08-21-2015, 10:54 AM
(08-20-2015, 09:53 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I'm happy for these women and I'm happy this was done in the right way. As the women themselves stated, lowering the standards for them only serves to endanger others and stigmatize women graduates.
I agree. If they changed the standards or made any accommodations it wouldn't put them on equal footing with their male peers.
I joined the Army with a Ranger contract. Spent my first seven years at Ft. Benning at 3rd Ranger Battalion and 4th Ranger Training Battalion. Got my first taste of the "real" Army, as we call it, at Ft. Campbell with the 101st as a weapons squad leader and Infantry scout team leader and platoon sergeant. It was there I realized I didn't give a shit if a soldier was straight, gay, male, female, Martian or whatever. I just wanted soldiers who could do their job and I didn't have to baby sit. I was accustomed to getting rid of men who didn't meet the standard; poof and they were gone on the next thing smokin'. Not at Ft. Campbell. They believed in "rehabilitative transfers" meaning if a soldier didn't meet the standard, rather than kick his ass out of the Army, they would reassign him to another brigade where he become some other NCO's pain in the ass.
I had one soldier with financial problems. I wouldn't allow him to open his own damn mail unless I was physically present so I could track his bills so he didn't open up any more credit. I caught him in a lie the very first week. I had another soldier who was over weight. I found his cache of junk food in his damn car in the parking lot. I had another soldier who was an APFT failure. In addition to planning and conducting normal PT, I was the company's Master Fitness Trainer. This meant I was also in charge of planning PT for the entire company (but the 1SG would never let me get rid of the stupid shit which was a waste of time), the fat boys, the PT failures, and the broke dicks. The Army, in its infinite wisdom, spends millions of $ on gyms and fitness equipment which they don't allow you to utilize during normal PT hours. So I had to use my free time to train them. The only one I wasn't able to "rehabilitate" was the piss test failure who went AWOL, pissed hot again after he came back, then threatened to commit suicide which meant I was on suicide watch the first 24 hours until we could make other arrangements for that little shit.
That's when I understood why they call the "real" Army a leadership challenge. It is easy to lead MFers in the Regiment who are all trying to exceed the standard. It isn't so easy when you have to drag MFers kicking and screaming just to meet the bare minimum because they should have already been kicked out of the Army.
I'd take both of these women over some of the infantrymen I led in a heartbeat without hesitation.
