Posted on 04/08/2014 8:07:42 AM PDT by don-o
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Marine Corps commandant has reacted swiftly to a female Marine officer’s complaint that women are unfairly precluded from trying a second time to pass the prestigious Marine Corps Infantry Officers Course, when men can have a second try.
In response to a question from a female Army officer at an Atlantic Council forum April 1, Gen. James F. Amos said he has ordered a change in the rules and lavished praise not only on Marine Corps 2nd Lt. Sage Santangelo, who protested the restriction, but on all his female Marines.
And, Amos said, he offered Santangelo a chance to go to Afghanistan while she awaits an opening in flight training.
“I got an answer back in about 14 nanoseconds. … So we’re cutting orders right now. Sage is going to go to Afghanistan, to join the Marine Expeditionary Brigade Forward over there,” the commandant said.
The question was sparked by an opinion article Santangelo wrote in the March 30 Washington Post in which she graphically described the tremendous physical ordeal young Marine officers endure in trying to qualify to lead Marine infantry. Despite her great desire and effort, she was physically unable to complete the initial endurance test, as did 25 male officers and the three other female Marines who tried that day.
So far, 14 women officers have tried to pass the 17-week infantry officers course at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., and all have been unable to complete it. Thirteen enlisted female Marines, however, have passed the somewhat less difficult basic infantry training school at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
The women have been given those chances because the Marine Corps, along with the Army, is attempting to determine if they can open ground combat jobs, including infantry, to women. Although military women are now able to serve in many combat-related positions, including aviation, military police and, for the Army, field artillery, they still are banned from the infantry.
Putting women through the infantry qualification schools is part of the Corps’ tests to see if they can meet the tough physical standards now required, and if those standards are necessary.
The Marines also are forming an experimental unit that would give a group of volunteers a chance to see if women can perform ground combat tasks over a prolonged period.
But in her article, Santangelo complained that her training in the Marine Officer Candidate School was not as physically demanding as what was required of male officer candidates, so she was not as prepared for the infantry course.
And, she noted, the men who failed the initial qualification test could apply for a second chance, but she could not.
Amos said he read Santangelo’s article, which he said “was superb,” and invited her to his Pentagon office to discuss the issue.
“When she brought up the point about the inability to recycle. … I went back to my folks and said, ‘we got to fix this.’ So we are,” he said.
Amos explained that the rule about not getting a second chance was intended to protect the unsuccessful officer’s ability to get into their future military occupational specialty and be positioned for the critical selection for a regular commission, rather than staying as a reserve officer, which limits their potential for a career. But, he said, “we’ll take care of them.”
Amos said he “bristled at the headline” on the Post article, which said the female officer “failed,” saying it “took enormous courage” for Santangelo and the other female Marines to attempt to win a position in what has been a male-dominated field for the Corps’ 238-year history. “I’m a big fan of our females,” he said.
In his presentation and answers to other questions, Amos spelled out the challenges he faces in trying to shape the Corps to continue to meet the nation’s challenges, when the fiscal constraints imposed by sequestration force him to reduce his force structure to have enough money to maintain combat readiness in the near term and for modernization for future capability.
And he strongly defended his top acquisition priority, the short takeoff, vertical landing F-35B, and said his top ground combat need, the Amphibious Combat Vehicle, is moving ahead and he will soon announce the road map for acquiring the initial replacement for the Vietnam-vintage AAV-7 amphibious assault vehicles.
Yet another pentagon politician eyeing that pension and perhaps thinking of a post-USMC fling at public office.
Geez this PC crap will get us all killed.
This is wrong, I want the rules changed
You're right, I'll do it right now ... by the way ... would'ja' like to go to a war zone and risk your life?
Hell yeah ... send me !
The money line.
Political Correctness trumps reality.
“and if those standards are necessary.”
Meaning. . .standards WILL BE LOWERED to allow females in the MOS.
I weep for the future.
And allow fags.
I am utterly disgraced that they did not give her reprimand under a page 13. You take this stuff up with the COC not smatter it on the pages of a newspaper. Opinions and rights to express those opinions are for good reason squelched in the corps to maintain discipline and order. I guess we are now in the social enlistment touchy feely times of the military. God help us all if the corps has too gone to the sh!!tter
Whiner.
About years ago, my daughter was offered a commission in the Marines. She worked with the recruiter (a great guy, BTW) as to the physical requirements she would have to meet.
She trained *on her own* and periodically with the recruiter. She was able to meet the standard required for a basic male recruit. My point? If this woman was a self starter like my kid she’d have trained on her own to prepare, not whined that the USMC didn’t make her train hard enough. Always someone else’s fault.
My daughter ended up turning down the commission for several personal reasons. She did later go through SFPD academy (8 months!) which was brutal. Women got cut no slack there. Which surprised the heck out of me considering it is SF.
“he offered Santangelo a chance to go to Afghanistan while she awaits an opening in flight training”
,,,, after not succeeding in the Infantry. The USMC sure is cool these days,,, if you happen to be female.
Officer misconduct and official entries go on page 11.
If flight school doesn’t work out, she get to be an astronaut? And who in hell thinks its a fine idea that a platoon of USMC infantry be commanded by a female?
Amos needs to resign.
This is what happens when the Air Wing gets a commandant. Make no mistake, the Wing is beloved and critical,, but it should never run the Corps. That’d be like the USN medical branch running the entire surface fleet.
But typical in this age of Officers and Presidents.
Spot on! There have been troops who stood before the man for a lot less than this.
In future combat the army that is NOT PC will win. As an aside I have lost respect for the military top brass. To save their pensions they caved to the Clown threats.
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