- Maybe Ash Carter was still running DOD (one reason Mattis won’t be missed)
- Training efficiency at what price?
- We thought the Marines had already concluded something about women in combat roles (see below)
- What’s next (see below)
Marine Corps integrates male and female platoons during boot camp for the first time (excerpt)
“The female recruits will still be led by female Drill Instructors, but will live in barracks co-inhabited by their male counterparts.”
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? DLH
Unlike the other services, the Marine Corps has not fully integrated women and men during recruit training. Instead, at Recruit Depot Parris Island in South Carolina, the first three battalions are all-male, while the fourth battalion is all-female.
Recruit Depot Parris Island, will start their training cycle with one female platoon and five male platoons,” the Marine Corps said in a statement Friday, first reported by ABC News.
While the change is not permanent, a Marine Corps spokesman told ABC News that the service “will certainly look at how the company performs in this model as we continually evaluate how we make Marines.”
The Marine Corps, which has the lowest percentage of women among the services at just under 9 percent, decided to incorporate the 50 female recruits into the historically all-male battalion because the recruiting classes are typically much smaller in the winter months. The integration allowed Parris Island to not activate 4th Recruit Training Battalion staff for a single female platoon.
“The decision was made by Marine Corps leadership in support of training efficiency and is a first in the history of Marine Corps recruit training,” the statement said.
The female recruits will still be led by female Drill Instructors, but will live in barracks co-inhabited by their male counterparts.
“This training cycle of about 300 recruits will provide Recruit Depot staff a unique opportunity to assess outcomes, achievements and challenges in training, logistics and resource impacts of this company training model,” the Marine Corps said.
“The value of increasing the amount of integration that occurs between male and female recruits is that with increased exposure and socialization we address some of the attitudes that male recruits might have about female recruits and vice versa,” Lt. Col. Misty Posey, who leads the 4th Battalion, told ABC News during that visit.
Posey didn’t see gender segregation as a detriment, but praised the Corps’ efforts to have more instances of men and women interacting in their training, beyond just merely operating side by side. Sixty percent of recruit training is now either gender-integrated or co-located, according to the Marine Corps. . . .
We thought the Marines had already concluded something about women in combat roles? As in units experience reduced effectiveness (NPR article excerpt referencing Marine Corp spokesman regarding the study)
Marine Corps Release Results Of Study On Women In Combat Units
JOHNSON: In 93 out of 134 tasks that we tested across the MOS’s, the all-male groups outperformed the integrated groups.
BOWMAN: And those task basically tell how good a unit is in fighting the enemy. Johnson’s study found that male-only squads, teams and crews outperform those mixed with males and females.
The Marine Corps synopsis included this quote from a 1992 presidential commission. A military unit at maximum combat effectiveness is a military unit less likely to suffer casualties.
What’s next?
