BREAKING: Panetta opens combat roles to women

[txradioguy]

Senior defense officials say Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is removing the military's ban on women serving in combat, opening hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs after more than a decade at war.

The groundbreaking move recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff overturns a 1994 rule banning women from being assigned to smaller ground combat units. Panetta's decision gives the military services until January 2016 to seek special exceptions if they believe any positions must remain closed to women.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/23/panetta-opens-combat-roles-to-women/

[JohnnyReb]

Senior defense officials say Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is removing the military's ban on women serving in combat, opening hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs after more than a decade at war.

The groundbreaking move recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff overturns a 1994 rule banning women from being assigned to smaller ground combat units. Panetta's decision gives the military services until January 2016 to seek special exceptions if they believe any positions must remain closed to women.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/23/panetta-opens-combat-roles-to-women/

Hitler and Stalin had one thing in common......their generals were yes men also.....didn't dare question dear leaders orders or wishes.

[JohnnyReb]

Will 18 year old girls now be required to register for the draft?

Hey, bitches want equality......give it to 'em.

[txradioguy]

Will 18 year old girls now be required to register for the draft?

Hey, bitches want equality......give it to 'em.

Amen.

[Eupher]

And the gutting of the military continues....

Same thing happened with Jimmah, but this time, it's for keeps.

TRG, what's your sense insofar as combat arms? They on board with this? Or are they looking for the exit sign?

[txradioguy]

And the gutting of the military continues....

Same thing happened with Jimmah, but this time, it's for keeps.

TRG, what's your sense insofar as combat arms? They on board with this? Or are they looking for the exit sign?

Not too much reaction yet.  I'll have a better idea by tomorrow.  An 11B buddy of mine's first reaction what HOLY SHIT!

His next comment was that 15 year retirement is sounding good.

IMO...there's gonna be a lot of people heading for the exits or changing their mind about staying after 20 years.

It's certainly got me rethinking my position on when to retire.  Three hours ago I'd have told you with unwavering certainty that I was gonna stay till they dragged me out of the building.

Now...not so sure about that.

[dandi]

WTF is wrong with this crop of JCOSs we've had lately? I know flag officers are political animals, but just...damn.

 

[DumbAss Tanker]

What a brilliant idea.  Not.

It isn't crystal clear that this means ALL combat jobs like direct offensive ground combat in the 11, 18, and 19 series MOSs, and I thought there was a statutory barrier involved in this as opposed to a purely policy one.  The pressure for this is mainly coming from female officers, who feel they are professionally disadvantaged by not being allowed to command infantry, armor, and SF units, there are not a Hell of a lot of women who are dying to get into the line ranks to do this shit.  God forbid we hamper some West Point woman's chance of becoming CofS...

The unintended consequence of this is that the next four years will set up a situation where the Administration is even less willing to commit boots on the ground than they were under Clintoon's time in office, because as much bad press as young men dying makes, young women dying or being offed in some colorful and protracted way by Muslims is even worse.

[Eupher]

What a brilliant idea.  Not.

It isn't crystal clear that this means ALL combat jobs like direct offensive ground combat in the 11, 18, and 19 series MOSs, and I thought there was a statutory barrier involved in this as opposed to a purely policy one.  The pressure for this is mainly coming from female officers, who feel they are professionally disadvantaged by not being allowed to command infantry, armor, and SF units, there are not a Hell of a lot of women who are dying to get into the line ranks to do this shit.  God forbid we hamper some West Point woman's chance of becoming CofS...

The unintended consequence of this is that the next four years will set up a situation where the Administration is even less willing to commit boots on the ground than they were under Clintoon's time in office, because as much bad press as young men dying makes, young women dying or being offed in some colorful and protracted way by Muslims is even worse.

I'm about halfway through reading Sebastian Junger's book "War." It's his account of a couple of platoons of the 173rd Airborne while they were holding down a couple of OPs in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley.

This is a place that is simply f'n VERTICAL. These guys hump 120 lbs. of body armor, ammo, weapons, grenades, and oh yeah, food and water while they go up and down those damned mountains. There are some tough women out there, no doubt, but you're not going to find many who can handle that kind of humping. And if they can't handle their load, they're a tactical liability and could very well see their battle buddies dead because Panetta's a ****ing tool.

[Freeper]

I think if they are going to be in combat units, they need to be able to do 42 push ups, 52 sit ups, and run the 2 miles in 14 minutes.

[thundley4]

I think if they are going to be in combat units, they need to be able to do 42 push ups, 52 sit ups, and run the 2 miles in 14 minutes.

Is that what the physical requirements are for men?  Of course instead of requiring that women meet the men's standards, they'll lower the standards for everyone.

[Lacarnut]

Is that what the physical requirements are for men?  Of course instead of requiring that women meet the men's standards, they'll lower the standards for everyone.

Gotta lower the standards for minorities. :argh:What is next---allowing two dike freaks to marry. 

[thundley4]

Gotta lower the standards for minorities. :argh:What is next---allowing two dike freaks to marry. 

Obama would be happy with a military made up of women and queers.

[seahorse513]

I will bs'd for this I am sure,But God made men and woman differtent  physically for a reason. I am not saying that women are inferior, but each sex has their strengths  and weaknesses. Some women can't accept that, and they want to push physically themselves to prove a point.

[Rocky Mtn 1776]

Another insane, dangerous idea but this idiot administration !  This is never going to work, women simply don't have the upper body strength as men plus all the other problems involved. Most women would never drop their pants and take a dump in front of a group of men, then there is that time of the month problem. Are they going to change THAT in from of the men ? Do they intend to carry a porta potty around for the female troops?   I will say there are some excellent women fighter pilots but they are not ground troops.  I have nothing against women in the military but not in combat. Absolutely not !  More problems than it's worth.

[txradioguy]

And somehow all the "smart" people in the Pentagon haven't connected the dots to the fact that sexual assaults and harassment has shot up in the military the closer they push females to the front lines and allow them into traditional combat roles.

After all of the training we've gotten on this stuff over the last 20 years...you'd think the incidents would be way down.  Instead they continue to climb.

Only one reason I can see for that.

[Vagabond]

All in the name of some false equality.  The DUmmies were having a DUmpgasm over this, but they have no idea why they think it's a good thing, they just think it is. 

Toss a woman and a man into sperate cold and wet ditches to pull guard duty for three days.  Which one is more likely to have to go to the medic for some reason related solely to having been stuck in a ditch for three days with no showers?  How about patrols as has already been stated, are they going to carry a porta-potti?  How are they going to adjust for the extra time it takes women to "prepare to pee" and "secure from peeing"?  It didn't matter much in a communications unit, once our equipment got setup, we weren't going anywhere in a hurry.  Also, what are they going to do when female infantry start showing signs of skeletal issues related to all the impact and weight?  Regardless of her athletic prowess, female athletes tend to show a range of skeletal and joint issues earlier and in greater amount than their male counterparts.

I hope the paragraph above is readable, it's just what I was thinking off the top of my head.

As I told my daughter after hearing this, a nation whose young men won't fight for it doesn't deserve to live.

[whiffleball]

All in the name of some false equality.  The DUmmies were having a DUmpgasm over this, but they have no idea why they think it's a good thing, they just think it is.  

Toss a woman and a man into sperate cold and wet ditches to pull guard duty for three days.  Which one is more likely to have to go to the medic for some reason related solely to having been stuck in a ditch for three days with no showers?  How about patrols as has already been stated, are they going to carry a porta-potti?  How are they going to adjust for the extra time it takes women to "prepare to pee" and "secure from peeing"?  It didn't matter much in a communications unit, once our equipment got setup, we weren't going anywhere in a hurry.  Also, what are they going to do when female infantry start showing signs of skeletal issues related to all the impact and weight?  Regardless of her athletic prowess, female athletes tend to show a range of skeletal and joint issues earlier and in greater amount than their male counterparts.

I hope the paragraph above is readable, it's just what I was thinking off the top of my head.

As I told my daughter after hearing this, a nation whose young men won't fight for it doesn't deserve to live.

There's also that "time of the month".  That's a huge issue and I'd love to hear how the females pushing for this expect to handle it.  I can just see a female troop having to stop every couple of hours to "change".  Then, the preggers issue.  It happens even with the best of BC.  Somebody tell me it ain't gonna happen on the line just like it happens behind it.

I'm all for us females pulling the duties that we are physically prepared to pull.  I did it so I know it can be done.  There are simply some jobs we cannot and should not try.

edit:  No one can deny that there is an emotional component to this as well.  It's real and we observe or participate in in daily.  I don't see it being addressed.

[JohnnyReb]

I can just see the mess my "X" would make in a higher command position 7 to 10 days out of 28.....the answer to every situation would be "NUKE THE BASTARDS"......same for my "X" menopausal M-I-L.

....and then there's the 3 days of crying and saying "I'm sorry"....

Thank god for the present wife.....think I'll take her out to eat tonight.....but I'm not going to tell her exactly why, just, "You deserve it".

[Freeper]

Is that what the physical requirements are for men?  Of course instead of requiring that women meet the men's standards, they'll lower the standards for everyone.

It was 20 years ago. Not sure if it has been changed at all.

[DumbAss Tanker]

It was 20 years ago. Not sure if it has been changed at all.

The fourteen minutes not so much, though if you go to Airborne School, being able to run two seven-minute miles is about the level of aerobic fitness you'd have to have to hack it.  Now everything is mostly by PT Test scores, which have age brackets.  Unfortunately they also have completely different scoring for men and women as well, so figuring out what 'Qualified' means here is going to be a goat-rope of legendary proportions.

Posted by: txradioguy
And somehow all the "smart" people in the Pentagon haven't connected the dots to the fact that sexual assaults and harassment has shot up in the military the closer they push females to the front lines and allow them into traditional combat roles.

They aren't all that stupid, but they are career people who know better than to piss in the corn flakes of the political leadership unless they want to move every year and be stuck at their current grade until they either retire or quit in frustration.

[Freeper]

The fourteen minutes not so much, though if you go to Airborne School, being able to run two seven-minute miles is about the level of aerobic fitness you'd have to have to hack it.  Now everything is mostly by PT Test scores, which have age brackets.  Unfortunately they also have completely different scoring for men and women as well, so figuring out what 'Qualified' means here is going to be a goat-rope of legendary proportions.

They aren't all that stupid, but they are career people who know better than to piss in the corn flakes of the political leadership unless they want to move every year and be stuck at their current grade until they either retire or quit in frustration.

Yeah they had age brackets and women had a different standard, I think they only had to do like 4 push ups, but they had to do more sit ups for the min score and they got a longer time for the run.

I do recall when I hit 22 I didn't have to do as many sit ups or push ups and I think the run time was closer to 15 minutes.
The numbers I used is what I think they were for the 18 to 22 bracket for men.

[J P Sousa]

A woman Marine's perspective, I guess the politicians did not think to get the women's opinions.


Get Over It! We Are Not All Created Equal
Author:
Capt Katie Petronio

http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/article/get-over-it-we-are-not-all-created-equal

  As a combat-experienced Marine officer, and a female, I am here to tell you that we are not all created equal, and attempting to place females in the infantry will not improve the Marine Corps as the Nation’s force-in-readiness or improve our national security. 

.

[Eupher]

A woman Marine's perspective, I guess the politicians did not think to get the women's opinions.


Get Over It! We Are Not All Created Equal
Author:
Capt Katie Petronio

http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/article/get-over-it-we-are-not-all-created-equal

.

She can kiss her eagles goodbye. Those kinds of politically incorrect comments lead to stalled/dead careers.

[Vagabond]

They aren't all that stupid, but they are career people who know better than to piss in the corn flakes of the political leadership unless they want to move every year and be stuck at their current grade until they either retire or quit in frustration.

That's the problem with the officer corps being as politicized as it is.  If you can't state your opinion, or ask questions, or state facts that may impact command decisions , then why bother.  We seem to be breeding a breed of officer corps that was the exact same vain, unthinking glory hounds that led the charge of the light brigade.

I know back in my day it led to every officer that came on board implementing changes whether the changes made any logical sense or not.  I had an officer try to give me an article 15 for the crime of not being available for urinalysis on a day and time that I had already requested off because I had a job interview.  Command only backed off when I made it apparent that I intended to fight them and hired a civilian lawyer.  It was the only time I ever faced disciplinary action. 

 I saw another time where a commander ordered a soldier that was out the next Tuesday to go out on a two week field excercise.  The soldier had to report to his college classes on Thursday (as he explained), so at midnight (as far as I know) he walked off his shift leaving behind his rifle and his ID card, got a ride from some friends and skipped town.  The commander's reason was that he would have had to request a soldier from another company to fill that team until another soldier was assigned.  I know the soldier was not harassed after leaving, he had obtained his DD-214 somehow on the way out.  I don't know if the commander ever caught any flack over that.