The United States Marine Corp is delaying the implementation of an important test that is required in order for recruits to pass boot camp. The requirement is apparently too difficult for female marines who are unable to do at least three pull ups.
Marine officers quietly delayed the January 1st requirement in order not to lose female recruits who can’t pass the test. Fifty-five percent of female recruits tested at the end of boot camp were doing fewer than three pullups. Only 1 percent of male recruits failed the test.
The requirement to do three pullups has been in place for men for 40 years. It is believed to be the best test of whether or not a recruit will be able to lift themselves out of a canal in Afghanistan, carry an ammunition box, or climb over a mud wall.
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Retired Army lieutenant colonel Robert Maginnis says that it’s wrong to try to integrate women into ground combat and that the new decision to allow women to fight on the front lines is more about politics than protecting the nation. His new book is called: Deadly Consequences: How Cowards are Pushing Women into Combat.
“Young women, in spite of all the training and all the best intentions, are not going to be the equal of young men in terms of upper body strength,” Maginnis says. “You’ve got to have a lot of upper body strength to lift the stuff. Been there, done that.”
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But not everyone agrees with Maginnis.
Former Marine infantry officer Greg Jacobs says that women can build the strength necessary to do the pullups. He works for a group that advocates on behalf of military women called the Service Women’s Action Network. As a Marine trainer in North Carolina he required his female instructors to do pullups just like the men in his group.
“At first, a lot of women weren’t able to do it,” Jacob says. “They were able to do one, some were able to do two, but what happened was by having that standard and enforcing that standard, it made my Marines, it made the troops go to the gym and train to that standard.”
Jacobs reported that after six months, all of the women in his company could do 8-12 pullups. Due to this he believes that the Marines should do a better job of training women in order for them to reach the same standard for men.
So far, 13 women have passed advanced combat training. Females are slated to be integrated into ground combat forces within two years.
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