I dealt with the multiple rapes that occurred and groping complaints in 2003 as an MP during OIF I...there's a place for female soldiers -- and the SF ops or combat is not one of them!
Posted on 06/23/2013 4:17:34 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Women in America's armed services will have new options for what units they can join in coming years, the Pentagon says. The military said in January that it will end its combat exclusion that set a minimum size for units in which women could be deployed; the limit kept many women away from front-line combat units. The shift means women could join elite forces such as the Army Rangers and Navy SEALs.
Depending on the job, women could begin training to join combat units in the next one to three years, according to several military officers who spoke at a Pentagon briefing Tuesday afternoon. Integration into special forces units is expected to take the longest.
"The days of Rambo are over," said Maj. Gen. Sacolick, of the U.S. Special Operations Command Force Management Directorate. Noting that special operations groups are looking for people who can learn other languages and be deployed in a variety of situations, he added, "The defining characteristic of our operators is their intellect."
The change is expected to come slowly, with women not expected to begin training to join ground front-line combat units until at least 2014 or later. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has set a deadline of Jan. 1, 2016 for all positions to be open. Neither Hagel nor the top-ranking officers in military's branches attended Tuesday's media briefing.
Branches of the service are developing gender-neutral tests that will be tailored to their units, and they may request a special exception to the policy shift if they find that their female members can't perform the duties of a specific job.
For instance, Marine Lt. Col. Jon M. Aytes spoke of a scenario in which a woman in an armored unit would be expected to be able to reload a 55-pound shell into the gun's breach, with little opportunity for leverage.
When asked later if the military would develop separate standards for men and women, Aytes and the other officers said no. Aytes noted that tanks don't have one rack of shells for men, and another for women.
In the case of special operations, men who are already serving in those units will be given a survey that's designed to gauge how they feel about women joining their ranks. It will also analyze "the social science impacts... of integrating women into small, elite teams that operate in remote, austere environments," according to the submitted in March.
"At this point, no decisions have been made," Gen. Sacolick said, of how women might be integrated into the Rangers, SEALS, Marine Special Operators, and other units. "Let me make that clear: No decisions have been made."
Saying that he had spoken to colleagues at other services about the matter, Sacolick added, "I can assure you, we are not predisposed to any course of action."
The major challenge, Sacolick says, is not how the female service members might perform on physical tests — he said he had been impressed by the physical abilities of female recruits. Instead, the largest hurdle could be handling the social and cultural changes, he said.
The news comes months after the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines submitted their plans for including women in ground combat positions. As , the change could "open up more than 200,000 positions in the military" to women.
"I remain confident that we will retain the trust and confidence of the American people by opening positions to women, while ensuring that all members entering these newly opened positions can meet the standards required to maintain our warfighting capability," in May, after the branches of the service had submitted their plans. He told them, "I appreciate your efforts to methodically and deliberately remove gender-restrictive barriers."
Foundational cracks are more apparent and are deliberately caused. Transgenders are next
Starting from the assumption that that the major issue is social and cultural change strikes me as a major predisposition toward a particular course of action. I would not have made it in special forces, in part because I was not strong enough, even though 30 years ago I was stronger than 90% of the people I knew in the military. Today, decades later, I'm stronger than far more than 90% of military women who might be tracked for special forces. Do they really think that muscle mass and upper body strength are irrelevant?
The guy is full of crap.
Of course they will lower the Standard.
Women will not be in those units if they do not, and the screaming will not stop until they are in those units.
Any woman who wants to go into Combat should be locked up in an institution for the insane.
I worked for an Army contractor. One of my fellow employees was a female former Army truck driver who had volunteered for hazardous duty in Iraq and gone back four times. (BTW, she was very butch and had a girlfriend. There wasn’t anything remotely feminine about her.) She had severe depression, which she blamed on the Army. According to her she’d been in numerous fire fights when convoys were attacked. Repeatedly, she blamed her psychological state on the Army. After another such explanation, I asked, how many times did you volunteer to go back? And she confirmed four. Yet it was the Army’s fault that she was suicidal. The Army doctors committed her to a mental institution. That was several years ago and I have no idea how she turned out.
It was apparent she thought she could put up with anything any other soldier could handle. But the reality of the situation, which appeared beyond her grasp, was different.
Ok. We’ll see how well this works out for the infantry. Our enemies will be all male troops. Theyll see that we have mixed male and female ground troops. What do you think their response will be? They will see this as a great weakness and it will boost their morale and our female soldiers will be raped when they are taken captive. And how many female soldiers really want to fight on the ground especially when things get real, not like the fantasyland that liberals envision? How many of our male soldiers will our female soldiers be able to pickup and get them out of harms way in the heat of battle? How many male soldiers will be killed trying to be a guardian for their female counterparts because its programmed into their very DNA by God?
Mind you im not saying females can’t be good at combat but the idds are stacked against them from the very start by their sex and the brutal elements in the battlefield. Can i see a female being a good leader, strategist, and manager in the fields as an officer or pilot? Absolutely. I’ve seen it in real life. But we dont need to put women in the combat zone or the sake of PC, equality, fairness, or whatever contrived madness the administration thinks will turn us into better Agenda 21 styled citizens of the future.
When will girls have to sign-up for Selective Service?
This is insane.
Something all of our other enemies failed to do. Obama is the true Manchurian Candidate.
This politically correct and moronic statement I might add, indicates this General is looking for his 3rd star.
“The defining characteristic of our operators is their intellect.”
The above statement proves beyond any doubt, that you have it absolutely right.
The training scenario of the average special ops guys, has nothing to do with intellect IMHO.
Now, after training it might be a different story.
Horse feces! The standards are the physical training test, not the MOS test which has no regulation required ability assessment. In fact, the MOS testing ends at the end of the MOS school now, so there is no physical requirement except the service wide one. So your wide ass personnel typist can be a SEAL if your smart enough.
Do we want a serious well trained standing Army in the hands of a socialist, heading for totalitarian, government? The smaller and more clown like it becomes the better. The opposite is when socialists go all militaristic like 1930’s Germany.
A man who has his women do his fighting for him is not much of a man.
What could go wrong?
“....The major challenge, Sacolick says, is not how the female service members might perform on physical tests ......”
No Mr Sacolick that is the bottom line.
If standards call for completing an obstacle course in 18 minutes - and when women go through their time is extended to 21 minutes then the standards were lowered for females.
If standards call for getting over a 6 foot wall - and when women go through they get their own 5 foot wall then the standards were lowered for females.
Do they want to be equal or do they want special rules to allow them to stand with those who passed the higher standards.
So when can we expect females on the Military Academy Football Teams? Oh, yeah, the football teams play to win.
Stop it.
You would think that no women were killed in combat in the last 10 years! That none were wounded in action.
You don’t need to be a Seal to see combat.
that's Holly Peers in the background...
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