Marine General: Marine Infantry Standards Aren’t Tough Enough by Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Washington Post
… “The Marine Corps has long relied heavily on the fundamental assumption that simply because a Marine in a particular ground combat arms [job] is a male, he should be capable of performing all of the physical tasks associated with the regular duties of that [job], writes Smith.
This “assumption” meant the Marine Corps focused on the technical aspects of certain jobs, like a machine gunner’s proficiency when it came to disassembling his weapon, not the ability to walk with a weapon and a full combat load continuously in combat-like conditions.
“In some cases, such a technical focus did not adequately ensure that individual Marines possessed the baseline physical capabilities,” wrote Smith.
Smith goes on to write that when it came time to review the standards for ground combat elements because of the congressional mandate to ensure their gender neutrality, the Marine Corps realized that the standards had been focused on the collective rather than the individual…
Marines See Benefits, Risks to Women in Combat by Gretel C. Kovach, San Diego Union-Tribune
The Marine Corps general in charge of implementing a Pentagon plan to open ground combat jobs to women concluded there are benefits as well as significant risks to the proposal, and he outlined ways to eliminate most of an anticipated weakening of combat effectiveness during the transition, according to a document leaked Wednesday to The San Diego Union-Tribune.
The Marine Corps general in charge of implementing a Pentagon plan to open ground combat jobs to women concluded there are benefits as well as significant risks to the proposal, and he outlined ways to eliminate most of an anticipated weakening of combat effectiveness during the transition, according to a document leaked Wednesday to The San Diego Union-Tribune…
United States Marine Corps Assessment of Women in Service Assignments - Memorandum for the Commandant of the Marine Corps