SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - GRID CO-ORDS IN RADIO MESSAGES

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanderstag

I'd more buy the argument that Suzie doesn't have the physical ability to hump an 80 pound ruck than listen to some old fart drone on about women not being fit for combat. I think it's more a threat to their fragile male ego that some woman/girl is giving them orders or disciplining them. Now maybe you good-ol'-boyz don't hang around fire-breathing women because you're view of them is in pink skirts mopping floors and tending babies, but they do exist.
With these kinds of mindsets, it's no wonder sexual harassment is so pervasive in the military.

I agree, I'd never say that women are unfit for combat. But on the green field (ie., where army grunts play), I think the guys do a better job. A friend of mine told me that when the two girls in his platoon couldn't carry their 40 kg. gear on account of having menstrual cramps (and women who stick together tend to synchronize menstrual cycles), the guys had to carry that extra load. The girls were not popular as a result.

There are more branches than infantry, though, and they might be an excellent choice for the Air Force, for example. As I understand it, they have a higher G-force tolerance than men from having shorter distance between the heart and brain - and having a stronger heart, too. Women's hearts are designed to be able to take the strains of child birth, and as such are stronger and more flexible.

In the Navy I'm sure they can carry their own weight, even if our steward's mate had weaseled her way out from deck hand and mine duties (I was on a minelayer), and sadly only added to the image that "women only join the service to get laid". Then, of course, there's the good ol' maritime traditions that women aboard ships are bad luck :P

You're also not supposed to whistle, have bikes or umbrellas aboard, or say "horse". Well, we had several bikes on board, including a motorcycle at one point. I also observed an umbrella on the first mine deck once, and the most frequently used curse was, well, um... a somewhat cruder name for a stallion's appendage :hmm: I remember being told off for whistling on the bridge, but that was probably more because of the annoyance factor than the superstition that it summons the storm. :)

Women are great for motivation during training, though. If you run past a pretty girl, you don't choose that moment to slow down to catch some wind. And in fact, I feel that my Iaido instructor (a veteran of the French Foreign Legion) only liked to have girls in his class for that very reason: it made us guys work harder. But this mentality spells disaster on the battlefield, because men focus too much on their sisters in arms compared with their brothers in arms. It's not just some indoctrined gentleman's mentality, but something deeply primal. A friend of mine made the following observation on his farm, and I think it demonstrates some pretty universal rules:

A hen, to protect her chicks, stood her ground when the rooster approached, and managed to chase him off. Another time, though, the cat approached, and the rooster stood his ground and chased the cat off while the hen rushed her chicks to safety. And indeed, regardless of culture men feel a need to be protective over women. I don't care if the woman can carry her own weight, even if she's better at it than the men - that need to protect is there all the same. That's why an all-man outfit, or an all-woman outfit for that matter, is better than a mixed outfit. Fewer variables, fewer complications.