Women in Combat

[Manonthestreet]

A new book sums up 13 years of research on female participation in IDF combat units and declares the feminist experiment in the Israeli military a failure. “Lochamot Betzahal” by Col. (res.) Raza Sagi, a former infantry regiment commander, points to high rates of serious injury among women serving in combat units, and to involvement of radical political groups behind the scenes of the campaign for combat service by women. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/wap/Item.aspx?type=0&item=181604

 

[whitehall]

Everybody knows it's a failure. Warships have been turned into soap operas with a co-ed crew and everyone knows it but Navy senior officers are afraid to talk about it if they value their careers.

 

[waltky]

Not likely, but he may issue an XO against drafting women...

Will Trump Reinstate a Ban on Women in Combat?
Dec 03, 2016 | Trump has not said explicitly whether he plans to reverse Ashton Carter's order that opened ground combat assignments to women

Hundreds of young women on track to join ground-level Army units over the next year would lose their positions if the Trump administration reimposes a ban on women serving in front-line combat. Those numbers are among the reasons that outgoing Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning believes Trump would have trouble undoing Obama-era orders enabling women to serve in military positions that had long been barred to them. "It's hard to roll these things back," he said in an interview with The Sacramento Bee on his way to a defense conference in Los Angeles this week. "A lot of work has been put in place, and you already have service members serving." As Trump fills out his Cabinet, advocates for women in uniform are watching closely to see if he will overturn Defense Secretary Ash Carter's December 2015 order that opened all military positions to women.

Fanning has a hand in the transition, meeting with Trump advisers to help them be ready when Trump takes office Jan. 20. "We will do whatever they need us to do to make sure they feel prepared," Fanning said. Trump on the campaign trail derided Obama's "PC" military, but he has not said explicitly whether he plans to reverse Carter's order opening ground combat assignments to women. On Thursday, Trump picked retired Marine Gen. James Mattis to be his defense secretary. Mattis, a highly respected commander from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, has acknowledged that women likely will meet the physical demands of serving in front-line positions, but he has questioned whether it's in the military's best interest to place women in the most dangerous posts.

Army Capt. Kristen Griest carries a soldier during Ranger School at Fort Benning, Ga. She was one of the first two women to make it through the 62-day leadership course​

The Marine Corps last year sought a waiver from the order that opened all military assignments to women, citing its own study that mixed-gender units are less effective than all-male teams. It did not receive the exemption and must comply with Carter's order. "There is a great difference between military service in dangerous circumstances and serving in a combat unit whose role is to search out and kill the enemy at close quarters," Mattis said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last year. Since his election, some of Trump's surrogates, including Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, have urged him to reverse what they refer to as Obama's "social engineering" policies. "It doesn't do anything to make us more effective or efficient at getting the job done and killing our enemies and protecting our allies. It's just a distraction," Hunter, an early Trump supporter and former Marine, told the Washington Times after Trump's election.

But on the ground, Fanning senses a different reaction among troops when he asks them whether they are ready to serve in mixed-gender combat units. "When I go out into the field and ask these questions, I get looked [at] like I'm crazy for asking because it shouldn't be a big deal," he said. Since Carter's order, a female captain has joined an infantry unit in the Army's 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division. It's among the units that tend to deploy first in a crisis. Other women have moved into newly open artillery units across the Army. Elsewhere, about 40 female lieutenants are expected to join infantry and armor units as platoon leaders in the coming year. "Those who have met these women want to fight with these women because they are forces of nature," Fanning said.

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See also:

Instructors: Female Grads of Armor Leader Course Overcame Skeptics
Dec 02, 2016 | Army Armor Basic Officer Leaders Course instructors said they'd serve under the first 13 female lieutenants who graduated.

Instructors at the U.S. Army's Armor Basic Officer Leaders Course said they would serve under the first 13 female lieutenants who graduated the course "in a heartbeat." "They blew us away during our field training exercises," said Staff Sgt. William Hare, an instructor at the course. "Their ability to plan, adapt on the fly and execute that plan in a clear and concise manner and communicate plan changes on the go -- it was amazing." Hare was among a handful of instructors and leaders who spoke to reporters about the first gender-integrated class of ABOLC that graduated 53 male and 13 female officers at Fort Benning, Georgia, on Thursday. Two women and six men did not meet the standards and will recycle, Benning officials said. Two males were medically dropped from the course. This is the latest step in the Army's effort to integrate women into combat arms jobs such as armor and infantry.

In late October, 10 female lieutenants graduated from the first gender-integrated class of Infantry Officer Basic Leaders Course at Benning. And in August 2015, Capt. Kristen Griest and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver became the first women to graduate Army Ranger School. Maj. Lisa A. Jaster became the third woman to graduate from Ranger School two months later. Defense Secretary Ash Carter in December 2015 ordered all military jobs, including special operations, opened to women. His directive followed a 2013 Pentagon order that the military services open all positions to women by early 2016.

Students from the Armor Basic Leader Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, train during a combined competitive maneuver exercise at Benning’s Good Hope Training Area​

Thursday's graduation of the 13 female officers from ABOLC is "consistent with what you have seen over the last 18 months," said Maj. Gen. Eric Wesley, commanding general of the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Benning. "We always knew that when we entered this effort that we wanted the process to be standards-based," Wesley said. "In the case of Ranger School, we wanted to make sure there were clear objective standards to determine qualification to become a Ranger. In terms of IBOLC the same thing -- it was all standards-based. And now, in the armor community, we have done the same thing."

The 13 female graduates performed as well as their male counterparts on the High Physical Demands Test, a series of tasks designed to validate that any soldier serving in an MOS has "the right physical attributes to perform in that particular military occupational specialty," said Brig. Gen. John Kolasheski, commandant of the Armor School at Benning. "It's gender-neutral, and they performed at the same rate as their male peers in all of those tasks." The new graduates now will go to the Army Reconnaissance Course at Benning. After that, some will go to Airborne School and Ranger School before being assigned to operational units, Benning officials said.

Once they leave Benning, female combat arms officers are being assigned to Fort Hood, Texas, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Staff Sgt. George Baker, another instructor at ABOLC, said he had his doubts initially about women in the armor community. "There was some skepticism at first, just to see can they do it … but as soon as they started performing to those same standards -- because we didn't change anything and they performed to those same standards, and they met and exceeded those same standards -- it solidified that they have a place here," Baker said.

Instructors: Female Grads of Armor Leader Course Overcame Skeptics | Military.com

 

[waltky]

Prob'ly cause dey scared the bejeebers outta dat lady hangin' from dat helicopter...

Air Force Confirms No Women Now in SpecOps Training
Dec 07, 2016 | The U.S. Air Force has confirmed no women are currently in training for any special operations positions.

The U.S. Air Force has confirmed no women are currently in training for any special operations positions. Confusion over the matter surfaced this week after Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in a commentary published Saturday on the website medium.com suggested a female airman was training to become a tactical air control party, or TACP. "Interest in the Air Force's battlefield airmen career fields has increased, with 18 women attempting initial training," he wrote. "I am proud to say that the first woman has entered training to become a tactical air control party airman."

The essay, "Combat Integration: The First Year of Firsts," was designed to highlight the Defense Department's groundbreaking policy change this year to open all combat positions to all qualified candidates regardless of gender. However, the female airman to which Carter was referring left the program in July after becoming injured, according to an Air Force official. "The individual in question entered the TACP training pipeline earlier this year, but subsequently withdrew due to medical reasons and returned to her original [Air Force Specialty Code]," said Maj. Andrew J. Schrag, spokesman for Air Combat Command, confirmed in an email to Military.com on Monday. "At this moment, there are no women currently enrolled," Schrag said.

A UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter hoists a tactical air control party airman during a training exercise in New Jersey​

Officials have said efforts are underway to recruit more female into so-called battlefield airmen roles -- those comprising combat controllers, pararescuemen, special operations weathermen and TACP airmen. Only a handful were in line to begin the very early stages of the program's process, Capt. Jose Davis of Air Education and Training Command, told Military.com in October. "Before entrance into the pipeline, one of the several requisites for potential applicants is passing the Physical Ability and Stamina Test (PAST)," he said at the time.

There had been nine civilian women, or potential recruits, who started taking the test, Davis said then. Four of the women withdrew and five were still working to pass, he said. "When we do get the first woman in the pipeline, she'll be in the Battlefield Airman Training Group, 37th Training Wing, at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland," Davis said then. "After completion of training in the Battlefield Airman Training Group, Airmen are then sent to their respective AFSCs," in various commands, Davis explained in an email statement. There are also differences between officers and enlisted personnel getting into the battlefield training training pipeline. In the final months of President Barack Obama's administration, Carter has expounded on the importance of women in combat at a time when questions continue to swirl over whether President-elect Donald Trump will seek to roll back recent social changes in the military.

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[Bleipriester]

 

[ThunderKiss1965]

Other than Detroit you will not find any cities in the US that are as bombed out as most cities in the Middle East, a part of the world that has seen warfare almost continuously for several millennia. The women there are better prepared for it than most in the US.

 

[Bleipriester]

Other than Detroit you will not find any cities in the US that are as bombed out as most cities in the Middle East, a part of the world that has seen warfare almost continuously for several millennia. The women there are better prepared for it than most in the US.

There was not more war than elsewhere. Women in Syria´s military are nothing new but the combination of a real defense war and an Islamist enemy should have increased their numbers over normal. Syria is not in a state of total war, though. That means there is much to do in the economy what should limit their numbers on the other hand.

 

[ThunderKiss1965]

Other than Detroit you will not find any cities in the US that are as bombed out as most cities in the Middle East, a part of the world that has seen warfare almost continuously for several millennia. The women there are better prepared for it than most in the US.

There was not more war than elsewhere. Women in Syria´s military are nothing new but the combination of a real defense war and an Islamist enemy should have increased their numbers over normal. Syria is not in a state of total war, though. That means there is much to do in the economy what should limit their numbers on the other hand.

Did you notice the building in the video that kind of destruction doesn't happen over night.

 

[Bleipriester]

Other than Detroit you will not find any cities in the US that are as bombed out as most cities in the Middle East, a part of the world that has seen warfare almost continuously for several millennia. The women there are better prepared for it than most in the US.

There was not more war than elsewhere. Women in Syria´s military are nothing new but the combination of a real defense war and an Islamist enemy should have increased their numbers over normal. Syria is not in a state of total war, though. That means there is much to do in the economy what should limit their numbers on the other hand.

Did you notice the building in the video that kind of destruction doesn't happen over night.

There has been little shifting of the front lines in the past two years and even for longer. The terrorists attack and the army eventually repels the attacks. That´s happening over and over and over again. Also, strongholds are targeted by the airforce. However, with the Russians backing the SAA, they became more offensive. Prior to that, like 2013 and 2014, support for the terrorists has increased when the army gained the upper hand but now the effect of more TOWs and other weapons, the summoning of more terrorists is lesser as the Syrian military improves in both numbers and equipment and enjoys Russian aircover in addition to Syrian.

Not everything might be true here, for example the T-90 are Syrian operated not Iranian:
The rebirth of the Syrian Arab Army, by Valentin Vasilescu

 

[waltky]

Women marines in ground infantry unit...

3 women become 1st female US Marines in ground infantry unit
Jan. 5, 2017 — For the first time, the Marine Corps has put three enlisted female Marines in a ground combat unit once open only to men, officials said Thursday.

They will serve as a rifleman, machine gunner and mortar Marine, said 1st Lt. John McCombs, spokesman for the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejuene. They report Thursday to the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, which has had three female officers in its ranks for several months to help integrate the enlisted females into the unit, McCombs said. The women's names and ranks were not released. "This process ensures the Marine Corps will adhere to its standards and will continue its emphasis on combat readiness," McCombs said in an email.

Their entry in the unit marks ongoing efforts to comply with Defense Secretary Ash Carter's directive in December 2015 to open all military jobs to women, including the most dangerous commando posts. That decision was formal recognition of the thousands of female servicewomen who fought in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars in recent years, including those who were killed or wounded. Carter's decision also stood as a rebuff to the Marine Corps, which was the only service branch to ask for an exception to women serving in certain infantry and combat slots.

The Army, Navy, Air Force and Special Operations Command all said they would not seek any exceptions and would recommend removing the ban on women in dangerous combat jobs. In June, six months after Carter's move, The Associated Press reported the Marine Corps had seven female officers either serving in combat posts or waiting in line to serve, and 167 women with noncombat jobs in front-line units. There are about 40,000 Marines in the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/28a8170d92c54b8d84748f6e65d6dbc8

 

[waltky]

Former congresswoman and Air Force Academy graduate...

Trump's SecAF Pick May Signal Openness to Women in Combat
Jan 25, 2017 | President Donald Trump's choice for the next Air Force secretary could be a signal to troops that neither he nor Defense Secretary James Mattis intend to impose a ban on women in combat.

Heather Wilson, a former congresswoman and Air Force Academy graduate, hasn't directly advocated for women on the front lines -- indeed, she once raised doubts about lifting the ban on female troops serving in direct combat arms positions. But she has aggressively backed the need for women in combat support roles, according to congressional testimony from 2005. Wilson was elected in 1998 to represent New Mexico's 1st Congressional District and at the time was the first and only female veteran serving in Congress.

During a spirited debate more than a decade ago over whether the U.S. should move to ban military women from serving and supporting their male counterparts on the front lines, Wilson had no intention of letting the subject whittle away just because male members in Congress believed "good men protect women" -- and not the other way around. "Good women want freedom, too, and will fight for it," the retired Air Force captain said, according to a New York Daily News story from May 19, 2005. Committee members were concerned over the rising casualty rates for women serving in the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Heather Wilson is seen in Albuquerque, N.M.​

At that time, nearly 40 women had been killed and 250 wounded during Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Prior to the hearing, the House had last debated the issue of women in combat in 1979, according to the Center for Military Readiness. While Wilson was skeptical of lifting the ban on women serving directly in combat, such as infantry and artillery roles, she said it was "silly" and "offensive" to limit the women already serving as medics, drivers, military police, engineers and even other roles such as Female Engagement Teams -- which were vital in advising and collecting information from local families in the Middle East without breaking cultural norms. The idea "just doesn't make sense," she said at the time. "We can't meet our recruiting needs now."

Lawmakers "ultimately abandoned" the provision, according to Congressional Quarterly's issue tracker on women in the military. "This was unnecessary and unhelpful," Wilson said of the back-and-forth negotiations. "There will be no restrictions in statute for how the Army can assign women in the military." The congresswoman later ran in 2008 for a Senate seat, but lost during the primary election. This month, during his Senate confirmation hearing, Defense Secretary James Mattis said he would support the current policy on women in combat roles. "I have no plan to oppose women in any aspect of our military," he said.

MORE

 

[Bleipriester]

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says if he was inna foxhole - he'd want a woman coverin' him...

No Plans to Limit Women in Combat, General Says
Feb 08, 2017 | Despite rumors to the contrary, there's nothing in the works at the Defense Department to revise current rules opening combat roles to women who qualify, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Daniel Allyn said Tuesday.

"There's been no conversation in the Pentagon about reviewing [or] revising the commitment that's been made to gender integration," Allyn said in testimony during a House Armed Services Committee hearing. Allyn was responding to questions from Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat, who said she had heard "rumblings that the [Trump] administration" with input from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford was "talking about reviewing, revising or appealing this policy" to have all military occupational specialties open to women. Speier asked, "Do you know about any efforts to do that, and doesn't that kind of fly in the face of having the ready workforce we need if you're excluding women who are capable to engage in combat?"

Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Daniel B. Allyn recognizes Army Staff Sgt. Kendra Langsford for outstanding performance as an intelligence noncommissioned officer at Camp Lemonnier​

Allyn, who spent much of his time at the hearing complaining that Army readiness is being affected by budget cuts, said the current state of readiness of all the services could not be maintained without having women able to fill roles that were previously closed to them. "We're all achieving higher levels of readiness now that we are opening it up to 100 percent of the population of America being able to contribute," he said. Mattis raised concerns among advocates of gender integration, and possibly gave some encouragement to critics, when he said at his Senate confirmation hearing last month that he might "look at it" if a field commander came to him with a perceived problem about having women on the front lines.

However, he said, "The standards are the standards and, when people meet the standards, then that's the end of the discussion on that." "I have no plan to oppose women serving in any aspect in our military," Mattis said. "In 2003, I had hundreds of Marines who happened to be women, serving in my 23,000-person Marine division. I put them right into the front lines just like everyone else." "If someone brings me a problem, I'll look at. But I'm not coming in looking for problems -- I'm looking for ways to get the department so it's at its most lethal stance."

No Plans to Limit Women in Combat, General Says | Military.com

 

[DrainBamage]

Forget this crap man, Israeli female soldiers are hot as shit. Need more, not less.

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says she got dat look about her...

The Marine Corps Has Its First Female Armor Officer
14 Apr 2017 | WASHINGTON -- The Marine Corps' first female armor officer will soon report to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where she will become the first woman to lead a Marine tank platoon.

On Wednesday, 2nd Lt. Lillian R. Polatchek graduated from the Army-led Basic Armor Officer Leaders Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, said Marine Capt. Joshua Pena, a spokesman for Marine Training and Education Command. Polatchek was the top graduate in the class of 67 soldiers and Marines. Polatchek downplayed her history-making graduation in a video released Wednesday by the Marine Corps. "Ultimately, I am sort of just looking at it as another Marine graduating from this course," she said. Soldiers and Marines must complete the 19-week course to become armor officers. Polatchek's graduating class had only five Marines, but each graduated in the top 20 percent of the class, including the top three students, according to a Marine Corps statement.

Polatchek credited her previous training in Marine Officer Candidate School and the Basic School, where newly commissioned Marine officers are taught leadership skills, for preparing her to do well in armor school. "We as a group [of Marines] did a really great job and that reflects on the class rankings," she said. "So it shows the success of all of our training up to this point and then how we worked well together as a group thanks to our instructors here." Polatchek is a native of New York and a 2012 graduate of Connecticut College, according to the Corps' statement. She joined the Marines in 2015 and attended Officer Candidate School. After completing the Basic School, she elected to attempt armor school. She is the third female Marine officer to complete training to serve in a traditionally all-male, front-line combat position. The Pentagon opened all military jobs previously closed to women in April 2016.

Standing in front of an M1A1 Abrams tank, 2nd Lt. Lillian Polatchek is the first female Marine Tank Officer after graduating as the distinguished honor graduate of her Army's Armor Basic Officer Leaders Course​

Two female Marines completed artillery officer training in May of last year and are both serving with the 11th Marines at Camp Pendleton in California, Pena said. Two female Marine officers this month will begin the Corps' Infantry Officer Course in an attempt to become the first women to serve as infantry officers, Pena said. More than 30 female Marine officers had washed out from the course previously. There are no other women, either officers or enlisted, awaiting Marines' armor training, Pena said. No enlisted women are serving in an armor position, he said. Four enlisted female Marines have completed infantry training and are serving in infantry units at Camp Lejeune and Camp Pendleton. Pena said additional enlisted female Marines are expected to complete infantry training and join combat units in the near future.

It was not immediately clear Thursday when Polatchek would check in to her new unit, the 2nd Tank Battalion, or when she would take command of a tank platoon, spokesmen for Marine headquarters and the II Marine Expeditionary Force said. In the Corps' statement, Polatchek said she was looking forward to leading Marines. "A tank platoon has 16 Marines, and that small leadership size really gives you, as a platoon commander, the ability to directly work with the Marines you're leading," she said. "I'm excited to take everything we've learned [in armor training] and get a chance to go out to the fleet and apply it."

The Marine Corps Has Its First Female Armor Officer | Military.com

 

[waltky]

Women graduate infantry training...

First Women Finish Army's Enlisted Infantry Training
21 May 2017 | The graduates are part of an Army initiative to integrate women into previously closed military occupational specialties.

Moments before 18 women were about to walk across Inouye Field at Fort Benning, Ga., to become brand new privates and specialists, a female drill sergeant offered clarity. "This is a big deal," she said to the younger women Friday morning on the grounds of the National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center. "You are making f---ing history." It was the kind of clarity that only a drill sergeant can provide. The four women were among 18 who graduated from One Station Unit Training as the first women to take the enlisted route to become infantrymen. It was another in a string of historic Army gender-integration events that have played out at the Maneuver Center of Excellence over the last four years. Friday was part of the third and final phase.

Though Friday's graduates are the first enlisted women to complete infantry-specific basic training, they are part of a much broader initiative that started in 2013 when the Army made the formal move to integrate women into previously closed military occupational specialties. The women will be moving to assignments at either Fort Hood, Texas, or Fort Bragg, N.C. They will be going to units where there will be women in positions of responsibility at platoon, company and battalion level, Army officials have said. Some will remain at Fort Benning to complete Airborne School before moving to a unit.

U.S. Army Soldiers prepare to graduate Infantry One Station Unit Training (OSUT), in March 2017 at the National Infantry Museum's Inouye Parade Field.​

During Friday's graduation ceremony, there was no official mention of the historic event and media coverage was limited to two outlets, The New York Times and Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. The only time gender was mentioned during the ceremony was when various speakers referred to the new soldiers as "infrantrymen" and 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment commander Lt. Col. Sam Edwards referred to the Infantry in its historic context as "Queen of Battle."

The colonel, charged with overseeing the basic training at Fort Benning, said the women earned the blue cords and the right to call themselves infantrymen. "It is not soccer camp. Everybody doesn't get a trophy here," said Col. Kelly Kendrick, 198th Infantry Brigade commanding officer. "It's very demanding. And we only give this to those who earn it. We don't give this away -- man or woman." There were 48 women trainees who arrived at Fort Benning in February, and 32 of them were deemed ready to attempt basic training without any additional physical training. The 18 graduates were among those 32 soldiers. There were 148 men who started the class, and 119 of them graduated.

'I am like anybody else'

 

[xband]

Women belong in the kitchen rattling those pots and pans.

 

[fncceo]

I work as an LEO in a metropolitan city and roughly a third of my fellow officers are women. In many ways, they will see more 'combat' than most soldiers. Aggressive confrontations occur daily and hand-to-hand combat is a regular occurrence. Being threatened with knives and firearms becomes routine.

Police don't suffer the depredations of military combat, bad food, isolation, lack of sleep. But they will experience more daily stress over the long term than most combat soldiers.

There is no reality that these women are any less capable than their male counterparts and, in some cases, more capable.

 

[xband]

I work as an LEO in a metropolitan city and roughly a third of my fellow officers are women. In many ways, they will see more 'combat' than most soldiers. Aggressive confrontations occur daily and hand-to-hand combat is a regular occurrence. Being threatened with knives and firearms becomes routine.

Police don't suffer the depredations of military combat, bad food, isolation, lack of sleep. But they will experience more daily stress over the long term than most combat soldiers.

There is no reality that these women are any less capable than their male counterparts and, in some cases, more capable.

However, women get emotional when they should remain cool, calm and collect when bees are buzzing close to their ears. Not actual bees but real bullets.

 

[xband]

Forget this crap man, Israeli female soldiers are hot as shit. Need more, not less.

Brain Damage is an outstanding username and reminds me of Famdamnly.