A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics

Elections have consequences – Panetta to open all combat roles to women January 24, 2013

This is an immensely bad idea.  As a female Marine Captain who served in one of the few ground combat assignments open to women made very clear last year, women simply do not have the body structure to hump it in ground combat.  She experienced debilitating physical effects after an Afghan tour, and could not continue in her combat career field due to her body basically falling apart.  And she was in extremely good physical condition, an elite level hockey player and weightlifter – far better than many other females in the service.

Back before my conversion, I was involved in some very intense debates on this issue.  The democrats are so incredibly dishonest on issues like this it’s not even funny.  We will be told, and the press will dutifully parrot, that “women will be held to the same standard as men.”  B as in B, S as in S.  It’s not true today, and it won’t be true tomorrow.  In fact, the physical standards to which women presently serving in the military are held to are demonstrably lower than those of men in the same MOS/AFSC.  For instance, in the Air Force, men are required to demonstrate the ability to run 3 miles in 18 minutes, followed by pushups, sit ups, pull ups, etc.  All within a certain time frame – IIRC, it’s 30 minutes.  Women are required to run 2 miles in 20 minutes with far, far fewer push ups, sit ups, pull ups, etc.  That’s just to maintain a basic fitness rating. Intensive combat slots require far higher physical standards, and experience has shown that the Pentagon – under political pressure from democrats – will radically lower physical standards for women in order to get women qualified for those slots. This happens in all the services, and is the great lie.  Standards are dramatically lowered for women, and then the women serving in various roles in Army, Navy, etc., cannot adequately pull their weight.

The military is nothing if not bureaucratically very organized.  All units have tables of organization that indicate how many bodies are assigned to each role in each unit for a given period of time. The problem in so many units is that women are assigned to roles for which they are really not capable, and then men have to pick up the slack.  This results in duty over time, more strenuous work, and, in combat, the potential for disaster.

As an example of the latter. US Navy ships have an emergency pump called the handy-billy.  It is designed to pump water out of flooded compartments after battle or other damage occurs. It weighs about 100 lbs.  On damage control teams, men are required to be able to carry the handy-billy – up and down narrow, steep ship-board laddes and through congested passageways – single-handed.  Few, if any, women are capable of doing this.  It then becomes a 2 or 3 person job.  Similarly, in situations where there are casualties onboard ship, the requirement is for 2 men to be able to huff a litter through passageways, up narrow, steep ladders, etc.  But with women, it becomes a 4 person job, as they simply haven’t the strength to do the job as assigned.

And don’t even get me started about the problem of fraternization.  On board ship, the casualty evacuation rate for women becoming pregnant during their cruise is between 30 and 50%.  So, a ship goes to see with 350 officers and men, 70 of which are female, could be down 35 crewmembers – or 10% of their alloted personnel – during the course of a cruise.  These positions are rarely, if ever, filled during the cruise. Those remaining on board have to take up the slack.  I also should not have to mention the moral degradation that occurs with women – more than a few – who sell their company to highly sexed teenage sailors away from home for the first time.  And it’s not just the young enlisted men this affects – officers have had their careers ended because of this kind of thing, too, even very senior officers.

I’ll close with the words of that Marine I mentioned at the start, who was rendered sterile due to the physical changes which occurred in her body over the course of a 7 month tour:

By the fifth month into the deployment, I had muscle atrophy in my thighs that was causing me to constantly trip and my legs to buckle with the slightest grade change. My agility during firefights and mobility on and off vehicles and perimeter walls was seriously hindering my response time and overall capability. It was evident that stress and muscular deterioration was affecting everyone regardless of gender; however, the rate of my deterioration was noticeably faster than that of male Marines and further compounded by gender-specific medical conditions. At the end of the 7-month deployment, and the construction of 18 PBs later, I had lost 17 pounds and was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome (which personally resulted in infertility, but is not a genetic trend in my family), which was brought on by the chemical and physical changes endured during deployment. Regardless of my deteriorating physical stature, I was extremely successful during both of my combat tours, serving beside my infantry brethren and gaining the respect of every unit I supported. Regardless, I can say with 100 percent assurance that despite my accomplishments, there is no way I could endure the physical demands of the infantrymen whom I worked beside as their combat load and constant deployment cycle would leave me facing medical separation long before the option of retirement. I understand that everyone is affected differently; however, I am confident that should the Marine Corps attempt to fully integrate women into the infantry, we as an institution are going to experience a colossal increase in crippling and career-ending medical conditions for females.

There is a drastic shortage of historical data on female attrition or medical ailments of women who have executed sustained combat operations. This said, we need only to review the statistics from our entry-level schools to realize that there is a significant difference in the physical longevity between male and female Marines. At OCS the attrition rate for female candidates in 2011 was historically low at 40 percent, while the male candidates attrite at a much lower rate of 16 percent. Of candidates who were dropped from training because they were injured or not physically qualified, females were breaking at a much higher rate than males, 14 percent versus 4 percent. The same trends were seen at TBS in 2011; the attrition rate for females was 13 percent versus 5 percent for males, and 5 percent of females were found not physically qualified compared with 1 percent of males. Further, both of these training venues have physical fitness standards that are easier for females; at IOC there is one standard regardless of gender. The attrition rate for males attending IOC in 2011 was 17 percent. Should female Marines ultimately attend IOC, we can expect significantly higher attrition rates and long-term injuries for women.

In closing, I would say that the movement to feminize men and masculinize women is a demonic one.  At its heart, this effort is ordered to destroying the traditional family and the very Christian structure of society – a structure of society that was ordained by God and which is referenced, extolled, and held up throughout Sacred Scripture as not only the ideal, but the only acceptable societal structure.  Any culture that would send its women to do its fighting is a culture that has lost its understanding of some incredibly basic things. It’s the kind of culture that would say two hideously overweight transgender lesbians could make a “family.”

h/t Jill Stanek for the photo