The new "gender neutral" Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) Classification Standards test is consistently weeding out 75% of female combat arms applicants in boot camp, while 96% of men pass without problems, according to Marine Corps recruit data released under FOIA to the Marine Corps Times.
So far this year, women account for less than 1 percent of Marine recruits who are showing up to boot camp with contracts to train for combat arms career fields, jobs that were restricted to men until the Pentagon changed policy in January 2016.
For the dozens of women who have tried for a spot in the combat arms, most of them are failing to pass the initial test.
And that's after they pass an Initial Strength Test, before they can even ship out for boot camp:
The new initial strength test requires prospective Marine recruits complete three pullups; run 1.5 miles in 13 minutes and 30 seconds; do 44 crunches in two minutes, and perform 45 ammo-can lifts in two minutes before they can ship to boot camp.Link: What it takes to join the Corps
And what does the MOS Classification Standard consist of?
Male and female recruits going into combat arms jobs must complete six pullups; a three-mile run in under 24 minutes and 51 seconds; perform 60 ammo-can lifts in two minutes; conduct a movement to contact in 3 minutes and 26 seconds or less; and maneuver under fire within 3 minutes and 12 seconds.And once they get past the screening tests, those able to meet the bare minimums face MOS-specific testing. Which weeds out yet another 10% of the wannabee Combat Barbies.
But it's not a total disasterpiece: in all of 2016, the entire USMC could only find six women to pass the tests. In 2017, that number was up to thirteen, before MOS-specific testing knocked a couple of more back out.
And to date, despite picking from a vastly better-prepared pool of candidates, there hasn't been a single woman (0 for 31 total from 2012-yesterday, when last I looked) to pass the Marine Infantry Officer's Course. In fact, not a single one so far has even made it through the second week of the 12-week course {Update: there's now ONE who's apparently made it to the halfway point - one out of 32 - see comments.-A.}, which is given after female officerettes - and all their USMC male counterparts - have nominally passed the six-month long Officer's Basic Course, which is one helluva lot tougher than recruit training.
So, exactly as predicted, million$ for studies, trainloads of pointless turmoil for all the military services, and by the fourth year, they won't have enough to organize so much as a single Combat Barbie Amazon Platoon if they drew it Marine Corps-wide, and not so much as a single female officer in the entire Marine Corps qualified to take command of it.
Stop the bullshit, end the social engineering, and let's allow our over-worked and under-funded military to concentrate on training qualified people to actually do the jobs for which we pay them, rather than endure any more of this PC fustercluck.
There are combat Marines, and there are women Marines, and there is no functional overlap in those circles, and wishing it were otherwise will not outsmart human physiology. But pushing for it is going to get young women - and the men depending on PFC Suzie Nonhacker - killed, in most brutal and unforgiving ways.
And it will happen totally needlessly.
And if they simply administered the male-standard PFT, there wouldn't be 10 women in the entire Marine Corps.
But the ones who made it then wouldn't be second-class citizens, they'd be fully-qualified by-God Marines. Both of them.
Aesop, they got one (1), count 'em; one, woman who is close to the 1/2 way point
ReplyDelete"A female Marine officer is nearing the halfway mark of the 13-week Marine Corps Infantry Officer Course, Corps officials announced on Thursday.
The Marines are not identifying the female officer, who began the course in July and has about eight weeks left, according to Training and Education Command."
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2017/08/10/female-marine-makes-strides-at-infantry-officer-course/
I'm thinking about taking odds on - if she passes - not on whether she immediately goes on profile, but if it's 'conveniently' discovered that she's suffered a permanent injury that will keep her from running a platoon and she winds up on Battalion Staff until she can be eased into some non-combat MOS.
I'll believe in unicorns when I see one.
ReplyDeleteAnd if, - IF - she passes on merit, well and good, and welcome to the club. (The fact that in three years she'll be the only one out of 32 attempts, pretty well settles the question in the first place.)
God help her if it comes out afterwards (and the truth always does) if she passed because she or her raters and graders greased the skids for her to squeak through. She'll be boarded out and shit-canned eventually, and between now and then the level of shit she'll get for that from every Marine, from E-1 to O-10, both to her face and behind her back, simply isn't a life worth living.
And any woman who doesn't graduate, and then pull a full tour in command of an infantry platoon, including an overseas deployment rotation, including combat if possible, is a training failure, no matter what they call it at HQMC. And frankly, good luck to her trying to motivate anyone if she's doing a female PFT in front of a platoon of meat-eating grunt men. They'll respect the rank, but laugh at the idea, and that's another leadership failure, both from her, and the people who would put her in that position to begin with.
There is no shortage of vastly better qualified male Marine officers, literally begging for infantry platoon commands, than even the best female they can ever find.
The Marines annually discard literal legions of USMCR absolute stud lieutenants because of the squeeze from 1LT to Captain. The last thing the Corps, or the nation, needs, is to start an affirmative action quota for Combat Barbies on that basis alone.
It was a stupid idea from the start, and continues to be one every time it's tried. Neither the idea, nor those shepherding it, are getting any brighter.