Navy Secretary Mabus rejects Marine report showing women perform worse than men in combat roles

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus criticized Friday the findings of a new Marine report that all-male combat units perform better on a number of tactical tasks than mixed-gender units.

Mr. Mabus, the civilian secretary who leads the Navy Department — including the Marine Corps — has called for the Navy to open combat jobs to women, and said the latest report may have been tainted by negative attitudes from the beginning.

“They started out with a fairly largely component of the men thinking this is not a good idea, and women will not be able to do this,” he said in an interview with NPR.

The report, released Thursday, was conducted over a 9-month period at two separate training camps and is part of a Marine Corps experiment to study integrating women into the infantry in order to meet a 2012 order by then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to open all military jobs, including combat roles, to women.

Services must open all jobs to women by January, or else submit requests for exemptions to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter by the end of this month.

dear oldvirginian,

Your response is sound.

As a Viet vet, I can tell you, that any kid from the upper middle class on up, had in their corner, a parent willing to bend the Selective Service law, as they could. If they could not bend the law, they found a voice, if there was one, in an old military acquaintence, lobbying that little Johnnie be found a nice quiet stateside niche, in a do-nothing field, preferably at one of the many ‘stationed till they retired’ bases.

Now, in that same vein, because of the ‘little Johnnies’, I worked with a once-retired-and-then-reactivated-by Congress senior master sergeant, while at the base in SouthEast Asia.

I want every politician, at every level, to have their sons, and now daughters, too (since it is the law, only), to serve in the military, in the theaters of operations, and not stateside, and suffer the horrors and losses, as John Q. and Jane Q. Public have done throughout the years of this nation, through their selfish whims and desires for war.

Me? 635th Combat Support Group, Royal Thai Naval Airfield U-Tapao, Rayong Province, home of the B-52, 1971 - 1974, rode the fence on the back 40.

Lastly, Pfc., Andrew Chowka, USMC, 1969, The Wall. My neighbor, my friend.

dear fourtyseven,

do me the honor, please ... next time The Traveling Wall is in town, or if you ever get to D.C., (once it has been sanitized after this administration), go to The Wall, year 1969, and say hello to Andy.

I’m a son of a military veteran family. All late - my father, both uncles, a granduncle who was at Chateau-Thierry. At age 12, i told my parents that i would be serving in SouthEast Asia. One year, 3 months, and six days after graduation from high school, I stepped off the World airways Super DC-8 onto the tarmac of U-Tapao RTNAF, and stayed till 1974.

Andy was the first in his family. His draft number was low on the list, yet he felt it his time and turn to sign up. He deserves the honor.

Thank you for your reply.
And thank you for your service.
As I was declared legally blind in one eye, I was disqualified from service, even though I attempted to join.

I grew up around WW2 veterans and knew more than a couple veterans of Korea and Vietnam.

I heard stories of the pampered sons of officers and politicians who would blow through a units area in a week or two to get the much valued “field command experience” that would look good on their personnel file.
The battle tested vets would suffer the ignorance of the pampered class (usually Academy grads) while trying to stay alive.

It happened in WW2, Korea, Vietnam and no doubt Afghanistan and Iraq.

I have read that the first Iwo Jima flag, the small one, ended up on the wall in a senators home.
Regardless of the men who died there, a politician wanted the trophy. Like he actually had something to do with raising it.

I blame Hollywood as well.
Remember when Sgt Alvin York, Audie Murphy, Admirals Halsey and Nimitz were portrayed as heroes?
I do.

Instead we now have deserters, homosexuals and other deviants held up as “heroes”.

We have lost our moral center.
I hope there are some good officers left.
A few who so love the service they will hold on and suffer while they must for the opportunity to save our military and it’s history later.
To restore the training and traditions that are the hallmarks of a war winning military.

For every pampered child of well to do parents, there are a hundred men and women who will do the hard work, suffer the pain and win.

I really believe it is darkest before the dawn.
Right now it is pretty darn dark, but hopefully the light of dawn is not far off.

dear oldvirginian,

I agree.

IF, somebody should read it, the bloody blueprint, for a ‘reset’, is in the Constitution. However, i think the more appropo word, and I say this gritting my teeth, is c-o-u-p.

We went wrong doing away with the federal anti-Communist laws we had in the ‘50’s.

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.