Women as Army Rangers and Navy Seals by 2016

[derspiess]

I bet one got pregnant.

Wouldn't your period stop under the stress and constant physical exhaustion? 

Not mine, no.

[The Brain]

Tough guy.

[Alcibiades]

Three women just passed the Marine Infantry Training course. Given the wash out rate seems like they've kept up their standards.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2013/11/women_are_passing_the_marine_infantry_training_course_get_over_it.html

In September, 114 women graduated from the Marine boot camp at Parris Island, S.C. At every stage, their numbers dwindled. Forty-two passed the physical requirements for training. Nineteen volunteered to do it. Fifteen followed through. Seven made it through the first month. Four completed the course. Three graduated.

Awesome attrition rate they got there. Something they should be proud of. Now those three will realize that the real work has just begun. My bet is none will last their entire enlistment as a grunt.

They're still not allowed in infantry units, so they're going on to a different mos training program amusingly enough.

[11B4V]

U.S. Marines WEAKEN fitness requirement for women, won't make them do three pull-upsJust three out of 15 female recruits managed to graduate from the Marine Corps' infantry training program in November
55 per cent of women – including active Marines – can't do three pull-ups, while just 1 per cent of men fail the exam

The new standard was ordered by the service's commandants in late 2012
Now the Marines say they're scrapping the requirement for now, allowing women to pass their physical fitness tests without the new challenge
Existing standards allow female Marines and recruits to pass muster by hanging for 70 seconds from a pull-up bar with bent elbows
May women in the Corps insist they're meeting the new minimum requirement
Female Marines will be eligible for full war-zone combat duty in 2016

By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor
PUBLISHED: 18:09 EST, 27 December 2013 | UPDATED: 13:20 EST, 28 December 2013


The U.S. Marine Corps has quietly walked back a 2012 directive from the service's highest-ranking officer that would have rejected female recruits and officer candidates who can't perform three chin-ups as part of their physical fitness training.
The reason – 55 per cent of the women attempting the test are failing. Just one per cent of men can't complete the exercise.
'Women aren't able to make the minimum standard of three pull-ups,' Marine spokesman Capt. Eric Flanagan told reporters on Friday.
The startling admission, and the military's course-correction, came after just three out of 15 females successfully graduated from the Marine Corps' enlisted infantry training course in November.


The new rule, set to go into effect on January 1, would have changed the previous requirement – in place for more than a decade – that requires female Marines to execute a 'flexed arm hang', holding on to a pull-up bar with their elbows bent for 70 seconds.
2013 was to be a 'phase one' transitional year, according to a November 2012 directive from Marine Corps commandant Gen. James Amos, with females having a choice of which test to attempt.
'Phase two will commence on 1 January 2014,' Amos had ordered. 'Pull-ups will replace the FAH [flexed arm hang] portion of the PFT [physical fitness test] ... To pass the pull-up portion of this event, females will be required to execute at least three (3) pull-ups.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2530172/Women-U-S-Marines-SPARED-new-physical-fitness-requirement-wont-three-pull-ups-pass-muster.html

[Eddie Teach]

I am the 1%.

Shit, those were pretty hard 100 pounds ago.

[Berkut]

A pull up is a almost uniquely discriminatory physical test for women. It would be hard to come up with too many other simple exercises more well designed to select against women, since it is almost totally a exercise of pure upper body strength as a ratio of mass, which women will almost never be able to do.

So the question is how important is relative upper body strength to an infantryman?

Answer: I suspect the answer is that it is pretty god damn important. Probably not as important as physical endurance, but a close second.

[Capetan Mihali]

A pull up is a almost uniquely discriminatory physical test for women. It would be hard to come up with too many other simple exercises more well designed to select against women, since it is almost totally a exercise of pure upper body strength as a ratio of mass, which women will almost never be able to do.

So the question is how important is relative upper body strength to an infantryperson?

FYP.

[Legbiter]

3 pullups is too much?

I'm sure they'll make excellent camp followers.

[Ed Anger]

Women.   

[Siege]

got pull-ups?

[alfred russel]

3 pullups is too much?

I'm sure they'll make excellent camp followers.

Can I still think of the marines as bad ass knowing they can only do 3 pull ups?