It Used To Mean Something To Become A Marine Corps Infantry Officer
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 10 months ago
In a slight change to the grueling initial stage of the 13-week Infantry Officer Course, Marines will no longer be required to pass the Combat Endurance Test to move on.
The Corps has come under criticism for what some have claimed to be unnecessarily high standards to graduate from the course. To date, only one unnamed female Marine has successfully completed the entire course.
But Marine officials at Training Command contend the changes are not an effort to water down standards.
“Over the past 40 years, the Marine Corps has made multiple modifications to Infantry Officer Course (IOC) program of instruction (POI) to reflect the requirements of the operating environment,” Training Command said in a statement to Marine Corps Times. “The quality of the course remains the same.”
The Combat Endurance Test is an intense physical test that assesses a Marine’s endurance and knowledge gained from The Basic School, and is used as a tool to evaluate a Marine’s potential success in the infantry course.
Previously it was scored as a simple pass or fail, but now the test will no longer be used to weed Marines out. The officers will continue to take a Combat Evaluation Test, but their score will be just one of many components of the course considered for a student’s overall evaluation.
No, we wouldn’t water down requirements. No, nothing of the sort. Even though we were looking for a way to do just that.
Women’s hips are wider than her shoulders, and a man’s shoulders are wider than his hips. It’s the way God designed humans. If you don’t like God’s perfect design for mankind’s anatomy, that’s tough shit. Take it up with Him. The hips of women lead to all sorts of problems bearing heavy loads, like pelvic fractures (which is the root cause of most of the female failures in Marine Corps infantry officer course at Quantico) while they’re trying to keep legs over the CoG of the heavy loads infantry has to bear.
I recall during the forced 24-hour march and obstacle course my son went through in Boot Camp, all of it with full kit, one young Marine sitting in the bleachers with us wasn’t on the parade deck. He had completed the course with a broken leg instead of recycling back through all over again. I guess this toughness is just a thing of the past until we have our next conventional war.
Oh, unless fifth generation warfare, drones and battery-powered robotic suits for women and weak men fix the problems. Yea, that’s it. That’s what’ll happen.
The Marine Corps should be ashamed. And so should SedDef Mattis. And so should America.
On February 11, 2018 at 10:52 pm, Phil Ossiferz Stone said:
Mattis is a disappointment to me. He has so so much triage to do after eight years of progressive sabotage, and so many heads need to roll — they’re still making people in the Navy take trannie sensitivity courses — and the man seems paralyzed.
On February 12, 2018 at 1:52 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
I am an instructor of martial arts and have more than twenty years as a student and then a teacher of the Korean art of hapkido. I have also done extensive study in wresting, Brazilian jujitsu, judo and karate. Since reaching black-belt rank years ago, I have had ample opportunity to see and know a wide variety of students, male and female alike, ranging in age from 12 years old to 60+ years of age.
In all of my years of study, I have never seen a woman or girl beat a male in hand-to-hand combat – who wasn’t a preteen. Most of the time, it isn’t even close, even when the females are highly-skilled. The sheer strength, superior size and aggressiveness of the guys simply overcomes the women.
This isn’t a reflection on our female students. The best are as brave, committed and skilled as their male counterparts. These results simply reflect biological reality – and in the real world, size, strength and aggressiveness matter.
Our program tries to attract and keep women, but we have had a varying levels of success at times keeping female students for the long run. Many drop out as soon as it dawns on them that all of the feminist stories they were told about women being the physical equals of men – were in fact lies.
Another time we lose of our female students is when we do weapons disarms. For this we use realistic plastic facsimiles (copies) of pistols and knives. At one class some years ago, when we introduced these training aids to the class and demonstrated some of the means by which they would be used, one young woman – a sophomore in high school, if memory serves – burst into tears and ran from the room. Just the sight of the fake guns/knives had made her frightened, let alone the real thing! We did our best to comfort her and make her feel welcome, but ultimately, she dropped out and tried another sport instead. She hasn’t been the only one, either. In contrast, the guys absolutely love this portion of our training – they welcome it.
Sparring – randori as we call it (Japanese term) – is the closest to real-world fighting we can do on the mat, but sometimes, even these matches get so intense that one or more of the instructors will have to remind the participants that “this isn’t real life.” We tell our students when they start training with us to expect to be injured; it is inevitable that you will sustain injuries over the course of your martial arts career – and nearly all of the old salts have the scars to show for it, surgical incisions, what have you. We try to keep things safe, but this is balanced against being realistic.
I used to recommend the military as a career path for students who expressed an interest in it and who asked for my advice, but these days – what with all of the political-correctness – not so much anymore. We did send a student into the Navy SEAL challenge program, which was kind of cool, but for the most part, we don’t do it anymore.
It is extremely disappointing to read that the Marines have fallen for the same P.C. crap as the rest of the services. I used to think that they were above such foolishness, but I see that I was wrong. I will continue to revere and honor the Old Corps – the Old Breed – that fought and triumphed in places like Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Chosin, and Khe Sahn – but that’s it. The “new breed” are a breed I don’t recognize.
On February 12, 2018 at 7:21 am, John Bernard said:
It isn’t terribly surprising. The Seat of all Liberal propaganda and ideology is the several Institutions of Indoctrination through which Officer Candidates must pass through, as a prerequisite.
Why then, should we expect the Corps to maintain autonomy, and rugged individualism as an institution, when the “Leaders”, are increasingly more Leftist in their world view?
As our American Society continues to deteriorate, we should fully expect the Institutions which are manned by ever perverted Americans to deteriorate at the same rate.
The Corps has done well to withstand an overwhelming Liberal onslaught as long as it has, but it too will eventually be unrecognizable to passed generations of Marines.
Additionally, there is a remarkable difference between the ‘O’-Zone, and the Enlisted ranks….at least 50% of the O-zone, is hardcore Leftist in its world view compared to 20-30 percent of our Enlisted ranks.
My personal experience does not bear this out, but in combination with the experiences of many of my friends/brothers, it does. It is also more obvious as we watch what floats to the top bearing stars.
It is sad to live long enough to see something you have loved so long, fall so far….
SF
On February 12, 2018 at 8:09 am, Baba Tim said:
In the late 80’s I was a student at IOC and in the early 90’s fortunate enough to be an instructor there too. There were no graded events during the course. We told the students on day one the staff was there for those who wanted to learn and if they weren’t down with that to sit in the back and shut up and we’d ignore them. The lieutenants self selected into the infantry back then and we had none who did not give the course 100% and it was a ball buster. Back then the combat endurance test was administered during the basic course to all student lieutenants. It migrated into the infantry officer course (this is my guess) because of the number of female lieutenants who sat out the test and got a zero (which would have a negative effect on their final class standing) or participated in the test and injured themselves or failed. The MCCRES 25 mile hike dropped out of the POI completely because there was no way most females could complete the hike. Those who did complete it did not have weapons at the end (I remember carrying two rifles and a M60 for the last half of the march) or their rucks. There may have been a few who did the hike carrying both but I don’t remember ever seeing a female do that.
On February 12, 2018 at 9:58 am, Fred said:
Clearly, Georgiaboy will need extensive re-education and perhaps some hard labor during our glorious revolution. All hail our new god equality.
On February 12, 2018 at 10:36 am, ragman said:
I was a USAF pilot, having completed pilot training in 1971. Even with the need for pilots for Vietnam duty, the military had high standards and adhered to them. We lost about 50% of our UPT class. No breaks, no compromises. I can’t even imagine what the military is now. We have an openly lesbian Commandant of Cadets at USAFA, gay weddings at West Point, 25% of female sailors getting pregnant, &TC. Seems to me that the military has become a Petri dish for SJWs. Instead of training the best pilots in the world and the fiercest warriors on earth we have airplanes that can’t fly due to lack of parts, sailors that can’t navigate, soldiers that can’t shoot, and now our Marines have been compromised. All of this with record $700 billion plus of defense spending. Is there any hope for our once grest country?
On February 12, 2018 at 10:37 am, ragman said:
I was a USAF pilot, having completed pilot training in 1971. Even with the need for pilots for Vietnam duty, the military had high standards and adhered to them. We lost about 50% of our UPT class. No breaks, no compromises. I can’t even imagine what the military is now. We have an openly lesbian Commandant of Cadets at USAFA, gay weddings at West Point, 25% of female sailors getting pregnant, &TC. Seems to me that the military has become a Petri dish for SJWs. Instead of training the best pilots in the world and the fiercest warriors on earth we have airplanes that can’t fly due to lack of parts, sailors that can’t navigate, soldiers that can’t shoot, and now our Marines have been compromised. All of this with record $700 billion plus of defense spending. Is there any hope for our once great country?
On February 12, 2018 at 12:11 pm, Gryphon said:
Army has done the Same, P.T. ‘scores’ no longer are counted for getting a Green Beanie…. bet these SJW types would get Sick just Watching the Vids posted by Russian Army Spetznatz (S.F.) training camps… Piss of the Sargent? “You and You, Beat each other until someone is Unconscious, NOW!”
No Point in having ‘Standards’ unless they are Hard to Meet, right?
On February 12, 2018 at 12:20 pm, Hiram Taine said:
Remember now, Trudeau prefers “personkind”.
On February 12, 2018 at 9:32 pm, Ned said:
“But Marine officials at Training Command contend the changes are not an effort to water down standards.”
Right. But meanwhile, they piss away money to procure a better rifle, and seek overmatch over enemies we aren’t fighting via “better equipment” and lower physical standards.
On February 13, 2018 at 5:31 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
Re: “Clearly, Georgiaboy will need extensive re-education and perhaps some hard labor during our glorious revolution. All hail our new god equality.”
Yeah, I guess so, Fred… there aren’t too many things about growing old that I like unconditionally, but one of them is that you learn to speak your mind and not apologize for it. What good is having freedom of speech if one is afraid to use it?
“In a Time of Universal Deceit — Telling the Truth Is a Revolutionary Act”
– George Orwell