

On the logistics side, compare how many 155mm shells a 50th %-ile man can unload from the truck to the ammo carrier, versus a 50th %-ile woman.

Women have a place in the military, and we are trying way too hard to make the military unisex, which is another thing entirely.

It might even be that you gave your women students more particularized attention than you gave to the men. The patronizing soul will often do this subconciously. I have seen women newbies at a firing range surrounded by men only too anxious to give them particularized instruction and quick praise--particularly if the woman is attractive. Admittedly, my evidence is anecdotal, but it comports with what I know about barstool blowhardism.

And in any event, the combat firefight enviroment is a special environment quite unlike a sedate shooting-range-with-benchrests environment. Before any claim about women naturally being better marksmen would hold water on this thread, you would have to account and control for the special environment of combat firefights. Critical factors and controls include type of weapon and deployment, e.g., holding an M16 and laying down covering fire from the prone position is one thing, lugging a 24 pound M240G medium machinegun in a sprint across 500 yards of open field and firing effectively once you get there is quite another.