[HexcewlyRette]

I wonder if anybody here has actually served on the ground in a combat role. I'm not talking a mechanic who went outside the wire a few times. I'm talking someone who actually did the job for a regular MOS. How many of you have broke track on an M1 Abrams or slung rounds for a sustained period of time? How many of you have humped up a hill with 100 lbs on your back for days at a time? Running convoys out of a FOB is easy. Serving in actual Combat Arms MOS is not.

During training I spent plenty of time with females. I've been in two line units that had females. On my last deployment we were augmented with females as well. My experience with females in a combat setting has been mostly negative.

Here's one example: We did a ruck march at a school I was at. The pace was extremely slow, and it was done with a 35 lb pack. One female "blacked out" and dropped her weapon. One of the men carried it the rest of the way. Another literally cried the whole way there, and was dragged to the finish line by one of the men. Some didn't finish at all. None of them ever offered to carry the machine guns, CLS bags, claymores. Nothing. All of these women are now leading Soldiers.

Another example: I went to a school with a female that could almost max the male APFT standards. She was maybe 110 lbs soaking wet. She looked great on paper but in reality as soon as you put a ruck on her she was a hindrance. By the time I left she was having joint injuries.

My wife is Active Duty Army. She's tall for a woman (5'9) and pretty strong as well. She routinely scores 300+ on the APFT and has been a part of All Army Sports. She still has a hard time keeping up with the men at PT. Some of them are 10 years older than her. Now it's catching up to her and she needs major surgery just so she can function again. If she can't physically keep up, where are the women who can?

This whole "it's not fair" is a bunch of BS. Is it fair that they don't allow colorblind people in certain MOS's? Is it fair that people over 42 can't enlist? Is it fair that women can skip out of deployment by getting pregnant often with no negative consequences? Is it fair if you're too fat the recruiter won't even bother with you? Is it fair that if you can't make the minimum ASVAB score you can't enlist? All of that is "discrimination" as well. Cry me a river. Life isn't fair.

We would benefit significantly if we as society could get over the gender issue. Men and women are not created equal. Each gender has it's stengths and it's weaknesses. Women typically can multi-task better than men. Men are typically physically stronger than women. Women have significantly higher hygiene requirements than men. Men have a lower pain threshold. I realize I'm generalizing, but there will exceptions to every rule. It doesn't make one gender better than the other. It just makes one gender better suited to certain things than the other. We all know that if combat arms are opened up to females, the standards will be lowered. The idea of equal standards is a pipe dream at best. Even SMA Chandler is already pushing for separate standards on the new APFT.

I've seen males do the same things you say you saw females do. And? I don't stereotype them all. I've seen males not complete ruck marches and I have even had to help out males who were falling out of those marches.

All people are saying is IF they meet the SAME standards as males are - all of them - then let them in.

Yeah we would be better if we got over the "gender" issue. If our society didn't raise children with "gender roles." I will continue to say that if they just open the combat MOSs to women (infantry isn't the only one) or the ones that are male only and women meet the same standards then they can be that MOS.

With the new APFT - that has changed so much in the last several months no one knows what it will be. There was only talk of gender-neutral standards. They had to test it out. The last I heard they've gone from the five events to talking about pushups, rower and 2 mile run. Then I read something that SMA Chandler allegedly stated they might not even change the APFT. Until that comes out officially, I'm not believing anything.

Yes men and women are different - but if you take a look throughout history --- human history --- women have proven they are capable of fighting in combat. There are women who have led armies.

I'm not saying I want to do it. Hell no. But IF there is a female who meets all the standards already in place, let her have at it.

You can't take your experiences with females and generalize all of us. I don't generalize all Army males based on my experiences with them. I could easily say that all Army males are just filthy, disgusting, vile, sex-craze individuals. Or that all Army males cheat on their spouses. Or that they all sexually harass and/or sexually assault because I experienced some males like that. But I don't generalize or stereotype people and no one else should. You can have that opinion of females but we're not all like that.

Also not all females get pregnant to "get out of" a deployment. Some are married, some find out AFTER they get to Iraq or Afghanistan. You know what, when men can have babies, then you can "use that excuse." It's not my fault I was born a female and you a male and our anatomy is that females have babies. I don't think that's fair to hold against the majority of females who don't get pregnant on purpose.