Ahem. I digress.
Anyway, these teachers come down and see the depot for a week, and by the time they leave, they are converts. Even if they're not, they may have a bit more interest in helping their students who do want to pursue military service to achieve their goals. The same thing happens with the VIP visits: The Marine Corps wines and dines them; they go to receptions at the commander's house; they get squired around by general officers.
It's all ego.
So, I was supposed to give this slide-show presentation that said we needed separate training for women to help generate confidence in their abilities. Most of these VIPs just eat what you feed them. And most of these guys are, in fact, guys, so it didn't seem to occur to anyone to question it—even though most of them had gone to “co-ed” colleges and high schools, and had been through “co-ed” training at their jobs. These guys saw women make it through med school and law school and the police academy without needing to be separated to boost their confidence.
I know there are women who feel more comfortable in an all-women setting. I know that they may be more likely to speak up. I know that they might be less afraid of failure, and therefore may try something new when, otherwise, they might stand back and watch someone else try. I know they may have a greater opportunity to try because they're not dealing with guys who are used to pushing to the front and doing a thing.
But my recruits were training for war.
I gave this brief to one congressional delegation.
And then, after three months, I had seen enough at Parris Island to know this was total horse shit. In fact, my experience showed that segregating the men from the women has the opposite effect. Instead of providing women with genuine confidence borne out of hard work, separating them falsely inflated women's confidence. This was because they were competing only against other women. And, worse, because we had held them to such low standards from the time they were recruited, the women were only competing with average to below-average women. That's not how real confidence and success works—not in the Marine Corps and not in the real world. So we were setting up the women for failure.
Ten days after you graduate from boot camp, you ship off to integrated Marine Combat Training (MCT). After recruits finish boot camp, they are considered Marines—rather than “recruits.” They then go to an advanced training—MCT—to learn more basic Marine combat skills before they go on to schools to learn their jobs, such as military police or cook or infantryman. In the other services, men and women train together during basic training (boot camp), and then everyone immediately goes off to their job-training schools, skipping the advanced combat-skills course unless they have infantry-related jobs.
When the women arrive at MCT, all of a sudden, it's like, “Oh my God. I'm not only slow, I'm slower than every male Marine in my platoon.” Imagine the psychological havoc played out time and time again in this scenario.
These women suffer a crisis of confidence as their male counterparts watch. Male Marines knew these women had been treated with kid gloves by their recruiters and were never held accountable like they were. Male Marines knew boot camp was different, and somehow easier, for women.
And, because female Marines tend to have more college credits when they enter the service than do the men, they automatically get promoted to Private First Class and outrank their male counterparts when they get to MCT. So, the women are behind on physical training, but they outrank the men. Now place yourself in the male Marines’ shoes. How do you respect someone who outranks you but can't keep up on the basics? Clearly we are doing a disservice to both male and female Marines when we train them separately.
I was very honest with VIPs about my perspective on more integrated training. I said, “Look. I'm not talking about integrating the squads. I'm talking about mixed battalions. Three male companies and one female, and they train alongside each other the whole time. Female drill instructors are in charge of females, but they can correct males and vice versa.”
I told Colonel Haas that I couldn't brief that PowerPoint presentation anymore, and I changed the slides.
Morally, I couldn't present something I didn't believe.
At the time, he didn't say anything. Again, I was given no guidance. Yet, months later, he chalked it up to just another example of me willfully disregarding his guidance.
Ma'am,
You may or not remember me but I was on the 31st MEU with you 2005/06 time frame, I was the disbursing chief. Not for the reason of the email…. Bernie Mac the comedian would start his show by saying “America I say what you want to say but are afraid to say.” Ma'am thanks for being our Bernie Mac. Semper Fi!!!!
r/s
Bradley R. Newton
Master Gunnery Sergeant
Finance Chief
United States Marine Corps
Fourth Battalion is, by its very architecture, separate.
But it's not equal.
We were different in every way.
We were isolated.
They called us the “Fourth Dimension.”
They talked about “all that drama” at Fourth Battalion.
“Other.”
Because the male Marines thought less of us, there was no reason for them to make changes to help us succeed. They expected that we would never match up. In fact, I often heard members of senior leadership say that the female training program had “no value.” So, why bother?
As soon as I arrived at Parris Island, the consequences of that attitude and, I would argue, sexual discrimination, played out in everything from training to expectations to the disrespect shown to women from the bottom up.
A reasonable person could believe that men would typically perform better in some training activities,
