Questions, questions....

[Tyicgerman]

I´m wondering why women can´t join the Special Op? What can be better than us? And why can´t women be in combat?
Why is it worse seeing a dead woman, than a man? Is a man´s life less valuable?

[Bro]

Some people may cite the closeness of specops units, and say that women might screw up the group dynamics.
Some people may claim that war is about fighting to protect the innocent, such as women.
And some just don't want females being exposed to the types of things the hard-core military tends to expose.
I guess people can say what they want to say-it's a free country, isn't it?

-Bro

[Gary]

Hey I'm all for it. Strap on that 75 pound pack I humped last weekend and lets go do a long range patrol.

[TonyM]

Women are eligible to try out for our JTF here in Canada. Never heard of any making it though. My own experiences with women in the forces are :

1) I was leader of a 4 man recce det, including one female. We were in beltkit only (no ruck), movement was at night and not a long distance to cover so fitness could not be assesed(about 3 miles). She performed as good as any of the other members. Quiet and careful about movement / noise, covered her arcs well and used proper spacing all without being told.
2) On a course (non-physicaly demanding) that comprised 21 males and 3 females, whenever the females were around, a lot of the males started acting much more animated, etc in attempts to get thier attention. It was somewhat disrupting, but the more mature candidates ignored it. One of the females became "romanticly involved" with another (male) candidate, causing a little tension in the barracks. Again, the older ones ignored it.
3) On a timed 8 mile forced march, full load of weapon, beltkit, ruck, platoon weapons, ammo and water after a 5 day field ex (last 30hrs was no sleep and company night raid) 3 out of the 4 females in our company dropped out (the one left was the smalest, looked like her ruck had grown a pair of boots) Out of 44 males, 2 dropped out.
4) On the same course as #3, one female was included in our barracks. This caused a lot of logistical problems for both sexes. Particularly shower and bathroom schedules. This became a real pain when time was short.
It would of reflected better management from the course staff to have had all the females in a seperate barracks (and saved everyone a lot of wasted time and frustration).
5) Again on this course, 3 out of the 4 females became "romanticly engaged" with other coursemates.

Conclusions I've drawn from these, and other, experiances.
1)Boys will be boys.
2)Girls will be girls.
3)Soldiers will be Soldiers.
4)When put to the test, the weak will fail.
5)Don't stand up in a canoe (that was a joke, never suffer a total sense of humour failure)

[Tyicgerman]

I have yet 2 fail anything I do. I won`t consider myself weak. Whenever I do something, I`ll do my best. I have no problems with carrying a 70 kg bag on my back. (I know I can`t compare it 2 mil., but once I was on a trip with some friends, and one of them got sick, in the middle of nowhere. So I had to carry double).
-------------------
Ad Astra Per Aspera.

[This message has been edited by Tyicgerman (edited 07-24-2000).]

[Fred]

you obviously haven't taken the humility exam yet.

[Linus]

Hey Ty!

No one said the Weak were women, that's your own conclusion. Myexperience is that mixed-sex units perform superb, if both parties can be mature about the situation.

Linus

[ammo]

lol