Women as Infantry Grunts. Why?

I am not sure why any woman would want to go to war with a company of infantry grunts. Yet, if we are to believe those who are determined to use the U.S. military as a vehicle for social engineering, that is exactly what most of them are clamoring for.

I don't believe it

I don't believe a woman wants to be crammed into an armored personnel carrier or an amphibious assault vehicle with 15 to 25 hot, sweaty and stinking infantry grunts as they move into harm's way pressed together like so many sardines in a can.

I don't believe a woman wants to strap on a 70 pound pack, a 9 pound rifle and several hundred rounds of ammo to slog through some jungle or across a scorching hot desert so she can be "one of the boys."

First of all, in my opinion, she won't be able to do it.

Just look at what happened last fall in the USMC infantry officer training course when the first women to attempt the course washed out.

U.S. Marines crammed into an AAV

 A female second lieutenant was dropped from the program last October after failing to complete required training due to unspecified medical reasons.  It’s unclear whether she was injured or if she became ill.

 The other volunteer, also a second lieutenant, dropped out in September after she was unable to complete the program’s introductory combat endurance test.

To be fair, nearly 30 men also washed out of the program.

That isn't surprising when you look at Department of Defense data that show 75 per cent of all American males are not fit for military service--and of the 25% who are, only about 15% will make it through basic training.

When I was in the Army, I went through basic and advanced survival-counter-intelligence training and even though back then I was in great shape, I was ready to go AWOL after all the abuse we got from sadistic drill instructors.

Granted, there are more wimps and weenies around today than there were back in the 1960s. Look at the male role models today--especially on so-called comedy series such as the highly regarded show "Modern Family." Two of the men in that show are gay and of the other two, one is a raging weenie and one is a 60-plus man in perpetual mid-life crisis with a Hispanic trophy wife 35 years younger than he is.

We had John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin, Gary Cooper, Marlin Brando, and Charles Bronson. Boys today have weenies and wimps.

A sad commentary on our society. But as long as boys are discouraged from being boys by schools that are more interested in social engineering than education by forcing little boys to behave like little girls we will see fewer and fewer men capable of military service.

As long as schools insist on wiping out any semblance of competition by awarding each participant in every athletic event a trophy even if they come in dead last, you are going to extinguish even the smallest competitive fires that may still be burning inside the next generation.

In schools that have no tolerance rules against any form of violence--even the traditional after school or playground scuffle that has always occurred between classic bullies and their victims--boys are punished for defending themselves. Girls, for the most part, are too intelligent to engage in such activities--at least they once were.

Maybe that is why the military brass is now so eager to bring women into the military. They need women who are more "manly" than the pathetic male specimens they are getting.

When I joined the Army in the 1960s, basic training was tough and to say that drill sergeants laid their hands on you is putting it mildly.

Recruits who couldn't do 20 push ups were kicked in the butt until they did. You couldn't get into the mess hall for meals unless you did at least five snappy pull ups on the iron bar outside the door.

I recall a couple of recruits who couldn't lift their 80-pound duffle bags filled with their army uniforms, fatigues, boots, hats, etc. As we walked down the battalion street inside Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. headed toward our assigned barracks, the two recruits lagged behind, dragging their duffle bags along the ground.

"Pick up that duffle bag, solder!" a sergeant screamed at one of the terrified recruits.

"I can't sergeant," the recruit responded. He was probably no more than 5' 3" tall and probably weighed just a little more than the duffle bag he was trying so desperately to carry.

"By God, you can and you will, you maggot, or you will sleep outside tonight!"

With that the sergeant lifted the duffle bag and threw it at the recruit, knocking him to the ground.

"Now get up and get that bag on your shoulder and move out smartly!"

The recruit was so terrified of the sergeant and the adrenalin was pumping so fast that he actually got the bag onto his shoulder and managed to somehow shuffle his way to the E-3-2 Company compound and into formation.

Basic training was one epithet-laced berating after another. And when it wasn't verbal, it was often physical. Punching, pushing, kicking, slapping.

We accepted it as part of our initiation into the U.S. Army. In fact, we came to expect it because we were convinced it was part of the toughening up process. Surviving it meant that we were becoming good soldiers.

As I understand it, that kind of abuse has been banned in the modern army.

I can't imagine any woman going through my basic training course with the hard ass sergeants I had. 

Most of them were WW II, Korean War and Vietnam vets who had seen their share of combat. When we finally saw them in their dress greens during our graduation ceremonies we noticed that almost all had won purple hearts and medals for valor in multiple theaters of war.

"This man's' Army ain't for pansies, panty-waists and wimps," I recall First Sergeant Vega yelling at us during our first day of basic training. "You will leave here ready to kill the enemy or by God you won't leave here at all. We are here to kick your asses and by God I will put this size 12 boot all the way up your ass hole until it comes out your f...k'n mouths if I have to. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sergeant," we yelled back in unison.

"Good, and now if there are any little girls in the ranks I want you to fall out on the double," he said.

No one stepped forward.

"Good, that means every swinging d..k here is going to be a soldier or die try'n."

I wonder what kind of welcoming speech First Sergeants will be making to recruits in the new Coed infantry?

Somehow I don't think it will be the same--and neither will the Army.