Marine Commandant opens Infantry Officer Course to women

[SeriousStudent]

http://www.dallasnews.com/incoming/20120424-marines-will-open-infantry-school-to-women.ece

http://www.military.com/news/article/marine-corps-to-open-officer-infantry-school-to-women.html

Short version: They are looking for some female volunteers for some testing, I guess.

Any of you gents at Quantico, CMC or HQMC have more scoop?

Sergeant Santoro: Hear anything at work?

I do not view this as the downfall of my beloved Corps. We are plenty good at doing that all by ourselves, without any help from the SecDef.

Just curious what others have heard. Thanks.

[LowSpeed_HighDrag]

L.O.L.

Well, I suppose I ought to choose my words carefully lest I be NJP'd for my remarks. God's gift to the Marine Corps, especially in the Infantry, is the fresh 2nd Lt who learned all about being a leader while getting drunk and partying in school for 4 years. I suppose God's next greatest gift will be the female Infantry 2nd Lt. Im very excited to see how this turns out, watching a motivated platoon Sgt report in to the boot female platoon commander sounds like the beginning of a good story....

I will say this, most Marine's will handle this with professionalism. If nothing more, we will retain our professionalism....

[SeriousStudent]

The third most dangerous phrase ever uttered: A boot 2nd Lt saying "Based on my experience...."

The second most dangerous: A Lance Criminal telling another "Here, hold my beer."

The MOST dangerous: A Chief Warrant Officer saying "Check this shit out!"

I do agree, a lot of the SNCO's will grit their teeth, smile, and do their utmost to carry out their orders. But there are a lot of fertile minds amongst the PFC's. I know, I was one once. I was almost one twice. ;)

I'll be curious if it becomes another ticket punch for the truly ambitious. I met some female field grades that would have eaten their own young for a silver eagle. Male ones too, of course.

We shall see.

[The_War_Wagon]

Would LOVE to see Gunny Highway's take on this. Clint's gonna hafta come out of retirement, and make one MORE movie after all. ;)

[Moose-Knuckle]

I think Chesty just rolled over in his grave. . .:eek:

[feedramp]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/25/marine-corps-discharges-sergeant-who-posted-facebook-posts-critical-obama/

[William B.]

The TBS CO has gone around to the BOC Companies seeking volunteers. It looks like the next IOC class to pick up will be the beginning of this social experiment. Soon afterward Infantry Training Battalion at Camp Geiger will begin accepting enlisted females. ITB will be hard enough for females... especially if they were to end up with a weapons MOS like Machinegunner or Mortarman. IOC is a different beast, though. The female officers will fail miserably if held to the existing standard.

[SeriousStudent]

Very interesting - thank you for the information. My daughter will be at Parris Island for recruit training this fall. I would be amazed if she had an opportunity to do the same 0331 course I did many decades ago.

She's strong, but I think I know only one woman that could make it through that course. That Pig was heavy.

[Reagans Rascals]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfboOt1bJcA

wont be too much longer before they'll fire up the all female 7th Force Recon Batt....

The Navy already allows females into EOD, Flight Ops, and now even Submarines... SEALs and SWCC can't be too far behind...

I'll flat out say it, yes women can do what ever they set their mind too, however in a predominantly male profession, women are a liability in combat arms.... they gum up the works, cause too many issues as to special health concerns, private birthing and heads, and are at a much higher risk of assault, rape, and torture if captured by the enemy, not to mention the fact that males will linger over fatally wounded females longer than their less severely wounded male counterparts... its a fact

I don't believe women should be integrated into combat units, if they want their own units then let them have them, but be completely segregated... a female combat unit that is completely staffed by females from the ground up... no help from the men... "because they can do anything a man can do"... so then put up or shut up... give them a unit staffed by only females and see how it fares in Afghanistan... when they are faced with killing a child suicide bomber

Jesus can you imagine being stuck on an SSBN for 6 months under the ice pack... with a boat full of females... fml... the boat'll come back and when they crack the hatch there won't be any sign of the men... like they just vanished... just gone... no sign of them ever even being there

ETA: my statement is based on AMERICAN WOMEN.... not battle harden broads that have actually been fighting like those in the IDF... I'm talking about the pigs back here that watch shows like Say Yes to the Dress and eat enough butter to clog a sink

[Mauser KAR98K]

I have an idea for the MOS female infantrymen----I mean infrantrywomen (ha, the spell checker doesn't know what to do):

Designated Marksman...I mean Markswoman (damn, again, the spellchecker is going nuts). It worked well for the Russians in WWII--excuse me, the Great Patriotic War.

Hopefully we can have some IDF women come on over and train ours for mindset preparation in combat.

[RogerinTPA]

Sorry to hear that Marines, but it was bound to happen, and "they" will continue to press the boundaries of our military, to force this social experiment. IIRC, the same was said for blacks in WW II and Korea, and women as fighter pilots. It was all BS prejudiced that was completely unfounded. If they can hack it, then good on them.

According to the statistics, attacks against women in the military, across the services, has been at an all time high over the last decade, at the hands of guys in their own units. Which leads one to believe that they are more in danger at the hands of those in which they serve with. They have been enduring this all along, and to date, only a few have been captured in war and treated that way, but thats to be expected.

IF you have well trained and disciplined troops who watch out for each other, with strong leadership, the odds are, attacks inside the unit and capture from the enemy, won't occur, but thats is a pretty big IF.

[Javelin]

I saw a chick @ the gym the other day that was wearing Marine shorts and she was freaking cut. Not like body builder but she was seriously cut. Would guess she could press 200lbs by the look of her back & shoulders. Not too bad looking either if you like really buff half asian looking women that wear Marine shorts.

:dirol: