In the Summer of 1976, my Special Forces A Team (ODA- 222, 10th Special Forces Group) was tasked to give Summer Training at West Point for the Cadet Class of 1979 (Yearlings) who had just finished their first year at the Academy. The class was broken down into eleven man squads and Squad Leaders were designated by class standing.
The course we taught was a basic RECONDO course that involved two weeks of patrolling in West Points heavily forested and mountainous Field Training Area. The skills we taught were basic map reading, land navigation, field-craft, basic patrolling techniques, raids, ambushes, etc. etc. For many of these Cadets, this was the first time they had ever been required to live in the woods, sleep on the ground, prepare and eat C-Rations, shave and bathe in the local streams, toilet whenever and where ever necessary and use field sanitation techniques we taught. None of them had ever before had to move through the forest at night and during inclement weather, and just to add to their experience, Hurricane Belle (a Class 1 Hurricane) turned and went straight up the Hudson River in July 1976.
Even after all the training I’ve provided to soldiers over my twenty-six years in U.S. Army Special Forces, I still clearly remember that Summer of 1976 simply because that was the year that females were permitted entry into the U.S. Army Military Academy at West Point and our Summer Training was being used to determine what problems, if any, these female Cadets would encounter during the following years Summer Training. In order to find and address any problems these female Cadets might encounter during the Summer Training of 1977, the Army brought in twelve volunteer female soldiers (Known as WACs at that time) from throughout the U.S. Army to fill in the twelfth position in the Cadet squads. I dont know what the selection criteria was for these WACs, but whatever criteria it was, it produced twelve high quality young female soldiers who very quickly assumed leadership of the Cadet squads.
My team was made up entirely of Vietnam Veterans and we thought we had seen it all, but we had never seen anything like that. The difference between these WACs and the Cadets was startling, as the WACs had obviously been selected for their physical toughness, motivation, and aggressiveness, and the Cadets were there simply because they had been politically appointed to the Academy. This experience also reaffirmed my faith in God, as only Devine Intervention could possibly transform those Cadets in three more years from sniveling cry babies into Second Lieutenants and leaders of men. It also proved to me, and everyone there that Summer of 1976, if realistic standards are applied, there are female soldiers out there who can be just as good at soldiering as their male counterparts, and maybe even better.
There may not be many females out there who can meet the required standards to be combat infantrymen, and probably even fewer who would even want to. However, even if there are a few females out there who can meet the standards to be a combat infantryman and think they might want to try it, would their addition to a combat unit improve the combat effectiveness of the unit, or would it detract from its combat effectiveness?
Never forget that we keep a military not as a social experiment but for the sole purpose of closing with and destroying the enemy, and war is played for keeps; the loser ceases to exist.
On another thread last night, I pointed out that the Soviets had this same brain fart in the early days of WWII.
Marxism and some such nonsense about ‘equality’.
When the bodies started to pile up, they did the commie pig thing: say nothing, just very quietly “phase out” the stupid policy and pretend it ‘never existed’.
In the entire history of humans, what nations have tried this cute little social experiment and are still around to set an example of how it’s done and why it works?
There are some areas in which some women will do surprisingly well. They are capable of hard work and endurance. they can also be fierce when protecting their children.
On the other hand, they are not capable of competing with men in areas which require brute strength, or power. They cannot chuck heavy rocks or throw javelins (in modern times hand grenades) They cannot carry really heavy loads etc.
I will say every now and then you run into one who will surprise you. In 1966 I was riding a bus to a job in the N.C. mountains and discovered two girls were going to the same place. One of them was a strikingly pretty blonde. I later found out that she had grown up on a farm with 5 sisters, not very far from where I live.
Several days after we got to the Summer retreat, she and I were on a fairly short hike up one of the nearby mountains. I had told her that I could run really fast. To my surprise she challenged me to a foot race of about 100 yards.
Now I knew I could beat her as I could beat the women’s world record in the 100. I decided I would just stride along side of her then pull ahead near the finish line. When we started, she took off like a rocket. I immediately fell behind and had to run as fast as I could to catch then pass her.
As I said, sometimes they can surprise you. BTW she was later crowned queen of our staff of around 450 college students.
Why do liberals think that women are just guys with different plumbing?
The men will be hit with choices like, abandon the woman to fend for herself or die trying to protect the liability. Look for any female deaths to be fully investigated and any male who didn’t risk all to prevent it will be demoted/jailed/dishonorably discharged.
How about telling women they no longer can have any babies until half the men have babies?