Women are not fit for front line combat!

[mornelithe]

Goatseye said:

greenmedic88 said:

By a show of hands here, who actually has an armed forces service record?

Clearly we have some pretty strong opinions here, but I'm a lot more likely to push those opinions belonging to those who don't have any firsthand experience to the back of the line, if not gloss over them entirely.

The front half of my service was largely in integrated/coed units, from BCT to AIT, Airborne school, my first two assignments, etc. so I have a better grasp of what this entails on a practical, functional level than any armchair soldiers or pseudo academics.

I'm going to withhold my personal opinions here until I hear something relevant and intelligent.

We could probably start with the two sets of physical standards for men and women service members as far as the differences go to say nothing of the different mindsets or other differences between men and women.

In favor of the coed units, I would probably look first to the IDF. If we have any women or men who have served in the IDF, I would highly value their opinions and impressions in this discussion.

You wrote 5 paragraphs just to say that we're qualified to chime in on the topic at hand. At least leave your professional opinion, to add to the convo, maybe we could learn something.

What I find most amusing?  The almost zero deference he appears to afford a retired Colonel, who was active in Afghanistan in 2003, whose opinions were quoted in the story, in the first place.