Marines Delay Female Fitness Plan After Half Fail

[wercal]

116. By a strange twist of fate, after my time as a tanker, I was a 4.2 In Mortar Platoon Leader

There are a few more aspects of being in a mortar platoon that require strength, other than loading ammo, aren't there?

Carrying the baseplate when dismounted...mounting the 108 lb .50 on top...even opening the top up took quite a bit of strength really. With the exception of a few first class women athletes, I just couldn't imagine a woman in a 4.2" mortar platoon.

Now I really don't know where you got the idea that women loaded down with a full pack could go further than men. As I stated before, I was a cadet at West Point, and we would train together with women - infantry style training, road marches, etc. Without exception, in my observation, the women had a difficult time keeping up with the men. Part of this has to do with height - over long distances, shorter people tire out because they are taking more strides.

On to the regular Army. I went to Air Assault school, which features a 12 mile EIB road march. Air Assault school is open to women, so it was another unique situation where women were participating in an event usually reserved for men. Again, without exception, every single woman there struggled mightily during this road march - many not completing it on time.

One of the longest road marches we did at West Point was 17 miles, and it involved going from the lowlands of the river, up to the highlands....so it was quite an uphill climb. There was one particular hill (we called it a mountain) that really gave a lot of people trouble. I was the tallest in my squad, so I was in the back (the advantage to being tall is recognized by the army and tall people typically start out in the back). The shortest person was a woman, so she went in the very front. For hours, she gradually fell back in position with our 10 person squad. The cadre in charge of us would implore each person to 'not let her get behind you'...so guys would push her (actually push her) until they tired out, and finally the cadre would let them go ahead, and she would drop back a slot. Well she ended up in the slot right in front of me, right as we started up the big hill. I was told that under no circumstance was I to go past her...so I pushed her up the mountain...but she was too tired, so I had to carry her rifle...but she kept tiring out so the cadre member took her ruck...so here I am loaded with my ruck and two M14's pushing her up the mountain, her with no gear. Eventually we made it to the top. For the rest of the march. we kept the gear off of her, and she was able to make it. She was one of the only women who did make it though. At the very back end of our group of 1,400 cadets was a small fleet of deuce and a halfs. They picked up the stragglers...and the vast majority of the women ended up in those trucks.

This should not come as a surprise - men generally hold the records in long distance running competitions, and for whatever reason have more endurance. You add weight of gear...men outperform women even more, because they are generally larger. And men are generally taller, which is another great advantage.