Female Marines Fail Infantry Officer Course and Activists Demand Standards Should Drop

Three more female Marines were dropped out of the Infantry Officer Course for failing a road march:

Just weeks after three women passed a rigorous day-long test qualifying them to potentially lead US Marine infantrymen for the first time in history, news came that all three women have been asked to leave the course.

They were physically disqualified from the training last week for falling behind in hikes while carrying loads of upwards of 100 pounds, says Maj. George Flynn, director of the Infantry Officers Course (IOC) at Quantico, Va.  [Christian Science Monitor]

It should also be noted that three men also were dropped from the course for failing the road march.

Instead of activist groups thanking the Marine Corps for treating the women trainees the same as men they instead are demanding standards be dropped for them:

Retired Army Col. Ellen Haring, an advocate for women in combat, says that although the entire formation was supposed to complete the hike in three hours, it took most of the group closer to four hours.

“Despite the fact that none of them could keep the pace that was set that day, they were considered failures. But the whole unit failed to meet those parameters, not just those six people,” she says. “Who maintains the rate of the march?”

The Marines haven’t always been clear about the parameters for the course, says Greg Jacob, policy director for the Service Women’s Action Network.

At the enlisted training school, Mr. Jacobs, who served as a Marine, recalls that students were told they could walk no faster than three miles an hour, and every hour they had to take a 10-minute break.

In the IOC, “it’s up to the person in front to set the speed of the hike,” he says. “There doesn’t seem to be a standard around these movements.”

As a result, he adds, “it seems like the goal posts just keep moving.”

If there is any goal post moving it is to make the course easier for female trainees to pass. Due to the political pressure the female trainees were probably given every benefit of the doubt before they were removed from the course. It was a 7.5 mile road march and an attendee had to fall 75-100 meters behind before being dropped.  This is not that far of a movement and giving a leeway of up to a 100 meters is a very far distance to fall behind the rest of your unit. Every trainee was briefed on the standard before the road march and six did not meet it, end of story.

As I have always said I support women being able to compete for Infantry positions, but they should be expected to meet the same standards as men.  In this case they didn’t and were dropped. So instead of cheapening the accomplishment by lowering standards keep the standards the same and there will eventually be a female Marine that will meet it.  The Marines shouldn’t care about this happening on the political timetable that the activists want.