I went over half-way through Army Infantry AIT, before a major injury and changing to other training.
Compared to Basic Training, Infantry AIT is much, much tougher. Forced marches with very little sleep are the worst aspect, in my memory.
I wonder if anybody on this site trained in the infantry ??
Well, I went through most of IOC -- all the humps and stuff -- as a fill-in instructor when the staff was short-handed. I have an extraordinarily good idea what it is like.
Marine OCS is extremely difficult -- some of my enlisted Marines who were sent to work there over the summer really had their eyes opened, because they thought OCS would be easier than boot camp. After that, all Lts. then attend The Basic School for 6 months, near the end of which their staff TBS officers assign them to their MOS's. So what that means is that you already have the high standards for OCS, and then infantry officers are hand-selected from the TBS platoons to go to the Infantry Officers Course.
The point is that male Lts. already have gone through multiple screenings before being sent to IOC, and the wash-out rate even from that high-level cadre is near 30%. I also had the opportunity as a Tactics Instructor at The Basic School to watch more than 2000 Lts., male and female, go through field evoluation, conditioning hikes, etc. So I think I have a fairly good idea how even the best-conditioned WM's would do at IOC, and...it isn't pretty. Not the least bit surprised that the failure rate is 100%.
The biggest issue is simply the size of their frame, and the muscular endurance to move rapidly for extended periods, with heavy gear. They just can't do it.
The whole "trying" thing....It just kind of aggravates me. I don't care hard she, or any of the males who washed out, tried. It's irrelevant. It's a bottom line, success or fail business. If someone wants to write a touchy human interest story, fine. Just doesn't have squat to do with taking up training slots for infantry officers.
