You Might want to read this, What happens when .mil females are held to standards?

[Averageman]

A year ago, Marine Lt. Col. Kate Germano, a lean, leathery, intense woman who’d had one key assignment after the next, took charge of the 4th Recruit Training Battalion, the Marines’ East Coast female-recruit training battalion. This unit had, for decades, accepted the idea that women needn’t achieve to men’s standards. She didn’t have any illusions about what women could and couldn’t do, but she also knew that “the soft bigotry of low expectations” was not the way to make Marines out of her young women.

And so she changed things. Boy howdy, did she change things. Things that had been accepted for decades in the unit — like female Marine recruits far underperforming males in rifle qualification. Germano was on solid ground here. Any experienced trainer can tell you women can compete shot-for-shot with their male counterparts on any flat range, and the Marines have made the flat, known-distance range the foundation stone of their world-renowned reputation for riflery.
More
http://weaponsman.com/?cat=33

All I can say is Wow!
The Military eats its best and brightest whenever they choose between what is right and what is politically expedient.

[Eurodriver]

http://weaponsman.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/LtCol-Kate-GermanoOffiicial-240x300.jpg

The irony here is that she has TWO pizza boxes.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Germano’s reputation suffered due to a lack of buy-in to her reform efforts from other officers in the unit, said another officer who spoke with the paper.

When did being an officer in the Marine Corp become a popularity contest like American Idol? I'm a civilian in a business and my company has more command line cohesiveness. There are all kinds of things I think I wrong. I tell my GM that it's not right, he says that's his decision and I implement the plan. Does the Marine Corp use Yelp for promotion boards now?

[wildcard600]

When did being an officer in the Marine Corp become a popularity contest like American Idol? I'm a civilian in a business and my company has more command line cohesiveness. There are all kinds of things I think I wrong. I tell my GM that it's not right, he says that's his decision and I implement the plan. Does the Marine Corp use Yelp for promotion boards now?

Maybe the other officers have curried more favor with the boss(wo)man ? I know all the places I've worked at if you try to upset the apple cart and don't have the proper weight behind your name plate (or the support of someone who does) your future career prospects there are pretty much over.

[Eurodriver]

When did being an officer in the Marine Corp become a popularity contest like American Idol? I'm a civilian in a business and my company has more command line cohesiveness. There are all kinds of things I think I wrong. I tell my GM that it's not right, he says that's his decision and I implement the plan. Does the Marine Corp use Yelp for promotion boards now?

1) The Marine Corps is a Corps. Not a corporation.

2) Once you reach Major, it becomes extremely political.

[Averageman]

2) Once you reach Major, it becomes extremely political.

As you might expect, some recruits and Marines thrived under Germano’s set-the-standard-and-meet-the-standard leadership. And some didn’t.

And the women that didn’t were resentful.

And the resentful women, unable to face Germano and perform at Marine levels, took a passive-aggressive approach. Whispering. Conniving. And ultimately, back-stabbing.

To the delight of the women who want being a woman in the Marines to be a free ride of lower standards, Brig. Gen. Terry Williams, the CG of Parris Island, relieved Germano for cause on 30 Jun 2015. Williams cited a “hostile, unprofessional and abusive” command climate, by which he meant, Germano’s insistence on high standards and the uncomfortable spotlight she shone on those Marines who fell short of her standards — or didn’t try.

“What she did when she came is she changed the mentality of the Marines in the battalion and the recruits to not expect a historically lower performance than the male recruits at the battalion,” said a female Marine officer stationed at the depot, one of three who spoke with Marine Corps Times on condition of anonymity, for fear of professional retribution. “Almost all the categories performed better during her tenure, just by challenging the training protocol of performing separately.”


Not having much experience working with the USMC, but a little anyway, I'm a bit shocked that I'm seeing the same political crap here as I'm seeing in "Big Army."
I would have thought leadership like this would have been applauded not cause for relief.

[jpmuscle]

So basically women keeping women down? Nice...

[Averageman]

So basically women keeping women down? Nice...
In a weird way yeah, Kinda.
I'm keeping track of women moving through Ranger school and the integration of more jobs in the Army Engineer Corps going to Women. At the same time we are looking at downsizing 40K jobs in the Army, we aren't exactly being fair to either sex if we give an undeserved "Pass" to Females.
What I'm reading between the lines here is that Germano was holding the "Standard", by doing so like it or not she was preparing these Marine Females to compete in a smaller Corps.
The political pressure to put more Females in traditionally Male MOS's means that either
A) You hold the standard and demand that those who apply for these jobs meet it
or
B) You compromise Military readiness by promoting and retaining folks in jobs they clearly were not made or ready for.
I believe Germano's point was that, yes, we can fill these roles by meeting and surpassing the minimum standard. This would allow positive promotions and the security of the standard by lifting these Women up rather than compromising what was expected regardless of sex.
Just kind of sad to see this.
To add;
http://www.islandpacket.com/2015/07/09/3829787_parris-island-battalion-commanding.html?rh=1
Germano verbally abused fellow officers and subordinates and created an environment of "toxic leadership," a command investigation found. She also told recruits rape was preventable, that those who drink put themselves in position to be assaulted, and made her subordinates fear reporting sexual assault, according to the investigation, a copy of which was obtained by The Beaufort Gazette and The Island Packet after a Freedom of Information Act request.
Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/2015/07/09/3829787_parris-island-battalion-commanding.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
Germano had begun command with a positive attitude and wanted the battalion to be competitive with others and to raise standards for physical fitness and rifle performance, the investigation documents showed.

In a letter to her battalion, Germano said the battalion worked through "considerable active and passive resistance" throughout the depot.

"Together we redefined the perceived physical and mental limits of female recruits and Marines, which will have a lasting and positive impact on the Institution," she wrote in the letter. "Regardless of my departure, you must never, ever give up trying to change the status quo.

"You are so much better than the Marine Corps knows and it is the right thing to do for not only the Institution, but also our nation. You deserve a seat at the table with your counterparts, but you must continue to earn it every day and never take it for granted."

Germano assumed command June 10, 2014. The battalion's executive officer will serve as acting commander until a replacement is selected.

Germano's next assignment is unknown, the spokesman said.

An anonymous complaint filed in April alleged that Germano abused authority and used abusive language and triggered a command climate survey, which anonymously assesses several factors within a commander's organization.

[Averageman]

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/military/2015/07/07/kate-germano-fired-marine-corps-female-recruit-unit-commander/29763371/

A May 18 "request mast" memo submitted to Williams, the depot commander, shows that Germano believed these efforts were being undermined by her immediate superior,

Recruit Training Regiment commander Col. Daniel Haas.

Germano wrote that Haas had an "intractable stance" regarding her ability to command that was further cemented by the poor results of the April command climate survey. Haas declined through his command to offer comment on the request mast.

"Through his words, actions, and omissions, he has empowered malcontents within my unit to foment dissent as demonstrated by the very pointed and similar comments about me in the recent [Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute] survey," she wrote. "...This has resulted in a climate where female Marines who seek out the regiment staff to complain that the battalion leadership is mean are treated with kid gloves (feelings vs. facts)."


In the request, she asked that depot leadership be directed to consider 100 percent of the battalion's feedback in forming a perspective on the unit's command climate, and that the entire unit be allowed to take a Commandant of the Marine Corps command climate survey, administered in a formal, controlled way. The DEOMI survey, she said, had been loosely controlled, allowing disgruntled Marines to take it multiple times and negatively weight the responses. According to official documentation, 64 of the 99 members of the battalion took the survey, and at least one respondent admitted to taking it more than once, though it's not clear what kind of feedback the respondent provided.

So now are we running the Military by a secret survey that some are allowed to take more than once in order to sway the numbers?

[nimdabew]

When did being an officer in the Marine Corp become a popularity contest like American Idol? I'm a civilian in a business and my company has more command line cohesiveness. There are all kinds of things I think I wrong. I tell my GM that it's not right, he says that's his decision and I implement the plan. Does the Marine Corp use Yelp for promotion boards now?

From what I understand from my family (47 years as officers in the Armed Forces) and Marines that I know are in right now, once you get above O4 and E5, it is all about politics. Rubbing the right shoulders, making good with the uppers, and making sure you don't stick up out of the group too much, but enough to get noticed for initiative and good judgement.

But what do I know, it seems this Marine has her head screwed on straight.

[3 AE]

Excerpt from another article, http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/jul/02/germano-relieved-command-parris-island/

"Although female Marines have been required to qualify with a service rifle such as the M-16 since 1985, Germano chafed against a “women can’t shoot” mentality among some in the Marine Corps. At the recruit depot, she worked with the head of Weapons and Field Training, Col. Jerry Leonard, to encourage marksmanship coaches to focus on mentoring female recruits, resulting in a bump in first-time rifle qualifications from 68 percent to 91 percent in a few months."

I'll be toasting the Colonel and all the instructors who did such a great job to get those recruits to improve their marksmanship scores to a better standard. To her superiors who canned her, "GFY"!

[TehLlama]

The irony here is that she has TWO pizza boxes.

Irony not lost, but every quote I've seen published mirrors my feelings - it's generally upsetting to see shit-how women Marines kept down because of the laziness of others, intransigence of a command structure informed by the former, and obnoxious cattiness that I've never fully understood - not sure if this is yet another case of it, but the bare minimum should be trying to keep the baby even if we're flushing out the bathwater.

[Eurodriver]

Irony not lost, but every quote I've seen published mirrors my feelings - it's generally upsetting to see shit-how women Marines kept down because of the laziness of others, intransigence of a command structure informed by the former, and obnoxious cattiness that I've never fully understood - not sure if this is yet another case of it, but the bare minimum should be trying to keep the baby even if we're flushing out the bathwater.

That's sexist.

This girl I was speaking to a while ago (who had probably never even met someone who has served in the military until I was behind her [whaaat ;) ] ) claimed that women not meeting standards is not the problem. The problem is that the standards were set by men, and in a truly "non-sexist" society, women would have just as much input as men in designing standards which would apply to everyone equally. Summarizing, but what she said was that women don't have it easier, men make the standards harder than necessary.

I looked her dead in the eye, with a straight ass face, knowing that I might lose the booty and said "Woman, a machine gun bullet fired by a woman-hating Islamic insurgent doesn't give a **** what kind of gender equality standard you have set. You are the same type of person who is going to blame the U.S. Military for failing to train women properly when they start coming home in body bags."

[Frailer]

There isn't nearly enough evidence presented to accurately judge what happened here.

But since the majority of posts are taking her side on the issue, I'll play devil's advocate: it's entirely possible to do the right thing the wrong way.

If your command climate sucks, you're a lousy commander. Period. It's not about politics--it's about leadership.

[Averageman]

A survey is a crappy way of measuring your effectiveness as a Leader.
If you take over a sinking ship as it would appear She did, telling everyone they need to grab a bucket and bail isn't going to be popular. The idea that people will work with you to fix things is less likely than that they are willing to go with the status quo where they are comfortable watching the system fail.
Any Leader that tries to implement change will always be faced with the sick, lame and lazy that have found a home within the failing system/unit.
You have to weigh your options and build your unit and discard those around you who are fat, dumb and happy. Leadership and being in charge can be a damned lonely place when you try and fix a failed system.
Handing out a survey to measure you effectiveness undermines the way to your goals. Those who will resent your changes, even if it is to make them better will resent you as a troublemaker and a bitch to work with. Once you get to the goal line, they will all be happy to have been a part of the "club", but until then you'll be an asshole.

[jpmuscle]

That's sexist.

This girl I was speaking to a while ago (who had probably never even met someone who has served in the military until I was behind her [whaaat ;) ] ) claimed that women not meeting standards is not the problem. The problem is that the standards were set by men, and in a truly "non-sexist" society, women would have just as much input as men in designing standards which would apply to everyone equally. Summarizing, but what she said was that women don't have it easier, men make the standards harder than necessary.

I looked her dead in the eye, with a straight ass face, knowing that I might lose the booty and said "Woman, a machine gun bullet fired by a woman-hating Islamic insurgent doesn't give a **** what kind of gender equality standard you have set. You are the same type of person who is going to blame the U.S. Military for failing to train women properly when they start coming home in body bags."
Can I be your wingman?

[Averageman]

Can I be your wingman?
I can only imagine how much fun that would be.

[Frailer]

A survey is a crappy way of measuring your effectiveness as a Leader...

Ever been a battalion commander?

A command climate survey--if done properly--is a fantastic tool, because you can garner information unavailable from any other source. Yes, you're always going to have a few that'll suck up to the boss and others who'll bitch to high heaven no matter what, but taken in the aggregate they tend to be a good dipstick measure of the climate within a unit.

I've never--not even once--seen a good leader get hammered by such a survey. I have, however, seen a few egotistical assholes get nailed to the wall.

[Averageman]

No, but I have been in a unit where someone was sent in to fix a problem. Getting from where we were, five deaths in a Battalion in 120 days with a nice mix of negligence, murder and stupidity to a fully functional border unit during the height of the Cold War.
The idea that a few hearts are going to be broken during such an upheaval of what has become the norm shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. I'm sure had someone went around and passed out a survey to see how folks were feeling about such a change it wouldn't have went well for the Battalion Commander.

[Frailer]

No, but I have been in a unit where someone was sent in to fix a problem. Getting from where we were, five deaths in a Battalion in 120 days with a nice mix of negligence, murder and stupidity to a fully functional border unit during the height of the Cold War.
The idea that a few hearts are going to be broken during such an upheaval of what has become the norm shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. I'm sure had someone went around and passed out a survey to see how folks were feeling about such a change it wouldn't have went well for the Battalion Commander.

And I'll bet you're wrong.

Nobody likes to be part of a brokedick unit, and when somebody comes in and makes an honest effort to fix it the *majority* of the unit (minus a few "broken hearts") will get onboard for the big win. Yeah, you'll always have the guy or gal who was flourishing under the old regime go whining to the IG (if you haven't had an IG complaint or a congressional or two as a commander, you probably aren't doing your job), but if your ducks are in a row you'll come out just fine.

I'll add that these surveys aren't generally interpreted by idiots--as you say, that a few will be disgruntled will surprise no one. It's quite possible this lady was shafted, but the odds are against her.

[Averageman]

I will respectfully disagree with you. I honestly believe the resentment during the first six months of his command would have had him relieved had someone handed out a "survey".
When you come in to a toxic situation like that many do not understand that the unit is 'brokedick", most of the E-4 and below understood that to be the "norm". It wasn't until we hit the 12 month mark with our Battalion Commander that the majority of soldiers began to appreciate where this was going.
In order to get there more than a few career Officers and NCO's were kicked to the curb.

[CarlosDJackal]

...I'll play devil's advocate: it's entirely possible to do the right thing the wrong way.

If your command climate sucks, you're a lousy commander. Period. It's not about politics--it's about leadership.

So are you saying that the Marines have gotten so soft and PC that breaking a few eggs to make an omelet is no longer acceptable even if it achieves mission success? I thought the Army was the only branch getting wussified.

[Frailer]

So are you saying that the Marines have gotten so soft and PC that breaking a few eggs to make an omelet is no longer acceptable even if it achieves mission success? I thought the Army was the only branch getting wussified.

I'm pretty careful to say what I mean, and that's not what I said.

Not at all.

Those who have never served in the military or who got out at the lance corporal level might not understand.

[Fox33]

I say she runs for office in a red state (she is good looking) probably very articulate and aggressive. Once in get on the house/ senate armed services committee. (I'd be her intern) The story of holding to standards and being pushed out because of them while being a female, plays on both sides of the political isle.

[skydivr]

Ever been a battalion commander?

A command climate survey--if done properly--is a fantastic tool, because you can garner information unavailable from any other source. Yes, you're always going to have a few that'll suck up to the boss and others who'll bitch to high heaven no matter what, but taken in the aggregate they tend to be a good dipstick measure of the climate within a unit.

I've never--not even once--seen a good leader get hammered by such a survey. I have, however, seen a few egotistical assholes get nailed to the wall.

I have. It's a difficult job, as you are balancing what you want to do, with what your boss wants you to do, and you need his/her CONCURRANCE AND SUPPORT to make it happen. You also need the support of your Senior NCO's or it won't happen. Buck the system too hard and you are going down. However, it can be done; just compassionately do the right thing and don't play favorites. I was never afraid of a command climate survey. You can be firm without coming across as arrogant. A GO I really respected told me once "Never forget, the higher you go, the more of a servant you are to those who serve you"...

[Frailer]

I have. It's a difficult job, as you are balancing what you want to do, with what your boss wants you to do, and you need his/her CONCURRANCE AND SUPPORT to make it happen. You also need the support of your Senior NCO's or it won't happen. Buck the system too hard and you are going down. However, it can be done; just compassionately do the right thing and don't play favorites. I was never afraid of a command climate survey. You can be firm without coming across as arrogant. A GO I really respected told me once "Never forget, the higher you go, the more of a servant you are to those who serve you"...

Bingo.

If you're afraid of a command climate survey, you're doing something wrong.