[DesertRhino]

Yeah, that’s what non grunts think, “can they point a weapon and shoot?”. The problem comes when they get pregnant a week before a deployment and leave holes in your trained up squad. Or when they get pregnant while deployed.
Or when they flirt and get attention from NCOs and Officers....
You are a grunt, burning shitters, and you never seem to notice her getting that duty.
Your wives send you off with females to an emotionally intense environment. THAT’S good for morale.

Its a lot more than “can they shoot”.

In the real world, under the yellow sun, grunt work is a lot of hard physical manual labor. It is long long periods of time stuck away in boring places. Both of those are huge trouble if you have women there.
Shooting weapons is the sexy part everyone sees. But there’s a lot more to it than that.

[lodi90]

You are a grunt, burning shitters, and you never seem to notice her getting that duty.

---

Because she is busy giving a nooner to the NCO. That will do wonders for moral. No doubt.

[Army Air Corps]

Spot on.

[Night Hides Not]

Shooting weapons is the sexy part everyone sees. But there’s a lot more to it than that.

As a platoon leader, I never got the chance to do the "fun stuff". During evaluations, I often helped my squads with their missile reloading drills, as our squads were usually undermanned. Both of my platoon sergeants (I commanded both Chaparral platoons at the time) were in their 40s, though in decent shape. Just made more sense for my jeep driver and me to pitch in.

Chaparral missiles weighed over 190 lbs, and it was a struggle with four men, let alone three, particularly when it's below 30 degrees and you have evaluators itching to mess with you.

In the above photo, the trickiest part has been performed, i.e. loading the missile on to the rail.

So much for fun...lol, at least I got a couple of trips to Crete during my four years (for missile live fire practice).

Please don't take it the wrong way: being a Platoon Leader for 18+ months was the most fun I had, although I had several other great jobs, such as a Battery Commander.

[MichaelCorleone]

I didn’t see your post earlier. Very well said.

[IronJack]

Well said. And points that need to be hammered home. It’s about more than combat. MUCH more ...

[5th MEB]

I may be old fashioned when it comes to women, but I refuse to dig her fighting hole when it’s a 110 degrees with 98% out here, ain’t gonna hump her sand bags either!