William S. Lind :collection (merged thread)

[JMA]

This is an interesting read from one of those female lieutenants who has failed IOC. She raises many of the points I've brought up earlier: insufficient training for females, different expectations of male and female performance, etc. The bottom line is that not all men are permitted to perform in combat roles if they cannot meet the standards - they are assessed individually; not assumed that they all will fail because some of them do fail. That same policy should hold true for women as well.

In reading this article there are some key issues of interest IMHO:

I was one of four women in the group, bringing the number to 14 female officers who had attempted the course since it was opened to women in the fall of 2012. All the women so far had failed — all but one of them on the first day.

and

I reflected: Why did I fail?

and

Female lieutenants aren’t as prepared as male lieutenants for the Infantry Officer Course’s tests of strength and endurance because they’ve been encouraged to train to lesser standards.

and finally

I also would have liked to have had the opportunity to try the course again. The Marine leadership has said it doesn’t want female lieutenants taking the course multiple times, at least until combat positions are available to women, because it doesn’t want to delay the rest of their training. Yet many of the men who failed alongside me in January are back at Quantico, training to retake the course in April.

Firstly, where I come from if a soldier takes a service related problem to the media there would have been consequences. Secondly, whoever drafted the regulations with different rules for females in being allowed to take the course again should be fired (just like the incompetents who were unable to draft hair regulations for African-American females should have been drummed out of the service).

She knew that all but one of the females who had attempted the course before had failed on the first day yet she arrived in boots that gave her a bloodblister on day one. This is not a smart person we are dealing with here.

When she fails she looks elsewhere for blame thereby refusing to take personal responsibility for her actions. How did she get commissioned with this fatal character flaw? Is there some sort of quota system for females on the officers course?

Baseball is an American game. Make it three strikes and you are out. If she or any other male or female fails three times they get booted out of the service - and not 'dumped' elsewhere. Better still make it two strikes.

It is of interest to me that people get commissioned before their MoS or corps has been decided. The British have followed this crazy idea as well where you do your Platoon Commanders training after having been commissioned. The problem comes that you end up with a bunch of 2Lt running around looking for a job. If they don't make it in the Infantry they get 'dumped' somewhere else. In this case she wants to be a pilot. My question would be why would entry to pilot training be less arduous than for the Infantry?

Fire this whining failure, fix the regulations and move on.