Gotterdammerung: The Armed Forces

Army colonel: Physical strength not the end-all, be-all of combat service

On the surface that sounds like a reasonable statement, but is it?

An Army officer writing in a prestigious journal says the services should not overemphasize physical strength when deciding whether a woman qualifies for direct ground combat.

Col. Ellen Haring, on the staff of the U.S. Army War College, says commanders need to downplay obstacle courses and judge a service member’s ability to stay calm and think quickly.

Downplay physical strength and fitness when evaluating the combat worthiness of the troops.  Um, OK.  I'm over 40.  I'm fat.  I've got a bad knee and an occasional touch of gout.  I've lost 80% of my hearing in one ear and 25% in the other.  I also happen to be a reasonably good shooter.  By reasonably good I mean better than most.  I think at this point in my life, I'd like to lead a team of USMC RECON Snipers.  Let me put on my ruby slippers and click my heals together 3 times and wait... It's the door bell...Nope it's the ups guy...not a spec ops recruiter.  Gee I wonder why.  I mean how could they have forgotten to call me?   

Oh Yeah they've got standards.  Wanting to do something isn't enough, you actually have to be able to get the job done!  Old fat guys, even ones who are great shooters don't get to go to scout sniper school.  We don't even get to go to boot camp, unless its to watch our kid graduate.  If old guys aren't good enough, why would some little girl, who couldn't kick my butt if I bent over and stood still, encouraged to get killed or volunteer vaginal access to the enemy? 

“Perhaps it is time to take a hard look at what really makes a competent combat soldier and not rely on traditional notions of masculine brawn that celebrate strength over other qualities,” Col. Haring says in the current issue of Armed Forces Journal.

She cites World War II hero Audie Murphy and North Vietnamese insurgents as examples of small people who came up big on the battlefield.

“If the going-in assumption is that physical standards are the only thing that needs to be examined, then we are also assuming that we have everything else just right,” she wrote. “This is belied by our less-than-optimal performances in many instances during the past 12 years. Fixating on physical standards is a tactical-level approach that misses a strategic-level opportunity.”

Col. Haring, who had sued the Pentagon over its old exclusion policy, said that Murphy perhaps could not have passed the Marine Corps’ infantry officer qualification course.

I guess it was a good thing that Audie Murphy was in the army, since according to Haring he couldn't cut it as a marine.  "North Vietnamese insurgents" are a good military example? No really?  Seriously?  Those insurgents were what we call today terrorists or non-conventional combatants. The whole reason they were used in a nontraditional fighting role was because they couldn't be used in a traditional one.  Now that's an example of thinking outside the box.

To date, all six female Marine officers who have tried the course have flunked or withdrawn due to injury.

Ok they had a shot and failed.  Fair enough.  I bet a lot of guys have tried that course and failed too.  If you can only find six women who wanted to try and none of them could do it, why would you keep wasting time and tax payer money on the subject?

 

Audie Murphy was short, not weak.  When he won the medal he loaded a ma duce (50 cal ammo is heavy) retracted the bolt (stiff as hell) and fought like a mad man.  For an hour, Murphy stood a burning tank returning German fire from foot soldiers and advancing tanks, during which he sustained a leg wound. He stopped only after he ran out of ammunition.  Then he walked back to his men and lead them to safety before he allowed them to care for his wound.

 

Here's a thought: I'm a little short on burning tanks at the moment so we'll improvise.  Lets see if Col Benedict Haring can hump a 50 BMG and enough ammo to shoot targets for an hour to the top of an elevated platform, spend said hour shooting targets, then I'll hit her in the knee with a baseball bat to simulated a leg wound and we'll see if she can hike 3 miles to the rear in snow.  We'll give her 10 min to move the gun and ammo, and hour to shoot it all and an hour for the hike.  If she can do it all, then we don't try her for treason.  If she can't, then forget about Snowden, this women is a threat to the safety of this country and her visions of life in the land of purple unicorns will get American fighting men killed, and we should deal with her accordingly: a short hop from a tall gallows.