Army opens jobs in combat battalions to women
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Female soldiers this week are moving into new jobs in once all-male units as the Army breaks down formal barriers in recognition of what has already happened in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The policy change announced earlier this year is being tested at nine brigades, including one at Fort Campbell, before going Army-wide. It opens thousands of jobs to female soldiers by loosening restrictions meant to keep them away from the battlefield. Experience on the ground in the past decade showed women were fighting and dying alongside male soldiers anyway.
Col. Val Keaveny Jr., commander of the 4th Brigade Combat Team that is among units piloting the change, told The Associated Press that for the last decade it has been common to have women temporarily attached to the combat units and serve alongside them.
“Women have served in our Army since the Revolutionary War and they have done phenomenal work and continue to do so today,” he said. “There is great talent and now we can have it in the headquarters of infantry, armor and cavalry.”
Under the new policy, female officers and non-commissioned officers will be assigned to combat units below the brigade level. The change will open up about 14,000 new jobs for women in the military, but there are still more than 250,000 jobs that remain closed to women.
Actually Women have NOT served in our Army since the revolution. First Female Soldiers in the US Army were the Army Nurse Corps in 1901 & in 1941 with the forming of the WAC's. before that individual women fraudulently enlisted as males and their record is spotty at best, most were immediately thrown out upon finding out their Gender. But new admin, new lies.
I recently heard a succinct statement made by a Marine Corps Master Sergeant. I happen to agree. Paraphrasing him, he mentioned there's a reason women don't play in the NFL. There's a reason women don't serve in combat units and war is not a game.
While it seems inclusion of women in combat units is inevitable, I believe it's a piece of social engineering manufactured by people who have never served in anything resembling a combat capacity. I think their lense is restricted solely toward job opportunity and promotions with little to no insight into the the potential negative impact on combat effectiveness.
All they are doing is placing them in the same jobs they already hold, just at a lower echelon of command. They are not filling combat arms slots, and becoming grunts, scouts, tankers, combat engineers, gun bunny's, etc..Not yet at any rate. Still, does make me glad I am done, as it is just a matter of time before that happens. And then you have a change not for the better in my opinion or experience. The whole discipline, atmosphere and cameradery of being in combat arms was a completely different world than the mixed support units that I observed and dealt with when having to interact with them.
One of my professors fought in the rising of Warsaw commanding a mixed gender combat unit. His takeaway was that you took disproportionate casualties. When a woman was wounded, more men than usual were in turn wounded/killed trying to get them out of the line of fire than if it was a guy out there. Ditto for women overcompensating to be accepted. And it made sentry rostering more complicated. There is a distinction between combat support/combat service support/combat arms assignments for a reason. It's not just the obvious physical differences (how many women can carry a 70 pound ruck at 4 miles/hour all day) but the mental / cultural issues as well.
If I have women next to me fighting who wears the same patch I do and got it working as hard as me I don't have a problem with it. But I wouldn't want to serve with women who got there cuz of double standards....
Last edited by Leaper; 05-17-2012 at 02:31 PM.
We've had no gender restrictions on combat trades for sometime. But when they were opened there wasn't a "Mad rush" of females wanting to go into combat trades as its something that doesn't generally appeal to them. We've had about 10-12 Female officers and about the same from the ranks across the combat trades incl Infantry, Armoured, Arty and Combat enginneers. The females I have observed haven't been markedly better, worse or otherwise. By the nature of our recruit and infantry Corp Training, alot of the weeding out has been conducted and the physical and mental hardening has been done for both female and males.
One thing I noticed was as they are few and far between, they are under extreme scrutiny from the day the get off the bus at the depot and tend to be reported on more accurately and sometimes a little harder than their male counterparts who don't stick out as much. This also seems to motivate them a little more as some of them are pushing harder to prove themselves.
I think the big issue stems from the way the US is introducing this and making a big deal about it. For us it was passed down with little fanfare and was a non issue. End o the day I'm yet to see any of them do anything worse than I've seen any male soldier do. Until (if ever) they be come more common in the combat trades and a true base average of skill and ability is found to be lacking Vs males, I'll worry about bigger things with my troops.
With all the politics beside. It is just another bad idea. Needs to be put to bed.
Social Engineering.
The US really needs to cut the sh!t.
On one end of the spectrum you have the Taliban. On the other - the US. Neither is a good idea.
I say If they can pass same testing as the men, then let them have combat. Because hell if they can do the job i don't see the problem, and if the men become idiots by thinking with their ****s then they're idiots.
War has always been the same thing for thousands of years, and men are optimised for it. The physical and mental requirements have always been the same too; perhaps with the exception of needing a stronger sword-arm back in the day. You didn't have women fighters then. Why should you have them now?
Agreed. All the standards have to be the same, especially APFT. If they find women who can do that then so be it. But I do think it will cause some unneeded tension within the ranks.Originally Posted by Leaper
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