Category: Navy

Chief Tango sends us a link to a Washington Post opinion piece written by Ray Mabus, the Navy Secretary, who attempts to explain why he threw under the bus the Marines who took part in the experiment to integrate Women Marines into combat arms jobs.

During the study, however, the Marine Corps did not rely on the data for, or evaluate the performance of, individual female Marines; instead, it used only averages. Averages have no relevance to the abilities and performance of individual Marines.

[…]

The use of averages to disqualify every woman from ground combat positions in the Marine Corps — even one who meets the standards — does not meet the clear goals set by Panetta and Dempsey.

Yeah, well, Panetta and Dempsey aren’t in charge anymore, don’t use them as a scapegoat for your own political decisions, Ray. What the Marines said was that the performance of women during the experiment doesn’t justify the expense of training women to do a job that they can’t do – sure there are women who can do the job, but considering the rate at which others fail and sustain injuries, why is Mabus, in these days of budget belt-tightening, so willing to throw away training dollars on a program that only has a political upside, one that doesn’t improve the force and it’s primary mission?

As the nature of warfare becomes more dynamic and unpredictable, we need to be the strongest force possible, and diversity is one of our greatest strengths. When we talk about diversity, we mean the full spectrum of demographics, but even more important, we mean diversity of thinking.

Diversity is political-speak for shoving a square peg into a round hole.

The few, the proud, the Marines have never been about being average; this issue is about setting high standards to keep Marines exceptional.

So, Mabus thinks that by lowering combat standards, it’s actually raising the standards. Orwellian is the only adjective I can think of while reading this entire piece.

The other day, we talked about Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and his mistrust of the results of the Marine Corps’ mixed-gender units. In a link sent to us by Bobo and Marine_7002, the Washington Post talked to some of the Marines who feel that the Navy Secretary threw them all under the bus.

“Our secretary of the Navy completely rolled the Marine Corps and the entire staff that was involved in putting this [experiment] in place under the bus,” said Sgt. Danielle Beck, a female anti-armor gunner with the task force.

[…]

Sgt. Joe Frommling, one of the Marines who acted as one of Beck’s monitors for the experiment, said he was frustrated with the secretary’s comments.

“What Mabus said went completely against what the command was saying the whole time,” said Frommling. “They said, ‘Hey no matter what your opinion is, go out there and give it your best and let the chips fall where they may.’”

I’m sure they gave it their best shot. They all volunteered for the nine-month experiment, so I have to think that they were serious about it. Mabus dismissing the experiment out-of-hand is about the worst display of leadership that I’ve ever seen. In fact, the Marines have gone out of their way from the very beginning of this grand experiment to provide the service chiefs with the best information available.

I’ve always been of the opinion that Mabus was out of his depth in that job, and this only proves it. Those women in the Heavy Weapons Company busted their asses lugging those systems around for the Secretary, and he, with a wave of his hand negated all of that work, just so he could kneel at the altar of social justice.

Perhaps worse is when he said that the Marines involved in the training “presupposed” the outcome, while he, himself, was doing the same thing. Mabus should step down and get out of the way of his Marines as they prepare for the next war.

According to The Hill, the Navy Secretary, Ray Mabus, disputes the findings of the Marine Corps’ 9-month study involving mixed-gender units. He thinks that the study is biased for political reasons;

“They started out with a fairly largely component of the men thinking this is not a good idea, and women will not be able to do this,” he said in an interview with NPR.

“When you start out with that mindset, you’re almost presupposing the outcome,” he said.

[…]

Mabus said some of the report’s conclusions were based on generalizations and not the women’s performance.

“Part of the study said women tend not to be able to carry as heavy a load for as long, but there were women who went through the study who could,” he said.

“And part of the study said we’re afraid because women get injured more frequently that over time, women will break down more, that you’ll begin to lose your combat effectiveness over time.

“That was not shown in the study, that was an extrapolation based on injury rates,” he said.

I guess that he gets his talking points from Ellen Haring. The fact remains that the women volunteered for the study which means that they wanted it to succeed. Some of the women had initial training, some of them had no training, you know just like some of the guys that I’d get in my unit. They all volunteered, they all wanted to succeed, like the ladies.

Basically, Mabus is vocalizing that which we’ve always known about this administration’s civilian leadership of the military – they don’t trust the services to give them good advice. Mabus, himself, presupposed the outcome of this study and he’s resistant to information to the contrary and he’s willing to throw his flag officers under the bus because they tell him that his preconceived notions are wrong.

Mabus and Haring and the rest of the social engineers don’t care that their plans will kill male and female Marines – they just care that they’ve given up those Marines for sacrifice on the alter of their religion.