“UNSOUND AND DANGEROUS MILITARY PRACTICES”
by Capt. Joseph R. John (Ret.), ©2015, Chairman, CombatVeteransForCongress
(Sep. 15, 2015) — Capt. William Keller, USN (Ret)(Seabee) wrote the below Letter to The Editor to the San Diego Union Tribune in response to the Obama administration’s aggressive effort to push US Marine Corps gender-integration efforts. The Obama administration, in continuing its destructive Social Experiment on Diversity and Political Correctness that has been under way for nearly 7 years, has now turned its efforts to drive gender-integration into the combat arm of the US Marine Corps Infantry Branch. Over nearly 7 years, this very destabilizing and destructive Social Experiment on Diversity has been negatively affecting unit morale and cohesiveness, combat readiness, and the combat effectiveness of the US Armed Forces.
Capt. Keller wrote the attached Letter to The Editor because he recalled what his father, a US Navy Gunnersmate Petty Officer during WWII, casually said in a simple comment about his recollection of a major battle during very heavy and sustained combat: “I thought my arms would fall off.” It hits right at the heart of the inept issues being driven by the Obama administration, force-feeding women into tip-of-the-spear units, like the US Marine Corps Infantry, the US Army Rangers Battalions, the US Navy SEAL Teams, and the DELTA Force.
Women have been serving with the US military since the War of Independence in 1776 and have done an exceptional job in many areas of the US Armed Forces. They have been courageous in the defense of the Republic; we honor them for their continued exemplary and heroic service. Qualifying for combat duty in tip-of-the-spear units has very little to do with passing a fitness tests modified by Obama’s civilian appointees in the Pentagon. The relative few dedicated, fit women who do pass the rigorous fitness tests will continue and qualify in the specific special programs, but they will not be prepared for what next lies ahead in combat. Being shot at or exposed to danger is not the definition of combat. Combat service is not about equal opportunity, women’s rights, or a career assignment for selection to higher rank; it’s about finding, closing, and viciously killing the enemy, often in hand-to-hand and face-to-face combat, in the most disgusting, uncivilized, brutal butchery, while inflicting violent death on another human who is doing his best to kill you—it’s a killing environment that is as difficult and frightening as anyone can possibly imagine.
The below-listed article by Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, USMC (Ret), a former infantry commander, discusses operating in combat for extended periods of time, with no relief in sight, sometimes for 40 straight days, when combat personnel can’t shower, have access to sanitary facilities in the midst of heavy daily combat operations, the stench of filthy unwashed clothing is almost unbearable, uniforms are often immersed in mud for weeks on end (literally disintegrating and falling off one’s body), and sleep periods are almost non-existent. Lt. Gen. Newbold explains what the inept civilian leaders, appointed by Obama to Undersecretary positions in the Pentagon, have not taken into account from the 239 years of combat the US Armed Forces have experienced. Those bureaucrats are intent on force-feeding gender-integration into every tip-of-the-spear combat unit, regardless of what it does to the unit. That dangerous experiment may not only degrade the “Combat Readiness” and “Combat Effectiveness” of those units, but it may also result in the unnecessary combat deaths of women and men and may negatively affect the success of combat operations.
Early on in the development of the nation of Israel, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) had to experiment with inserting women into tip-of-the-spear, front-line units because the small population of Israel warranted utilizing every person who could bear arms for the new nation. However, that policy was modified after results of combat operations were evaluated. Inserting women in front-line combat units was determined not to be in the best interest of the IDF’s combat operations. Often relationships between female and male sometimes turned romantic and created major destabilizing distractions, damaging the “Combat Readiness” and the “Combat Effectiveness” of the unit. In many instances the men in those units became combat casualties trying to be overly protective the female members in their units.
The left-of-center liberal media establishment continues to cover up the Obama administration’s unsound and dangerous military practices that are negatively affecting “Combat Readiness” and “Combat Effectiveness”, i.e., the dangerous practice of reducing the size of various branches of the service, allowing weapons systems developed by China and Russia to eliminate the leads the US Armed Forces once had, instituting new and dangerous Rules of Engagement that have resulted in the number of US personnel in Afghanistan Killed In Action (KIA) to be increased by 458%/year and those Wounded In Action (WIA) to be increased by 378%/year, and the headlong effort to force gender-integration which will negatively affect their “Combat Readiness.”
After very careful evaluation, the US Marine Corps recently reported that the most “Combat Effective” units in the US Marine Corps are all-male units; that report upset Obama’s Secretary of the Navy. The US Armed Forces have been directed to open all combat billets to women by January 1st; being “Politically Correct” so as not to offend the occupant in the Oval Office will degrade “Combat Readiness” and “Combat Effectiveness” of tip-of-spear units.
Copyright 2015, Capt. Joseph R. John. All Rights Reserved. This material can only be posted on another Web site or distributed on the Internet by giving full credit to the author. It may not be published, broadcast, or rewritten without permission from the author
Joseph R. John, USNA ‘62
Capt USN(Ret)
Chairman, Combat Veterans For Congress PAC
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San Diego, CA 92108
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Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” -Isaiah 6:8