Women in Combat

heyitsme
Mon, 16 May 2005 23:07:18 +0000

Army Lieutenant Colonel William Gregor, a former faculty member at West Point, had compared the performance of 3540 male and 623 female West Point and Army ROTC cadets at summer training.

Using the standard Army Physical Fitness Test, he found that the upper quintile of women at West Point achieved scores on the test equivalent to the bottom quintile of men.

From these data, he concluded that if the Army selected those who met a nominal standard on the test, 80% of the women who applied could not get an Army commission.

Only 21 women out of the initial 623 (3.4%) achieved a score equal to the male mean score of 260.

On the push-up test, only 7% of women can meet a score of 60, while 78% of men exceeded it.

Adopting a male standard of fitness at West Point would mean 70% of the women he studied would be separated as failures at the end of their junior year, only 3% would be eligible for the RECONDO badge, and not one would receive the Army Physical Fitness Badge, because not a single woman achieved a score equal to what men must meet to get the badge.

Few women can meet the male mean standard. Men below the standard can improve their scores, whereas the women who have met the standard have already achieved a maximum level beyond which they cannot improve.

According to Gregor, women begin losing bone mass at an earlier age than men, meaning that they are more susceptible to orthopedic injuries, which “leads to the conclusion that women initially selected for the combat arms would not survive to career-end.” Adopting a single standard for fitness at mid-career in the Army would eliminate most women for failure to meet the standard.

Again, I am proud that I will be serving with woman in the armed forces and I am glad that they have the opportunity to serve their country as well as I do, but I don’t think we need to be pushing for equality where there obviously isn’t any.