WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
It wasn’t that long ago that fire departments — well, some fire departments — were being criticized for easing physical standards so that they could hire more women. From London to New York, folks were wondering: What the — ?
A 250-pound man stuck under a fallen roof while the place heats up around him doesn’t care that the city’s HR department met its quota to hire 20 women firefighters last year. He wants out. There’s a reason that 95-plus percent of firefighters are men. Because it’s a physically demanding job, requiring upper body strength that most women just don’t have and will never have. Lowering standards by, say, not making trainees of the female variety pass the obstacle course that male recruits must, puts the public at risk. And for what? To make “public servants” feel better as they check another box?
But if a woman can pass the physical test … . Give her a hat, guys. And don’t get in her way.
Most folks probably feel that way when it comes to women who want to serve in combat units in the United States military. If a sergeant or lieutenant is of the female variety, and she can carry a rifle and a full pack 20 miles on foot and can throw a grenade half a football field and can tote a wounded soldier back to the rear, sign her up. Give her a weapon. Give her a duty station.
The brass has once again proven educable. It may take a while, but the Pentagon does catch up. In the last few years it has opened up all combat jobs to women. As if women weren’t already in combat all over the world, and American women, too. When was the last time this country went to war when there were definite lines — enemy and friendly? Was it the First World War, also called the Great War before a greater one would come along? There certainly weren’t many lines in Vietnam. And the lines in Korea changed so rapidly that few bothered to map them out. In the Second World Catastrophe, bombs, mortars and rockets didn’t ask for identification before crashing through the complex, hospital or apartment. Today, the enemy targets little girls at Ariana Grande concerts.
The first group of women graduated from U.S. infantry training in midMay. And they graduated from what the Army calls Gender-Neutral Performance Standards, which is military for “the same.” In other words, the 18 women who graduated completed the same tasks as the men.
According to dispatches, the U.S. Army has taken pains to make sure those of both genders are treated the same in infantry boot camp. To the pound, men and women must carry the same equipment and weapons through the training. And do the same number of push-ups when a drill sergeant is mad, which is always. And generally prove that she belongs every bit as much as he does.
And unlike male firefighters, who complained to the press that the public would be put in harm’s way over lowering standards, the male infantrymen respect their female counterparts. And have all the reason to.
All it took for the brass to see the light on women in combat was … women in combat. In the 15-plus years this country has been fighting the War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, 14,000 women have been awarded the Combat Action Badge. Fourteen thousand.
That’s a lot of combat. And that’s a lot of women who have proven they belong in tanks, behind machine guns and calling in artillery. As the song goes, anything you can do … .
This has been, oh, about 200 years in coming. Give her a weapon. Give her a duty station. Just don’t give her any grief. She’s earned this.
“The infantry’s tough, man.” — A female recruit