Why Leftists Want to Draft Women

[American_Jihad]

The left always has a devious agenda...
Why Leftists Want to Draft Women
A real military or social justice brigades?
February 16, 2016
Daniel Greenfield

Hillary Clinton had endorsed forcing women to register for a draft. Now the issue is taking on new urgency. Despite the left’s anti-draft posturing, it has fond memories of its protests during the Vietnam War and it is the biggest supporter of bringing back the draft. Proposals to move to a draft army invariably come from Democrats in Congress and left-wing pundits who believe that a draft will create a higher barrier to any future conflict. Forcing women to register raises the barrier even higher.

And anything that makes it harder for the military to function properly is also part of that agenda.

But the debate over the role of women in the military is also a subset of the bigger debate about the role of our military. The military no longer exists to win wars or even to fight them.

Nobody thinks that Obama will fight China if it tries to take Taiwan or even Japan. If North Korea attacks, our people will have no air support while Kerry pleads with Kim Jong Un to allow them to be evacuated. Obama refused to provide military equipment to Ukraine. If Russian troops march into Poland, Putin knows quite well that NATO or no NATO, we won’t be there.

A global warming treaty, no matter how invalid and unenforceable, will be zealously followed by the White House to the letter. But security agreements and defense pacts are utterly worthless.

Obama is not going to stand up to any major power. That’s a given. He’ll deliver another speech explaining that they’ve isolated themselves and are on the wrong side of history. But that fighting them would only make matters worse. Unless Europe starts deporting Muslims, we are not going to be fighting any world powers or even any countries with any military capabilities worth mentioning.

That leaves the smaller non-war wars that his administration has become bogged down in.

Obama’s bloodiest war in Afghanistan took place not only under sharply constrained rules of engagement, but a stated policy that the goal was not to kill the enemy.

As General McChrystal said, before falling to one of Obama’s political purges, "We will not win based on the number of Taliban we kill... we must avoid the trap of winning tactical victories-- but suffering strategic defeats-- by causing civilian casualties or excessive damage and thus alienating the people."

Obama avoided winning those “tactical victories” and so we’re stuck indefinitely in Afghanistan while the Taliban are advancing. We’re also stuck indefinitely in Iraq and probably Libya, Obama’s own war.

...

Is out greatest national security threat the weather or the lack of jobs in Pakistan, or is it an enemy force capable of killing thousands of Americans in a single attack? That is the debate we need to have.

And if we settle that debate, then the left’s military social experiments will be exposed for what they are.

Why Leftists Want to Draft Women

 

[Eaglewings]

So...There are some women bigger / stronger than the men in the military..I would never make it myself, but there are some amazon women for sure.

 

[Agit8r]

Godwin's Law Review: Women in Combat

 

[waltky]

If the Kurds and Israelis can use women, so can we...

SEAL Who Killed Bin Laden Says Women Deserve a Shot at Special Ops
Feb 19, 2016 | The former U.S. Navy SEAL known for killing Osama bin Laden said he supports women serving in elite special operations units as long as they can meet the standard.

Robert O'Neill, who claimed credit for firing the deadly shots that killed the al-Qaida leader during a covert U.S. raid into Pakistan in 2011, appeared on Fox News on Feb. 16 to discuss the Pentagon's recent decision to open all direct combat jobs to women. "I've operated with women; they have actually come with us on operations," O'Neill said. "We use them a lot for some of the searching of women and children, cultural-sensitivity type stuff." O'Neill was referring to a select group of highly trained women who served on the Special Operations Command Cultural Support Team. The pilot program was designed to train women and have them serve with special operations direct-action units so they could gather battlefield intelligence by talking to Afghan women in situations where male soldiers had been unsuccessful.

The program, outlined in "Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield" by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, has been praised by high-ranking special operations leaders as highly successful. "There is definitely a place for women; there are certain types of intelligence and reconnaissance type stuff where women and men working together is better," said O'Neill, a decorated combat veteran who served with United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, known as SEAL Team 6. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter opened all direct combat jobs to women last fall, giving them the green light to serve in infantry and special operations units. The controversial decision has opened up a heated debate, resulting in many critics predicting that military standards will be lowered to help women succeed.

O'Neill said he has heard this concern from many of his friends still serving in SEAL units. "They are concerned about it. ... The tendency will be to lower the standards to try to get the politically correct thing going, but I do have people who are in agreement with me that if they do not lower the standards ... they should get a shot," O'Neill said. Most of the men who try out for Navy SEALS don't make it, and an even greater number of women will most likely not make it, O'Neill said. "If a woman can make it through that training; it's the hardest military training in the world -- Navy SEALS -- if she can make it, then she deserves a shot," he said.

O'Neill's first-person account of the May 2, 2011, raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was detailed in the TV special, "The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden," which aired on the cable news network in 2014. O'Neill said that having women serve in these elite units could have a psychological effect on the enemy. "I know that these Islamic fighters -- they don't fear death, but they do fear Hell," he said. "And if they are killed by women, they go to Hell, as far as they know, so I'd like to say 'lock and load ladies.' "

SEAL Who Killed Bin Laden Says Women Deserve a Shot at Special Ops | Military.com

 

[MDiver]

Perhaps create separate female companies. Use the women in urban warfare. In the towns/cities, our personnel don't need the 100lb packs and the women can fire a weapon as well as a man. As for trudging over difficult terrain, we can still leave that to the men.

 

[American_Jihad]

Women in Combat: A Terrible Idea Whose Time Has Come?
Obama wants to send women to fight women-hating Islamofascist militants.
February 26, 2016
Matthew Vadum

Forcing military women into dangerous combat roles traditionally assigned to men is so potentially disastrous that the next president should waste no time reversing this wrong-headed Obama administration edict, a military advocate recently told Congress.

Of course, parachuting women into combat roles is what happens when fevered left-wing utopianism takes over the Pentagon. Radicals on the Left are animated by a morbid obsession with equality, not by results or even by helping people. To them rigid adherence to politically correct fantasies trumps all other concerns. If soldiers die as a result of nutty policies, left-wingers rationalize that --damn the torpedoes!-- it's just the price that has to be paid for their perverse vision of social justice.

Our bilious, perpetually angry Marxist president despises the U.S. military and everything it represents. Like any good radical leftist, Obama believes the only good American soldier is one who plays the role of social worker, not war-fighter. Putting women into combat situations is another way of weakening America.

Obama hates the military’s personnel, its traditions, its historical accomplishments, and its core mission. He has been gutting and gelding the military since taking office, allowing fleets, warplanes, and weapons to rust their way into irrelevance. He has been going on a human resources rampage by purging the military of ideologically hostile officers, and fundamentally transforming it into something other than a war-fighting force. Obama has been moving to reduce soldier pay and benefits and hollow out the military, reducing it to mid-century staff levels. He’s barely concerned with the continuing neglect of veterans and their health care. The more who perish on waiting lists, the more money that Obama can waste on an ever-expanding array of worse-than-useless social programs designed to buy votes.

The testimony by Elaine Donnelly came after Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter unilaterally decided last Dec. 3 to rescind women’s exemptions from direct ground combat. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and other left-wingers are demanding gender diversity quotas of at least 25 percent and that training standards be lowered for females.

“Current military leaders must follow orders, but the next president will have the power to change existing directives in the same way that the current president imposed them,” Donnelly said in written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, which, earlier this month held its first hearing on women in combat in 25 years. “Leaders of the next administration should be prepared to restore sound priorities, putting the needs of the military first.”

...

Women in Combat: A Terrible Idea Whose Time Has Come?

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd likes a woman inna form-fitting uniform...

Form-Fitted Body Armor Rolling Out as Combat Roles Expand for Women
Mar 04, 2016 | WASHINGTON -- Men and women are now equal on the battlefield but that does not mean one size fits all when it comes to gear.

The integration of women into all military combat positions -- including elite special operations -- is putting increased pressure on the Army and Marine Corps to solve issues of ill-fitting body armor and is pushing a minor revolution in smaller-size options in the life-saving apparel. Both services are fielding thousands of sets of newly sized armor designed to better fit the female form just as recruitment begins for the gender-neutral infantry ordered by Defense Secretary Ash Carter in December. The new female soldiers and Marines could begin service as early as this fall.

The Army has added eight new sizes to its body armor to accommodate women, said Lt. Gen. Michael Williamson, the principle military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology. "Anybody who's worn a piece of body armor knows that it's inconvenient enough without being [unable] to appropriately size it," Williamson told Congress this week. "In the design of our new protective equipment, we've worked very hard as you look at both the torso, the hard armor protection, the extremities with the soft armor, and the sizing so that we can fit both women and smaller male soldiers appropriately."

A video screen grab shows a female soldier wearing combat gear.​

The difference in female body armor is not just about size. The anatomy of women also called for a redesign of how the gear fits, Williams said. "There's a level of complexity here, so it's not just being smaller, it's proportions," he said. "That's why there are so many additional sizes." About 5,500 sets of the new Army body armor has already been fielded and the service said it hopes to eventually bring that up to 7,200 sets in the near future. Meanwhile, the Marine Corps said it has fielded 3,800 sets of its new body armor so far.

The new Marine sizes will allow the service to fit the smallest 2 percent of its women for the first time. They were the product of a study of female physiology that wrapped up just as the combat integration of women was decided, said Brig. Gen. Joe Shrader, the commander of Marine Corps Systems Command. "The timing of it was fortuitous that it ended along with this decision that was made," Shrader said. "It led us to look at those extra small stature sizes and led us to purchase … the 3,800 extra sets that were down in that 2 percentile range."

MORE

See also:

Afghan Army Makes Room for More Female Officers
Feb 27, 2016 | More women are becoming officers in Afghanistan's male-dominated army, with 13 new female officers graduating from the service's academy this past week and more than 20 cadets expected to enroll in the next class.

"Recruiting for female officers this year is up on last year, so obviously, whatever we're doing, it's working, which is good news," said Maj. Gen. Paul Nanson, head of the British Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which helped set up the Afghan National Army Officer Academy in October 2013. While the academy is Afghan-run, instructors from Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Denmark and Turkey play advisory roles. At a graduation ceremony on Thursday, 275 cadets became junior officers. Two women were among the top-10 graduates. It was the third academy class to include women since 2014.

Col. Amoni of the Afghan National Army congratulated a female officer who was named one of the top-10 graduates at the Afghan National Army Officer Academy ceremony​

Even the small number of women becoming officers is notable in a patriarchal society where women are routinely treated as second-class citizens, often lacking the ability to choose whom they marry, to venture out in public unaccompanied or to gain an education. That has changed somewhat since the ouster of the Taliban, who imposed strict Islamic rule in Afghanistan. Many girls now go to school, and women occupy public office, but women continue to suffer injustices and ill treatment, particularly in rural areas. President Ashraf Ghani has been working to improve gender equality throughout Afghanistan's staunchly conservative Muslim society.

However, British Lt. Aimee Morris, who works with female cadets at the army officer academy, said the government's "desperate" drive to get women into the army has led to lax standards in the past -- something that is now being addressed. "We've battled with these cadets and we've worked really hard, and they are graduating at a decent standard," she said, adding that some exceptional women are among those who completed the course. "Even if there are only two or three in an intake that are going to do that well, it is making a difference, it's changing male perception, it's changing everything else, and that will help."

MORE

 

[Never3ndr]

Personally, I don't think that women should be in mixed-units for combat...I really think that, bringing in that extra element would be a super big shit show on the front lines. I'd be pretty hesitant about all female combat units too (since I've just seen a ton of women just not able to lug around the 60-100+ lbs you have to take with you into combat)...but, even hesitant, I'd be open to it with the understanding that standards are met.

On the other hand, anybody in the military should be, 100%, for females to be eligible for the draft. Why? Well, everybody knows that there is a fuck-ton of bureaucracy in our war machine. There are absolutely no issues with females filling these roles now, and, given the possibility of a war large enough to warrant a draft, we are going to need these positions filled when increasing the size of our forces.

 

[waltky]

Ash Carter takes notice of differences between men an' womens...

'There Tend to Be Physical and Other Physiological Differences Between Men and Women'
March 11, 2016 | Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced on Thursday that he has formally approved plans prepared by the individual military services and U.S. Special Operations Command to integrate women into all combat roles.

Carter required those plans to address "seven guiding principles." Fourth on his list is the physical demands women will face, and here's what he wrote about it on his social media page: "[O]n average, there tend to be physical and other physiological differences between men and women. Accordingly, all the services have looked closely at ways to mitigate the potential for higher injury rates among women, and they’ve come up with creative methods to address this. "For example, the Army intends to give all new recruits what they call an occupational physical assessment test, the results of which will help better match the recruits with jobs they either are, or with training could be, physically capable of doing. "Likewise, the Marine Corps plans to use the extra time provided by their delayed entry program so that women who are interested in enlisting in ground combat arms can better prepare themselves for the physical demands of the job they want to serve in."

Studies conducted by both the Army and Marine Corps found that women participating in ground combat training sustained injuries at higher rates than men, particularly in load-bearing occupations. Carter said the military will "gain new insights" as more women enter previously closed positions, and all the services "will leverage that information to develop new approaches to reduce the potential for higher injury rates."

'Closer look at our training'

The first of Carter's seven guiding principles is transparent and objective standards, which means that men and women will advance based on ability, not gender. But the standards need updating, he said: "We found over the last few years that in some cases we were doing things because that’s the way we’ve always done them. For example, previously one of the tasks to earn the Army’s Expert Infantry Badge required soldiers to move 12 miles in three hours with a 35-pound rucksack, but it turns out that the rucksack weight was based on a World War II-era airborne study. It was the minimum weight required to prevent the ruck sack from getting tangled in a jumper’s static line, and had nothing to do with the equipment required for paratroopers to fight with once they landed--let alone the modern equipment that infantry soldiers need to carry today. "This process drove us to take a closer look at our training, too, and going forward, we will be using standards informed by today’s real-world operational requirements, informed by experiences gained over the last decade and a half of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result, our military will be even better at finding and training not only the most qualified women, but also the most qualified men, for all military specialties." (Carter did not say if the rucksack weight will go up or down.)

Carter's fifth guiding principle is "operating abroad," or sending women into combat in places where there is not "full gender integration." "[N]ot all nations share this perspective," Carter wrote. "Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines have long dealt with this reality, notably over the last 15 years in Iraq and Afghanistan, and because of this, the military services have many lessons to draw on when it comes to operating in areas where there is cultural resistance to working with women. This is an area where we will always have to be vigilant, and the services are prepared to do so going forward across the force."

'Conduct and culture'

See also:

Big Red One Commander Welcomes Women in Combat Roles
Mar 10, 2016 | The commander of the 1st Infantry Division was eager Thursday to begin integrating women into the previously restricted combat billets of the "Big Red One."

Maj. Gen. Wayne. W. Grigsby, Jr., also said he expected that opening up combat roles to women would have no impact on the readiness and operations of the division, which has 4,000 of its 15,000 troops deployed. "I'm all for it. I think it's wonderful," Grigsby said in a video conference from Fort Riley, Kansas, to the Pentagon. "I think it will really enhance our capability to continue to work and get things done," he said.

Earlier, the Pentagon announced that all the services had submitted their plans for implementing Defense Secretary Ashton Carter's directive to open up all jobs previously closed to women and to begin recruiting, training and assigning women who qualify to those positions. For the women of the 1st ID, it will mean qualifying for combat roles in formations that are switching from preparing for the small-unit operations of counter-insurgency (COIN) warfare to preparing for potential conflict with what the Army terms a "near-peer" competitor.

Maj. Gen. Wayne Grigsby Jr., 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley commanding general, talks Feb. 11 to participants of the Total Army Conference about the benefits of training at Fort Riley.​

It will also mean being constantly ready to deploy. The 1st ID currently has 4,000 troops deployed to Djibouti, Honduras, Israel, Jordan, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley has made readiness his top priority for a near-peer conflict. "So what you do is you do it," Grigsby said, and Fort Riley offers the space for realistic training. "We're able to deploy an entire brigade here out in the field – take the entire brigade out there and put them to the test."

In the coming months "I'm going to do a brigade movement to contact – all at Fort Riley" about 125 miles west of Kansas City, Grigsby said. What makes it possible is the troops, he said. "These kids have got it all," he said. "They cannot only fight COIN – they're quickly transitioning, picking up on decisive action operations we may conduct in the future." "I think we're ready now," Grigsby said of the 1st ID. "The thing I continue to worry about is the leader development piece," he said, but the troops give him confidence. "These company commanders, these platoon leaders, they are so much better than I ever thought about being."

Big Red One Commander Welcomes Women in Combat Roles | Military.com

 

[Militants]

Women lie in military cuts. They will never offer there life in war.

 

[alpine]

First they allowed women to speak
then to vote
then to drive
and now to fight.....


what is next?
to grow chest hair????

 

[waltky]

War chiefs to approve of womens in combat...

Pentagon to Announce Approval of Women-in-Combat Plans: Sources
Mar 10, 2016 | Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has approved service-specific plans opening previously closed combat and special operations jobs to women, Military.com has learned.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook is expected to make an announcement at 1 p.m. today announcing that Carter has formally approved plans submitted by the Air Force, Navy, Army, Marine Corps and U.S. Special Operations Command to open all jobs to women in compliance with a Pentagon mandate, a Pentagon source confirmed. Carter announced Dec. 3 that he had decided not to grant any exceptions to the integration mandate, giving the services 30 days to submit a plan for how they planned to recruit, train, and place women in previously all-male roles.

The task is different for each military branch: while the Navy and Air Force have only a few positions that remain closed in their special operations communities, the Army and Marine Corps have numerous specialties and thousands of jobs that are opening to women for the first time. Sources with knowledge of the announcement said the Pentagon also plans to publish web pages with links to the integration plans in their entirety, as well as supplemental information about the plans' execution.

U.S. Army soldiers participate in the Darby Queen obstacle course as part of their training at the Ranger School at Ft. Benning Ga.​

While not all the services' plans have been released, the ones that have been made public differ widely. The Marine Corps' plan, first published by the Christian Science Monitor, offered 57 pages of detail with instructions for most major commands about how to prepare to train and recruit women in the infantry and to the Marines' elite special operations command. A SOCOM planning document that was made public, however, contained only a few pages and broader guidelines instead of specific details.

Following formal approval, the services' paths will diverge: while the Marine Corps already has more than 130 female Marines who have passed enlisted infantry training and are eligible to apply for infantry positions, the other services will have to accept female troops into various training pipelines before they can move then into newly opened positions. Other steps to complete the integration process are already underway: the Army and Marine Corps are already working on designing form-fitting body armor for women in order to reduce injury and improve weight distribution.

Pentagon to Announce Approval of Women-in-Combat Plans: Sources | Military.com

See also:

First Women Preparing to Apply for Air Force Combat Positions
Mar 10, 2016 | The first women hoping to join the ranks of the battlefield airmen are going through a fitness program designed to ready the recruits for the demanding training that lies ahead.

All Air Force combat-related fields -- combat controllers, pararescuemen, tactical air control party members and Special Operations weather technicians -- became open to women on Jan. 16. And though the service is not identifying the two, a spokeswoman for Headquarters, Air Force Recruiting Service, Lt. Erin Ranaweera, said one of the candidates is hoping to be the Air Force's first female pararescueman and the other its first female TACP. Neither woman is prior service, nor has a background in firefighting or law enforcement, she said. The Pentagon on Thursday announced that all services' plans to open previously closed combat and special ops positions to women had been approved. The announcement means the services can now begin training, recruiting and assignment to place female troops in previously closed jobs.

Ranaweera said the two Air Force women will go through the same process as any male recruit. This means meeting the minimum ASVAB scores for the particular career field and being physically qualified for the job. The physical part means passing a Physical Ability Stamina Test even before heading to basic training. The minimum requirements to enter the pararescue career field are 25-meter underwater swim (twice), a 500-meter surface swim under 10:07 minutes, a 1.5-mile run under 9:47 minutes, 10 pullups in two minutes, 54 sit-ups in two minutes, and 52 pushups in two minutes. TACP candidates have to at least run 1.5 miles under 10:47 minutes and do 6 pullups in two minutes, 48 sit-ups in two minutes and 40 pushups in two minutes.

Because they're intending to go out for PJ and TACP the women will initially go through a special physical and mental training program conducted by retired Special Operations airmen, Ranaweera said. This is a system that has been in place for years, she said, and is the same one that male candidates go through. "This development process by the contractors can take anywhere from 30 to 150 days, depending on the progress a candidate makes," she said. "The intent is not to send a candidate to Basic Military Training who just meets the minimums, but have candidates that far exceed the minimums and understand the mental stressors that accompany these difficult training courses." Once the contractor and the recruiting squadron agree that the women are ready for the Air Force they'll ship to basic training at the next available date and also have a slot reserved for PJ and TACP training. During training, she said, the female candidates will be housed in separate rooms within integrated dorms.

more

 

[WildBillKelsoe]

If the Kurds and Israelis can use women, so can we...

SEAL Who Killed Bin Laden Says Women Deserve a Shot at Special Ops
Feb 19, 2016 | The former U.S. Navy SEAL known for killing Osama bin Laden said he supports women serving in elite special operations units as long as they can meet the standard.

Robert O'Neill, who claimed credit for firing the deadly shots that killed the al-Qaida leader during a covert U.S. raid into Pakistan in 2011, appeared on Fox News on Feb. 16 to discuss the Pentagon's recent decision to open all direct combat jobs to women. "I've operated with women; they have actually come with us on operations," O'Neill said. "We use them a lot for some of the searching of women and children, cultural-sensitivity type stuff." O'Neill was referring to a select group of highly trained women who served on the Special Operations Command Cultural Support Team. The pilot program was designed to train women and have them serve with special operations direct-action units so they could gather battlefield intelligence by talking to Afghan women in situations where male soldiers had been unsuccessful.

The program, outlined in "Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield" by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, has been praised by high-ranking special operations leaders as highly successful. "There is definitely a place for women; there are certain types of intelligence and reconnaissance type stuff where women and men working together is better," said O'Neill, a decorated combat veteran who served with United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, known as SEAL Team 6. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter opened all direct combat jobs to women last fall, giving them the green light to serve in infantry and special operations units. The controversial decision has opened up a heated debate, resulting in many critics predicting that military standards will be lowered to help women succeed.

O'Neill said he has heard this concern from many of his friends still serving in SEAL units. "They are concerned about it. ... The tendency will be to lower the standards to try to get the politically correct thing going, but I do have people who are in agreement with me that if they do not lower the standards ... they should get a shot," O'Neill said. Most of the men who try out for Navy SEALS don't make it, and an even greater number of women will most likely not make it, O'Neill said. "If a woman can make it through that training; it's the hardest military training in the world -- Navy SEALS -- if she can make it, then she deserves a shot," he said.

O'Neill's first-person account of the May 2, 2011, raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was detailed in the TV special, "The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden," which aired on the cable news network in 2014. O'Neill said that having women serve in these elite units could have a psychological effect on the enemy. "I know that these Islamic fighters -- they don't fear death, but they do fear Hell," he said. "And if they are killed by women, they go to Hell, as far as they know, so I'd like to say 'lock and load ladies.' "

SEAL Who Killed Bin Laden Says Women Deserve a Shot at Special Ops | Military.com

The Israelis have one un-tested battalion, that is posted in a border reguon, where it's least likely to engage in battle. Its a show battalion; kinda like, "look at us! Look how cool we are!"

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd thinks womens inna uniform is cool.

 

[waltky]

Air Force General becomes first Female Combatant Commander...

Carter Nominates 1st Female Combatant Commander
Mar 18, 2016 | Air Force Gen. Lori Robinson was named by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Friday as the nominee to head Northern Command, which would make her the first woman leader of a combatant command in the history of the U.S. military.

Carter also said that Army Gen. Vincent Brooks, now head of U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC), had been chosen to take over command of U.S. Forces Korea. He would replace Army Gen. Curtis M. "Mike" Scaparrotti, who has been named to become the next NATO Supreme Commander and head of European Command. At a breakfast session with Politico, Carter said that President Obama had signed off on approving the nominations of both Robinson and Brooks. If confirmed by the Senate, Robinson, now commander of Pacific Air Forces, will replace Adm. Bill Gortney, who has headed NorthCom since December 2014. Her nomination will culminate a fast rise through the upper ranks of the military. She was named a one-star brigadier general in 2012.

Brooks' nomination signaled the Pentagon's commitment to the rebalance of forces to the Asia-Pacific region. At USARPAC, he has been the architect of the "Pacific Pathways" initiative aimed at getting the Army more involved in the region through the rotation of troops on training exercises with allies. Carter called Robinson one of a number of female officers "we have coming along" who qualify for top posts. "We have an amazingly deep bench," he said. Carter cited Robinson's managerial experience and her "very deep experience running air forces in the Pacific."

Brooks has been the commander "shepherding Pacific Pathways" and his nomination showed that the U.S. military viewed the Asia-Pacific as "the single most consequential region of the world" for U.S. security, Carter said. Robinson, 57, joined the Air Force in 1982 following the ROTC program at the University of New Hampshire. She later held a staff position in command of Airmen who flew the B-1 Lancer bomber, the KC-135 Stratotanker and the E-3 Sentry aircraft in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Earlier this month, Robinson pledged that the U.S. would continue to fly missions over the South China Sea despite China's buildup in the region and the construction of artificial islands, and she urged China to avoid a "miscalculation." "We've watched the increased military capability on those islands, whether it's the fighters, whether it's the missiles or the 10,000-foot runways," Robinson told reporters in Australia. We will continue to do as we've always done, and that is fly and sail in international airspace in accordance to international rules and norms."

Carter Nominates 1st Female Combatant Commander | Military.com

See also:

Marine Corps Begins Moving Female Leaders into Infantry Units
Mar 17, 2016 | As Marine Corps officials plan to move newly minted female riflemen into infantry units by early 2017, they're working to create a system that they believe will make the historic move successful.

Support jobs, ranging from logistics to administration, are now available to female Marines within infantry units, officials told reporters Thursday. The goal, they said, was to install female leaders at the units in keeping with a mandate from Defense Secretary Ashton Carter before the junior women arrived. "Throughout the Marine Corps, everyone is now assignable to certain billets," said Col. Ann Weinberg, deputy director of the Marine Corps Force Innovation Office and one of the architects of the Corps' plan to incorporate women into previously closed ground combat units. While a few billets will stay female-only and male-only, such as those for drill instructors overseeing recruits of the same gender, the exceptions are rare, Weinberg said.

The 233 female Marines who have already completed infantry training and received a secondary infantry military occupational specialty during previous research can request to make a lateral move into a ground combat unit at any time. But female recruits who want to enter a "loadbearing" ground combat specialty, such as rifleman or mortarman, will not be able to ship to boot camp until Oct. 1. Female recruits in non-loadbearing combat-arms fields, such as artillery or tanks, can begin boot camp June 1 at the earliest.

Setting conditions

This delay will give Marine officials the opportunity to ensure that senior female officers and enlisted Marines are in place before the junior Marines arrive. The goal is to have a female staff noncommissioned officer and an officer in support MOSs at each infantry battalion who will unofficially support the unit and new female members throughout the transition period. "As soon as we get demand signals from junior female Marines matriculating into entry training pipeline to become 03XXs [the Marines' infantry designator], we'll start assigning senior female leadership to those infantry battalions as well," Weinberg said. "We've just got to manage the population and the inventory of that particular population. Setting the conditions is really where we are."

Marines with the Lioness Program refill their rifle magazines during the live-fire portion of their training at Camp Korean Village, Iraq​

When the first female Marines enter the fleet as infantrymen, a process expected to start early next year, Weinberg said they will be assigned in pairs. Either two female Marines with the same MOS will go to the same unit, or if there isn't a second Marine available, a male and female Marine who have trained together in the same MOS will be assigned together. "We found with previous experience especially with pilot pipeline that it doesn't matter if you're the same sex. What matters is that you've trained together, you know each other, and you trust each other," Weinberg said. "So you have that task cohesion ... I trust that you can do your job, you trust that I can do my job, we go into a unit together, we get assigned to the same unit, we all vouch for each other."

Once women have been installed in previously closed ground combat units, their progress and success will be measured with a longitudinal assessment plan designed to allow officials to make adjustments as needed. Lessons learned by the first generation of female infantrymen may help those that come after. "The longitudinal assessment is going to take a look at propensity, performance, injury rates, career progression rates, command rates and take a look at that not just for women, but really throughout the Marine Corps," Weinberg said. "Because we haven't, to be perfectly honest, done a really good job of understanding what is it that keeps a Marine in, what is it that encourages a Marine to leave the Marine Corps, male or female, so we wanted to be able to capture those in terms of surveys at the end of the career, in the middle of the career, when you decide to get out, what are some of the factors going into that."

Waiting for recruits

 

[JW Frogen]

I was in the military for 13 plus years.

I would not want to fight along side some one who was drafted, a person who does not put their hand up to be there.

Some one who does not apply to live in that honourable poverty in Gibbon's words.

Male or female.

And I would fight along side any female who did put her hand up, and passes the tests before you can fight.

Warfare in the modern age is not about cocks or *****, it is about brains, heart and courage.

 

[JW Frogen]

Don't believe me? see the most effective fighting force on Earth, the Kurds for more details.

 

[waltky]

Women have served in the past...

Kansas WWII Marine Women's Reserve Veteran Was Among First to Serve
Mar 18, 2016 | Kathryn Wilson Schroeder -- back then, just Kathryn Wilson -- was impatient.

It was February 1943, the U.S. Marine Corps Women's Reserve had just opened its doors, and the Burrton woman was ready to sign up. "Back then, the motto was 'Be a Marine, Free a Marine to fight,'" said Schroeder, now 93 and living in Valley Center. "I went in 10 days after they opened the Marines to take in women." On Saturday, Schroeder will be among 25 women honored at a local event observing national Women's History Month and the contributions that female veterans have made.

Becoming a Marine

The U.S. Marine Corps was predominantly male until World War II. A few hundred women served in office positions during World War I, according to the U.S. Marines website. But in 1943, women were offered not only a chance to work as clerical workers, but also parachute riggers, mechanics, welders, mapmakers and more. All told, more than 20,000 women would enlist in the U.S. Marines and serve by the war's end. More than 350,000 women served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II, according to the National World War II Museum website.

Seven members of the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve arrive from Camp Lejeune, New River, North Carolina, for their first aviation duty at the Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point, North Carolina.​

Schroeder was one of the first Marines. At age 20 in February 1943, she became a Link Trainer operator. She operated aircraft simulators, which helped train male Marine pilots for overseas duty. "It was absolutely the best job, I think," she said. "It was new and exciting and a little on the exclusive side. "My job was sitting outside the trainer at a desk. The pilot sat in the trainer. I'd give them radio signals, and they would be sitting in there and trying to figure out where they were."

So new was the concept of female Marines that when Schroeder took a day off from her job at Cessna Aircraft to go to the federal building in Wichita and enlist, the recruiters weren't ready for her. "At the recruiter's office, they told me, 'We can't take you because we don't have any materials; we aren't set up with papers to enlist women,'" she recalled. She went back to work at Cessna. And thought about it. Then, she took another day off, caught a train to Kansas City and enlisted there. "There is a certain pride with being a Marine," she said. "Just the reputation of the Marines. That's what got me in the first place."

Years of service[/CENTER]

See also:

All Marines to Get 'Unconscious Bias' Training as Women Join Infantry
Mar 18, 2016 | Marines across the Corps will be challenged on their unconscious prejudices and presuppositions as women get the opportunity to become grunts for the first time.

The Marine Corps is rolling out mandatory training for all Marines before the first future female rifleman hits boot camp, aiming to set conditions for a smooth transition and head off cultural resistance. Mobile training teams will be dispatched to installations across the Corps throughout May and June to offer a two-day seminar to majors and lieutenant colonels, Col. Anne Weinberg, deputy director of the Marine Corps Force Innovation Office, told reporters Thursday. Those officers will then train the Marines under them.

Topics include unconscious bias, which focuses on how people prejudge others based on factors such as race and gender, and principles of institutional change. The seminar will also walk officers through the elements of the Corps' plan for opening ground combat jobs to women and include vignettes featuring challenges units might encounter. "You're in the field, you only have this certain amount of space for billeting and you've got three women and six guys. How are you going to billet?" Weinberg said, describing a potential vignette. "Just some of these common sense things that these units probably haven't had to deal with so that ground combat units haven't had to deal with, but we've been dealing with in the rest of the Marine Corps for generations."

The Marine Corps rolled out a "commander's tool kit" of optional online classes on similar topics in late 2014 as the service prepared for the possibility of an integration mandate. A Center for Naval Analyses survey of 54,000 Marines recently obtained by The Washington Post gives context to the need for training on cultural and institutional resistance as female Marines go infantry. The report found that a significant majority of male Marines at every rank opposed the decision to have women serve in ground combat jobs. The resistance was strongest among male junior officers in the ranks of captain and below, who opposed women in ground combat jobs at a rate of more than 72 percent. At least a third of female Marines at every rank were also opposed to the idea.

The Marine Corps was also the only service branch to request that some combat units remain closed to women, after an extensive study found that teams and squads with female members were slower and less lethal than all-male units. Many, including Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, have criticized the study's findings and the conditions under which it was performed. "There's no doubt we're leading cultural change. It's not the first time for the Marine Corps, but we like a challenge," said Brig. Gen. James Glynn, director of the Marine Corps' office of communication. "The purpose of the mobile training team is to begin to facilitate the cultural change ... you've got to have the conversation."

MORE

 

[bodecea]

Women lie in military cuts. They will never offer there life in war.

We have already...for a long time, coward.

 

[Slyhunter]

A draft brings in the ineligible along with the legible. Not everyone is fit to serve in the service.