Some of the more adorable criticism that part 1 of this article received was that I need to do some growing up. That is cute and condescending all at the same time. The thing is, I grew up in the Special Operations community during a time of war. Like many others in Army Special Operations, I carried a ruck on my back, jumped out of airplanes with a recoiless rifle strapped to my side, walked up the side of mountains in full kit, stomped around Mosul in the summer with my uniform completely soaked through with sweat, and all that jazz. On a few missions we even had female soldiers with us. The idea that they are going to carry what I carried and do what I did just makes me laugh inside. Enjoy that shit, we’ll see how long that lasts before this social experiment is completely discredited.
When the armchair feminists grow up they will admit that men and women really are different. We have certain biological inequities built in to us. No, it isn’t just a matter of training. To have female soldiers flooding the ranks we would have to pump them full of steroids and put them on a mandatory high protein diet at a minimum. Still think we are equal? Then why can’t I give birth to a baby? Whoops. That’s right, it is because there are differences between the male and female genders. I can make pseudo-intellectual arguments and propose hypothetical situations until I’m red in the face but I still won’t be giving birth to children anytime soon.
The myth is that there is a small Army of crossfit goddesses standing by to serve in Special Operations and Infantry roles. The reality is that few of these women seem to join the military to begin with and those that do would still struggle to hump the gear soldiers require in combat and IMT when they come under fire with a full combat load. Go ahead and post pictures of your favorite female body builder, that zero percent body fat image is about vanity (this applies to men as well) rather than combat. That crossfit princess can do headstand pushups all day, but that isn’t war, it isn’t even combat focus PT. I respect their athleticism and the hard work they put into what they do, but that doesn’t make them soldiers.
Here is the deal, I’m sick of hearing about what women are or are not capable of doing in combat. Bores me to tears. This is something we can actually test and figure out using science and statistics. It would be very easy and actually fairly cheap to conduct this experiment by gathering together a group of female soldiers (over a hundred to make the study statistically relevant) and test them on various Infantry tasks. Stress shoots, PT test, 12-mile ruck march, battle drills, and so on. Stop debating, start testing. This would end the argument once and for all but it will never happen. The reason why it will never happen is because the results would be so dismal that it would completely destroy the idea of women in the Infantry and SOF for literally generations to come. It would also fuck up some people’s political agendas. In fact, I’ve been told that a study just like this was done in the 1990’s at Natick and the whole thing had to be buried because the female soldiers who volunteered for the study performed so poorly. But hey, if you disagree with what I’m saying that is okay. I think we can all agree that some objective testing is warranted before pushing forward, correct?
This is war. No place for a woman.
Another issue the public at large has difficultly conceptualizing is that you need statistically significant numbers of soldiers to fill the ranks. A diamond in the rough, a one in a million, just isn’t enough. I accept the idea that if you opened up SOF and the Infantry to women that we would have a few graduate from BUD/S, RASP, SFAS, Ranger School, ect, each year even if they had to meet the current male standards. Not a lot, but a couple exceptional female soldiers for sure. The question we need to ask is if it is worth upsetting and overhauling the entire system to accommodate a statistically insignificant number of females in the ranks? That probably sounds like BS to a lot of people, like institutions just wanting to drag their feet and resist change. The military not wanting to join modern society, yadda, yadda… But it is a serious issue. Is it worth messing with a system that (generally) works just for the sake of total and complete equality?
Right now, General Dempsey and others have made the argument that women should be permitted into these roles for the sake of upward mobility in their career fields. This is a disgusting argument to make and Dempsey should hang his head in shame. The entire military now has this problem, cutting across branches and genders. Being a soldier is about soldiering. Fuck your career. Being a soldier is about serving your country and winning god damn wars. Your career takes a backseat to that. So riddle me this: how does putting women into SOF and the Infantry make our armed forces more combat effective? If it doesn’t, then we shouldn’t do it. When I was in Ranger Battalion we were told to complete the mission, take care of your boys, and take care of yourself, in that order.
There is another facet of this issue that we don’t like to talk about. That’s right, I’m talking about fornication in the ranks. Yes, I understand that we should be more professional. The Military Police 1st Sergeant should not be blowing your Warrant Officer in a Compartmentalized Housing Unit. Your buddy should not threaten to kick your ass because he is drunk and is trying to get laid and now he doesn’t like your perceived competition. Your other buddy should not disappear and hold up your freedom bird home because he’s fucking some chick with a glass eye. You should not nickname a female soldier “Amtrak” because so many dudes have run a train on her. We shouldn’t be doing this stuff, but it sure as shit happens anyway. Let’s get fucking serious here. If you start putting women in Ranger Platoons and Special Forces ODA’s it will be a disaster. Nothing will get done because everyone will be trying to get laid and nothing else. It got pretty bad as it is, but those women were in other units and hung around for recreational purposes, at least there was some separation between us and them.
If you are still reading this article you might have figured out that I have some grievances to air. Let me get to another one. For you hardcore femi-nazis who think putting women into the middle of some shit is a great idea, I say be careful what you wish for. Sometimes I worry that on SOFREP we glorify war and give people the wrong idea. As a veteran I’ve seen some ugly things. When I meet with others for my various stories and assignments for SOFREP, vets will tell me things they won’t tell you. They will tell me about the enemy launching a counter-ambush and their position getting over run, they will tell me how they were so scared that they lost their voice for a couple hours. They will tell me about grown ass men breaking down and crying in combat. There are things that I haven’t told you about where I’ve been, what I’ve seen, and what I’ve done. For your sake, I hope you never have to experience some of the things I have.
Some of the more adorable criticism that part 1 of this article received was that I need to do some growing up. That is cute and condescending all at the same time. The thing is, I grew up in the Special Operations community during a time of war. Like many others in Army Special Operations, I carried a ruck on my back, jumped out of airplanes with a recoiless rifle strapped to my side, walked up the side of mountains in full kit, stomped around Mosul in the summer with my uniform completely soaked through with sweat, and all that jazz. On a few missions we even had female soldiers with us. The idea that they are going to carry what I carried and do what I did just makes me laugh inside. Enjoy that shit, we’ll see how long that lasts before this social experiment is completely discredited.
When the armchair feminists grow up they will admit that men and women really are different. We have certain biological inequities built in to us. No, it isn’t just a matter of training. To have female soldiers flooding the ranks we would have to pump them full of steroids and put them on a mandatory high protein diet at a minimum. Still think we are equal? Then why can’t I give birth to a baby? Whoops. That’s right, it is because there are differences between the male and female genders. I can make pseudo-intellectual arguments and propose hypothetical situations until I’m red in the face but I still won’t be giving birth to children anytime soon.
The myth is that there is a small Army of crossfit goddesses standing by to serve in Special Operations and Infantry roles. The reality is that few of these women seem to join the military to begin with and those that do would still struggle to hump the gear soldiers require in combat and IMT when they come under fire with a full combat load. Go ahead and post pictures of your favorite female body builder, that zero percent body fat image is about vanity (this applies to men as well) rather than combat. That crossfit princess can do headstand pushups all day, but that isn’t war, it isn’t even combat focus PT. I respect their athleticism and the hard work they put into what they do, but that doesn’t make them soldiers.
Here is the deal, I’m sick of hearing about what women are or are not capable of doing in combat. Bores me to tears. This is something we can actually test and figure out using science and statistics. It would be very easy and actually fairly cheap to conduct this experiment by gathering together a group of female soldiers (over a hundred to make the study statistically relevant) and test them on various Infantry tasks. Stress shoots, PT test, 12-mile ruck march, battle drills, and so on. Stop debating, start testing. This would end the argument once and for all but it will never happen. The reason why it will never happen is because the results would be so dismal that it would completely destroy the idea of women in the Infantry and SOF for literally generations to come. It would also fuck up some people’s political agendas. In fact, I’ve been told that a study just like this was done in the 1990’s at Natick and the whole thing had to be buried because the female soldiers who volunteered for the study performed so poorly. But hey, if you disagree with what I’m saying that is okay. I think we can all agree that some objective testing is warranted before pushing forward, correct?
This is war. No place for a woman.
Another issue the public at large has difficultly conceptualizing is that you need statistically significant numbers of soldiers to fill the ranks. A diamond in the rough, a one in a million, just isn’t enough. I accept the idea that if you opened up SOF and the Infantry to women that we would have a few graduate from BUD/S, RASP, SFAS, Ranger School, ect, each year even if they had to meet the current male standards. Not a lot, but a couple exceptional female soldiers for sure. The question we need to ask is if it is worth upsetting and overhauling the entire system to accommodate a statistically insignificant number of females in the ranks? That probably sounds like BS to a lot of people, like institutions just wanting to drag their feet and resist change. The military not wanting to join modern society, yadda, yadda… But it is a serious issue. Is it worth messing with a system that (generally) works just for the sake of total and complete equality?
Right now, General Dempsey and others have made the argument that women should be permitted into these roles for the sake of upward mobility in their career fields. This is a disgusting argument to make and Dempsey should hang his head in shame. The entire military now has this problem, cutting across branches and genders. Being a soldier is about soldiering. Fuck your career. Being a soldier is about serving your country and winning god damn wars. Your career takes a backseat to that. So riddle me this: how does putting women into SOF and the Infantry make our armed forces more combat effective? If it doesn’t, then we shouldn’t do it. When I was in Ranger Battalion we were told to complete the mission, take care of your boys, and take care of yourself, in that order.
There is another facet of this issue that we don’t like to talk about. That’s right, I’m talking about fornication in the ranks. Yes, I understand that we should be more professional. The Military Police 1st Sergeant should not be blowing your Warrant Officer in a Compartmentalized Housing Unit. Your buddy should not threaten to kick your ass because he is drunk and is trying to get laid and now he doesn’t like your perceived competition. Your other buddy should not disappear and hold up your freedom bird home because he’s fucking some chick with a glass eye. You should not nickname a female soldier “Amtrak” because so many dudes have run a train on her. We shouldn’t be doing this stuff, but it sure as shit happens anyway. Let’s get fucking serious here. If you start putting women in Ranger Platoons and Special Forces ODA’s it will be a disaster. Nothing will get done because everyone will be trying to get laid and nothing else. It got pretty bad as it is, but those women were in other units and hung around for recreational purposes, at least there was some separation between us and them.
If you are still reading this article you might have figured out that I have some grievances to air. Let me get to another one. For you hardcore femi-nazis who think putting women into the middle of some shit is a great idea, I say be careful what you wish for. Sometimes I worry that on SOFREP we glorify war and give people the wrong idea. As a veteran I’ve seen some ugly things. When I meet with others for my various stories and assignments for SOFREP, vets will tell me things they won’t tell you. They will tell me about the enemy launching a counter-ambush and their position getting over run, they will tell me how they were so scared that they lost their voice for a couple hours. They will tell me about grown ass men breaking down and crying in combat. There are things that I haven’t told you about where I’ve been, what I’ve seen, and what I’ve done. For your sake, I hope you never have to experience some of the things I have.
I’ll say it again, be careful what you wish for. War gives less than a shit about your political correctness.
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