Women moving closer to combat's front lines

Submitted by Mastodon on Sun, 2014-11-23 00:34

Article here. Excerpt:

'The final barriers to women joining front-line combat units — infantry, armor, artillery and special operations — will fall over the next 12 months under Pentagon plans to erase gender restrictions.

In all, more than 300,000 positions will open to women by Jan. 1, 2016, unless the services justify exemptions to keep some combat roles male only. Restrictions on women in combat have been vanishing since Jan. 24, 2013, when then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta rescinded the rule barring women from "direct ground combat."

The services have opened 71,000 jobs previously closed to women since Panetta's announcement, Pentagon data show. For example, the Navy notified Congress in July that it planned to open more than 16,000 jobs aboard submarines to women.

"We're on track," said Juliet Beyler, the Pentagon's director of officer and enlisted personnel management. "All of them are going to meet the deadlines they have set. We don't foresee any problems."
...
"We want to maximize all our abilities and all our talent from all our people in this country," Hagel said. "It's the right thing to do.

"And so I compliment everybody who is engaged in this effort. I know it is not easy. I know we are dealing with cultural issues, we're dealing with standards. We're not going to lower standards."'

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Report here. Not dancing on his grave, far from it... it's sad, really. While many SecDefs have had remarkably brief tenures, Hagel planned on finishing out Obama's term, at least. But one person's career aspirations play back seat to a nation's security interests, assuming Obama's red carding him indeed represents that. Just wish America had red carded Obama in '12.

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Submitted by Matt on Mon, 2014-11-24 14:48

What will a woman do if she's walking the streets of Baghdad and some hollers out "Hey, beautiful, have a nice day?"

Will she run away screaming?

Will she cap him for sexual harassment?

I mean, if women can't handle catcalls in New York, how will they handle RPGs in Afghanistan?

As a culture, putting women in combat should mean women are no longer the protected sex. Yet feminists are constantly clamoring for new ways to protect women. If the average woman can handle combat, why should we spend resources protecting her from catcalls on the streets of New York? To me, there are certain lines which, if crossed, represent a sea change in culture. I think women in combat is one of those lines.

And they will lower physical standards for women, no matter how much they lie about it. Apparently, only two women out of 120 passed the initial Marine test. They haven't passed the remaining tests. So they have to lower standards or no female marines.

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Submitted by el cid on Tue, 2014-11-25 17:48