'Fastest, most fit, most physical, most lethal' soldier is 'a man'
'There is nothing gender biased about this, it is what it is'
Published: 9 hours ago
The chief of a military-focused think tank is calling on Congress to step into the fight over women in combat before “irreparable damage” is done to America’s all-volunteer military.
The call for action came on Tuesday from Elaine Donnelly, the chief of the Center for Military Readiness, in conjunction with the release of the group’s newest report on what the military has found out about women in combat.
That data, the organization confirmed, revealed the Marines have documented evidence that women are different from men.
In ways that matter to the Marines.
Donnelly’s report included a statement from the Facebook page of a “highly decorated Marine combat veteran and non-commissioned officer who participated in the 2015 Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force.”
“This was as stacked a unit could get with the best Marines to give it a 100 percent success rate if we possibly could. End result? … [The data showed women] are slower on all accounts in almost every technical and tactical aspect and physically weaker in every aspect across the range of military operations …”
The statement continued, “Make no mistake. In this realm, you want your fastest, most fit, most physical and most lethal person you can possibly put on the battlefield to overwhelm the enemy’s ability to counter what you are throwing at them and in every test case, that person has turned out to be a man.
“There is nothing gender biased about this; it is what it is.”
Donnelly’s report came amidst the presidency-long strategy by the Obama administration to not only open the U.S. military to homosexuality and transgenderism, but advance the role of women in the military to the point they are routinely assigned to tip-of-the-spear attack groups that confront enemies – and destroy them.
The organization’s new report focuses on results from the U.S. Marine Corps regarding women in direct ground combat.
Donnelly called on Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to honor his own promise to review the evidence on the issue.
“Secretary Carter must assign greater weight to Marine Corps empirical evidence than he does to wishful thinking, unsupported speculations, and ‘mitigation myths,’” she said.
The CMR said for nine months in 2015, the USMC Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force “conducted scientifically monitored field exercises that simulated wartime requirements for direct ground combat units. Unlike gender-integrated support units that serve ‘in harm’s way’ in war zones, these are small fighting teams that seek out and attack the enemy with deliberate offensive action.”
The findings included that all-male teams outperformed mixed-gender units 69 percent of the time, women had significantly higher rates of injuries and early fatigue, and more.
Worse, in many cases of dual-gendered teams, “Numerous cases of compensation were observed during physically demanding tasks, in which males shifted positions to take over certain aspects of tasks from females,” the report said.
“Due to unchangeable physical disadvantages among women that clearly affect survivability and lethality in battle, officials should discontinue plans to order women into combat arms units such as the Marine and Army infantry, armor, artillery, and Special Operations Forces, including Rangers and Navy SEALs,” Donnelly recommended.
A memorandum from Brig. Gen. George S. Smith Jr., the head of the Marine Corps Force Innovation Office, included some statements that are cause for concern:
“The assessment across all occupational specialties revealed that gender-integrated teams, squads, or crews demonstrated, with very few exceptions, degraded performance in the time to complete taks, move under load, and achieve timely effects on target as compared to all-male teams, squads, or crews.”
He also concluded there will be risks “I do not believe can be fully mitigated …”
“The associated risk is directly linked to the physiological differences between males and females. Simply, size matters when executing a dismounted movement under load,” the report said.
Statistically, more than 40 percent of the women had musculoskeletal injures during the assessment, compared to 19 percent for men.
“Those who choose to turn a blind eye to … immutable realities do so at the expense of our Corps’ warfighting capability and, in turn, the security of our nation,” Smith wrote.
The CMR analyzed both the information regarding the “survivability and lethality” of women in combat, as well as “flawed attempts to downplay the impact.”
“Comprehensive Marine Corps research tests have produced highly credible, reality-based, scientific data that discredits theories about gender equality in the combat arms. Much of this information was not available when the Obama administration announced that women would be assigned to direct ground combat units,” Donnelly said in a prepared report.
“The armed forces should not be forced to rely upon unsupported theories, convoluted calculations or ‘best case scenarios’ that disregard known high risks. It is necessary to analyze mitigation ideas that would make life in the combat arms more difficult and more dangerous, with no offsetting benefits in terms of military effectiveness.”
image:
http://www.wnd.com/files/2014/09/marines_Afghanistan.jpgU.S. Marines with 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment and the Afghan National Army provide cover as they move out of a dangerous area after taking enemy sniper fire during a security patrol in Sangin, Afghanistan, in November 2010. During its seven-month deployment, the 3/5 sustained the highest casualty rate of any Marine unit during the Afghan war, losing 25 men. (Photo: Cpl. David R. Hernandez/U.S. Marine Corps)
U.S. Marines with 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment and the Afghan National Army provide cover as they move out of a dangerous area after taking enemy sniper fire during a security patrol in Sangin, Afghanistan, in November 2010. During its seven-month deployment, the 3/5 sustained the highest casualty rate of any Marine unit during the Afghan war, losing 25 men. (Photo: Cpl. David R. Hernandez/U.S. Marine Corps)
She explained Carter and other military chiefs “have the the solemn responsibility to take this information seriously, and to restore sound priorities in all policies affecting women in the military. Members of Congress also must shoulder their constitutional responsibility to conduct responsible oversight before irreparable damage is done to the all-volunteer force.”
The CMR, founded in 1993, is an independent, nonpartisan, educational organization that reports on and analyzes military/social issues.
Some of Donnelly’s expertise comes from her service as a member of the congressionally established 1992 Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces, which studied all aspects of the women in combat issue for a full year.
It was reported only a few months ago that the Obama administration was moving forward on plans to allow open transgenderism in the ranks.
That followed various executive orders that mandated open homosexuality in troops
Donnelly had reported initially on the situation involving women being assigned to combat troops a year ago.
At the time, she revealed that for every man who failed a simulated artillery lift-and-carry test, 28 women failed.
And for a test simulating moving over a seven-foot high wall, less than 1.2 percent of the men could not get over, compared to 21.32 percent of women.
The results were found in Marine Corps documentation and released through the CMR’s report called “U.S. Marine Corps Research Findings: Where is the Case for Co-Ed Ground Combat?”
According to the CMR study’s executive summary at the time, the Marines obtained information from 409 men and 379 women who volunteered to perform five “proxy” tests to simulate combat demands.
“These capabilities are essential for survival and mission success in direct ground combat,” the study found.
In a pull-up test, women averaged 3.59 while men averaged 15.69 – more than four times as many.
A “clean and press” event involved single lifts of 70, 80, 95 and 115 pounds plus six repetitions of a 65 pound lift.
Eighty percent of the men passed the 115 pound test but only 8.7 percent of the women.
In the 120 mm tank-loading simulation, participants were asked to lift a simulated round weighing 55 pounds five times in 35 seconds or less. Men failed at a less than 1 percent rate while women failed at a rate of 18.68 percent.
The Marines said nearly one in five women “could not complete the tank loading drill in the allotted time.”
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“It would be very likely that failure rates would increase in a more confined space [such as a tank].”
The artillery lift and carry had volunteers pick up a 95 pound artillery round and carry it 50 meters in under two minutes. Again, less than 1 percent of the men failed but 28.2 percent of women.
The assessments by the U.S. military are ongoing, and CMR said it would report more information as it is accessed.
But for the most recent assessment, the military assessment found, “The female Marines integrated into the closed MOS units demonstrated they are capable of performing the physically demanding tasks, but not necessarily at the same level as their male counterparts in terms of performance, fatigue, workload and cohesion.”
And the report found mixed-gender teams “showed degradations in the time to complete tasks, move under load, and achieve timely effects on target. … The more telling aspect of the comparisons is the cumulative impacts. The pace, timing and accuracy of any singular task is not necessarily important, but taken together, and in the context of actual combat operations, the cumulative differences can lead to substantial effects on the unit, and the unit’s ability to accomplish the mission.”
Smith’s conclusion was, “To move forward in expanding opportunities for our female service members without considering the timeless, brutal, physical and absolutely unforgiving nature of close combat is a prescription for failure.
“Our future enemies will be the ultimate arbiter of such decisions – when lives of our Marines are in the balance …” he wrote.
Donnelly noted some of the explanations and justifications, but said they weren’t, in the end, valid.
For example, one conclusion was that “gender-mixed units performed better in some tasks.” Of course, she wrote, “Such results often occurred because men did the heavy work. In 16 of 18 casualty evacuation tests, for example, men in gender-integrated groups performed single-man fireman’s carries. Other men moved more quickly to lift heavay artillery rounds. These ‘male compensations’ masked female deficiencies that could cost lives in battle.”
Donnelly said it’s too important to guess.
“Members of Congress, who have the constitutional responsibility to make policy for the military, should obtain and analyze all data in the course of hearings with independent experts. A careful, objective review of this issue is long overdue.”
She continued, “National security ultimately depends on the morale, discipline, deployment readiness and combat effectiveness of well-prepared troops that fight the enemy on the ground. Sound policies should support these troops, instead of imposing burdens that make their lives more difficult and more dangerous.”
Read more at
http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/fastest-most-fit-most-physical-most-lethal-soldier-is-a-man/#7JCh3uDdkEbxeRMD.99
