Rangerettes and Female Marine Infantry Officers
BY Herschel Smith
9 years, 10 months ago
Two female Marine officers who volunteered to attempt the Corps’ challenging Infantry Officer Course did not proceed beyond the first day of the course, a Marine Corps spokesperson confirms to the Free Beacon. The two were the only female officers attempting the course in the current cycle, which began Thursday in Quantico, Virginia.
With the two most recent drops, there have been 29 attempts by female officers to pass the course since women have been allowed to volunteer, with none making it to graduation. (At least one woman has attempted the course more than once.) Only four female officers have made it beyond the initial day of training, a grueling evaluation known as the Combat Endurance Test, or CET. Male officers also regularly fail to pass the CET, and the overall course has a substantial attrition rate for males.
Regular readers know what I think about women in the infantry, so there is no need to rehearse all of it again. Just to give a quick reminder, remember this?
Marines in Helmand, water transported by helicopter with it so hot by the time it got there it would scald their throats, full kit, body armor, mortar plate, no showers for seven months, sleeping by two’s in “hobbit holes” in Now Zad, and so on. Need I say more? No, but I will.
The standards have been evaluated and will be lowered where necessary, but ALCON will deny that any standards were lowered. They are calling this an “assessment” and when the “assessment” is complete and its success is announced, they will move forward into the bright sunlit uplands of making room for the next group of “victims,” those confused or mistaken about what sex they are. Such is progress in the Year of Our Lord 2015.
Coddling of the women attendees includes a pre-ranger prep course, and a shadowy sisterhood made of dozens of appointed female commissars called “observer/advisors” who are to mentor, encourage, (and not incidentally, prevent male instructors from giving failing grades to), the Unique and Special Snowflakes. The commissars do not have to attend Ranger School themselves. Good intentions suffice, and good intentions are defined by their conformity with what the suits in the E-ring, and the generals purring in their laps, desire.
Yep. Sounds about right for post-modern America, children of the enlightenment who have rejected everything decent and good. There isn’t much left any more except for the circus and clown show all around us.
And to summarize, I’ll convey a conversation I had with Daniel on this very subject (allow me some latitude, since it was multiple conversations over many months). His view: it’s about more than just a PT or a “school” or whether you can make the grade in a fixed set of conditions with known boundary conditions. Daniel went four days without sleep at times in Fallujah. If he didn’t carry enough water on patrol and made the mistake of drinking the local water, he got dysintery (or at least the runs very badly). He went without food on many occasions, during training and in Iraq. All of this and more, while being shot at. It’s like the camping trip from hell that never ends while people are trying to kill you.
Just the training can kill you (as it did with some of the Marines in my son’s Battalion during squad rushes with live fire). Or perhaps the women want to be with the boys after they have visited every range in America during pre-deployment workup, finally during winter in the mountains when the sadistic sergeants removed more and more and more equipment from the company, the last few nights being the fleece, sleeping bags and tents. The Marines slept against and on top of each other, an entire company, covered by leaves and branches trying to stay alive.
It’s not an issue, for example, of being able to lift a certain amount of weight, or run so far so fast. It’s an issue of having had nothing to eat, no sleep, no water, and weak to the point that you can hardly stand, and then having to handle munitions (or sand bags, or heavy weapons, or fill in the blank), over and over and over and over and over again, off body axis and twisting so that there is maximum opportunity to hurt your back, and then when you’re finished, doing it again, and then trying to keep a fellow Marine alive who has just been shot, and then doing it all over again.
I didn’t make any of this up. I’ve never been in the military. All of this is from my son. And God has made men and women differently, in case you haven’t already noticed.
On January 19, 2015 at 5:11 am, Pat Hines said:
With the Opfor continuing to weaken itself, we southern nationalists say, “when the enemy is making a critical mistake, stand back and let him roll on”.
On January 29, 2015 at 7:57 pm, Isaac Shelby Baker said:
Well put.
On January 19, 2015 at 8:42 am, Blake said:
There was an oped a couple of decades ago by a woman who went into the army with the idea she would easily be able to compete because she was physically fit and athletic.
She quickly found out that, compared to most females, she was well above average but compared to most males, she was well below average.
There have been other articles, however, this particular article was probably one of the first. I believe the oped appeared in US News. (yeah, goes back a ways)
This is typical bureaucratic nonsense that gets people killed. No matter how much objective evidence exists that women cannot compete with men physically, people be sacrificed on the battlefield in order to assuage the god of feelings and political correctness. Never mind the feelings of the people who lose their loved ones because of this kind of crap.
On January 19, 2015 at 9:08 am, Richard Medicus said:
“(and not incidentally, prevent male instructors from giving failing grades to),” The Afghan, Iraqi, Iranian, Syrian, etc., fighters are going to see to it that they get failing grades.
On January 19, 2015 at 12:29 pm, eaglesnester said:
Never ever saw a female get through US Navy Diving School. While not as physically difficult as force recon the ladies could not handle the weight of the MK5 deep sea diving dress.
On January 19, 2015 at 1:15 pm, pdxr13 said:
Ladies ought to give birth to Boys and Girls, then get those boys up to minimum standard before shipping them off to Parris Island. Write often, send minor contraband (drill instructors enjoy sweets!), and schedule some vacation time to se the graduation of your Marine.
Ladies don’t become Marines, although a few females do. There are lots of non-combat jobs for female Marines to do that they can be proud of. Not combat, not intentionally. Female Marines who are not subject to combat deployment should also not be in command of combat units. If this restricts promotion potential, know this in advance and Go Air Force.
On January 19, 2015 at 3:52 pm, Dennis said:
Those who will not bow to the Creator and the Laws of the Creation need to legislate a law repealing gravity, climb to the top of the Empire State Building and proceed to show us the superiority of their enlightened state… all the long way down.
Stupid begets stupid and thus you have the state of affairs in the world today. The two legged varmints have been a breedin and their offspring have inherited their parent’s traits.
Just ask Gruber of the nature of the American Public.
On January 21, 2015 at 11:12 am, USMC69 said:
If the SCOTUS can claim a tomato is a vegetable and not a fruit, I wouldn’t put it past the idiots in congress to pass a law repealing gravity.
On January 19, 2015 at 3:57 pm, timbroweraz said:
There are reasons for these standards. if the standards are lowered we should expect to see more soldiers die in the field. these standards are what it takes to survive in the field. sex of the soldier is not of any concern, all will try, some will make it.
On January 19, 2015 at 4:13 pm, huntermike989 said:
It is a man’s world, but that is not the point. the leadership wants women in charge, and it is hard to get the star, when you been serving coffee and sitting behind the desk.
On January 20, 2015 at 6:26 pm, jaquebauer said:
Political correctness will kill. A nation of politically correct leaders will kill the nation. Since the leadership is made of highly educated people, one must deduce that the killing of the nation is willful and deliberate. Either we fight back or we shall perish. The Obama regime’s plans to turn the US armed forces into bath house of perverted deviants and freaks of nature, starting at the command staff, is intended as a suicide pill.
On January 22, 2015 at 9:41 am, Josh said:
“Highly educated”
Our political leaders, having been run through their Ivy League social parties or not, may perhaps be “educated”, but are certainly not intelligent. While our founding fathers were men of intellect and fortitude, our current stock of Politicians are overgrown hall monitors. They’re idiots, and they’re legislating just as fast as they can.
Our politicians are absolutely incapable of understanding even 1/5th of the subject matter they legislate.
On January 20, 2015 at 6:32 pm, TEEBONICUS said:
Oh HELL no.
On January 21, 2015 at 7:48 am, Seerightthere! said:
I was in the Army, we had “co-ed” PLDC in Graf GE in 1994. The final road march was in full gear with weapons after a week of FTX, ALL the females were carried the last few miles and their gear redistributed to the males, they all received a “GO” assessment. I knew then I had to get out, these “soldiers” were going to be NCO’s and I did not want to depend on them in a life endangering endeavor.
On January 21, 2015 at 12:50 pm, georgetrue said:
When I went through Marine Corps OCS in 1979, the Corps was just beginning its attempt to integrate women into its officer ranks. There was one platoon of women officer candidates in Charlie company of OCS recruits at MCDEC in Quantico that autumn. There was a small handful of us men who could max the Marine Corps physical fitness test, but only one who could not get the minimum on the test, who was subsequently dropped from the program after six weeks. However, NONE of the women could come close to getting the minimum on the PFT. In fact, the standards were drastically lowered for them. They were allowed to perform ‘modified’ pull-ups and sit-ups, which were actually NOT sit-ups or pull-ups at all. Otherwise, none of them would have been able to do as well as the one woefully substandard male who was dropped.
Predictably, most of the women OCS candidates passed as a result. Granted, at that time, they were all headed for MOS’s other than combat arms, unlike today where they are actually allowed into infantry and artillery. But it still made a travesty of the Marine Corps’ traditional philosophy of ‘every Marine a rifleman first’. In my mind, a rifleman is not just someone who can qualify with an M-16, but someone who can do a forced march of 10 or 20 miles with full ruck, plus extra .556 and/or mortar rounds, and then immediately go into combat. That is the essential job description of what a soldier or Marine needs to be able to do, and over my lifetime I have met perhaps ONE female who actually would be able to do that.
To this day I still remember the FTX’s with full gear and rifles that fall at MCDEC. What was memorable about them was that the female OCS candidates were dropping like flies right and left. And we were not being required to double time, but merely march at about a 3 to 3.5 mile per hour pace. Women simply cannot cut the mustard physically in a real world combat infantry environment. That one simple fact has not change in the 30 years since I have been separated, nor will it ever change.
On January 29, 2015 at 8:29 pm, Isaac Shelby Baker said:
George I went through Marine Corps OCS, TBS, and the Infantry Officer’s Course five years after you so I’m betting we remember a similar Marine Corps. As defiled as our Corps has become there still are no females in the infantry, enlisted or officers. I wrote this awhile back, you may identify with it or you may think me a heretic for writing it.
“I thank the Lord above that I served in a different Marine Corps, a Corps that concerned itself only with winning battles, vanquishing our enemies, and the harsh, unbending selection processes: “Who is best fit to serve in our ranks? Who is best fit and can be trusted to lead Marines into battle? Who will best uphold, by their actions in every clime and place, the standards set by the Marines who went before us?” A Marine Corps which had not yet embraced political correctness, a Corps not yet feminized, or forced to accept faggotry in the ranks, a Corps which did not select its Officers by affirmative action. That is the Marine Corps for which I to this day retain a small kernel of affection, a Marine Corps of another time, a Corps which no longer exists. That scarlet flag that once meant so much, which I proudly flew for years, is carefully folded and at the bottom of a drawer. It will not snap in the breeze here again. Semper Fidelis”
On January 22, 2015 at 9:48 am, Josh said:
I’m not trying to be nasty, but this all even applies to tennis:
Serena and Venus Williams said they could beat any man ranked 200 or worse in a game of tennis. Karsten Braasch, ranked 203, accepted the challenge and easily beat them, 6-1, 6-2.
They then revised the claim to a man ranked 350 or lower, and IIRC proceeded to lose again.