TSO sends us a link to an article written by Elliot Ackerman. First I should say that Elliot Ackerman is an authentic hero of the war against terror. he was a Marine, earned one each Bronze and Silver Star and a Purple Heart. But this thing that he wrote for The Atlantic is garbage. He says that instead of sending women to infantry schools to find out what they can handle physically, they should send women to SEAL and Special Forces Schools.
Last month, three women became the first of their sex to graduate from the Marine Corps’ famously grueling Advanced Infantry Training Course. The Marine Corps was asking a simple question by running small groups through these courses in experimental test batches, two to five women at a time: Can the female body withstand the rigors of infantry training? The answer, these women showed, is that it can.
Ackerman is misrepresenting the process – the Marines asked for female volunteers, only 14 volunteered and throughout the course all but four dropped. The fourth injured herself after she completed the course requirements, so three showed up for the graduation ceremony. There were no “test batches” – that was what they had.
So far much of the debate surrounding integration has focused on the physical capabilities of women, as if this were the singular issue. Admittedly the strain of infantry training, or even combat, is relatively easier for a 6-foot tall, 180-pound man, but there are women fit enough to survive these punishing courses. As for combat, well, if we’ve proved anything over the last decade of war, it’s that women can sustain its rigors.
So if the barrier to integrating women into the infantry isn’t a physical one then what is it?
It’s cultural. And that’s why the infantry may not be the best place to start in military gender integration. Instead, as counterintuitive as it might sound, the military should begin with its Special Operations Forces: elite units such as the Green Berets and SEALs. Although not the obvious move, starting here would likely make for a smoother transition over all.
No, Mr Ackerman, it’s physical – that’s why ten female Marines didn’t finish the course, it has nothing to do with the culture. You don’t understand the discussion because you think that the Marines are sending though “test batches” of women. They’re sending all they have and two thirds dropped out. Sending them to tougher and more vigorous isn’t going to change that.
If you think it’s a culture thing that’s holding women up, you might make sense, but it’s nature that’s holding them up from completion. 56% of women Marines graduating from boot camp can’t do three F’n pull ups – at a time in their lives that they’re more in good physical shape than ever before.
The women who pass through the Marine Corps Infantry Officer Course or the Army Ranger School are going to be pretty tough—they’ll have to be. The problem won’t be them. The problem will be convincing the 19-year-old grunts to accept their presence. Grunts are trained to believe they’re the toughest thing wearing two combat boots, a conviction that helps them withstand the brutality that is the very essence of their job. But most will concede there is one thing tougher than them: the special operator.
And therein lies a solution.
The culture of our Special Operations Forces values physical toughness, but it puts its highest premium on attributes such as creative thinking and maturity. The average special operator is in his late twenties. In fact, women already serve in significant, albeit restricted capacities, among the most elite and secretive special operations communities in the Joint Special Operations Command and Central Intelligence Agency. By contrast, in an infantry battalion, women aren’t even allowed to have their names on the rolls.
Yeah, and if we all close our eyes, click our heels together three times and wish real hard, companies of women are going to show up for Ranger School and graduate. Because that’s what Mr Ackerman is asking us to believe. He doesn’t want to recognize women’s physical differences, he only wants to blame the macho culture for their failures.
