Marines Open Infantry School to Women

Read the comment policy

Showing 3 of 41 comments

well...IF they can hang with the physical aspect of the job....why not? 

WHAT NEXT? THE GOOD HOUSEKEEPING SEAL OF APPROVEL FOR THE FOXHOLE! IT MAY BE JUST ME BUT I THINK ANY WOMEN WHO WANTS TO GO TO ACTUAL COMBAT WHEN THERE IS NO NEED FOR THEM TO DO SO IS A "LITTLE OFF" JOIN THE SERVICE YES ALL THE WAY IT IS A "GOOD THING" COMBAT FOR WOMEN NO WAY!  PS IF YOU GIVE ME ISRAEL THEY HAVE TO!

Funny - some of the same things being said about women in combat today were being said about black soldiers in the 50s and gay and lesbian soldiers today...  "Team cohesion and concentration on missions would suffer, if our troops had to..." fight along side people of color, women, gays - -Get over yourselves - the person in uniform standing next to you is a fellow SOLDIER - not your girlfriend, not your relative, and not a sexual predator on the make - they are serving their country - same as you. http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/article/demystifying-%E2%80%98feminine-mythtique%E2%80%99-or-women-and-combat-can-mix "...among Eritrean rebels (in which 35 percent of the frontline troops were reportedly women), in Vietnam,14 and in numerous other military contexts. During DESERT STORM, for instance, the combat support units, ships, and aircrews that included women performed their missions well—even under direct fire. According to CPT Cynthia Mosley, USA, commander of a combat support company that was in the thick of the action during the ground attack into Iraq: “When the action starts, every soldier does what they’ve been trained to do—nobody cares whether you’re male or female. It’s just—can you do the job?”1 There is also evidence to suggest that mixed-gender units may perform even more effectively than single-gender units in some cases—as they did in North Vietnam and El Salvador, for example. Some American commanders of experienced mixed-gender units have noticed a similar pattern of positive dynamics: the women often work harder to gain approval, and the men work harder not to be outdone. This was apparent, for instance, in the Persian Gulf. These experiences are also supported by studies conducted by the U.S. Army Research Institute that showed that women in combat support units did not adversely affect unit performance; by Canadian military research that showed that the assignment of women to nontraditional roles in land, air, and sea environments did not have negative impacts on operational effectiveness;16 and by Danish research that showed that women performed just as well as their male counterparts in land and sea combat roles.17 In general, research indicates that cohesion and bonding are not adversely affected by women’s presence in military groups and that men and women can work together well—especially when women are not a novelty in a unit and especially when women and men are deployed in the field.18 As Col Paul E. Roush, USMC(Ret) has stated: Bonding requires three elements: organization for a common goal, the presence of (or potential for) danger, and a willingness to sacrifice. Not one of these is gender-specific.19"