@foxytwo
I have to respectfully disagree. Keeping females separate from males allows different standards.
I believe that if a female can meet the exact standards of a male, they should be allowed to serve in combat.
When I was at OCS we had a single female platoon in our company. Any time we had a hump, the females would march a different route, ostensibly the same distance but with fewer hills, and carrying less weight.
It never failed that when the male platoons arrived at the objective, soaked in sweat and winded from the required pace, the female platoon would already be there; not a drop of sweat on them, and always with some kind of snide comment like "what took you boys so long?"
Since we knew they were carrying less weight, and had gone a different route, this just built contempt and disgust for the females. It wasn't their fault: it was the fault of the leadership for letting them get away with it.
Their PFT scores were also skewed: there were females getting 300 PFTs who were in much worse shape than males scoring 275s.
Now, I just tried to find documentation of this, but when I did it deleted my entire post so consider it anecdotal until I find a reference, but I remember being told that integrated TBS platoons had 10-20% higher scores in exercises like the LRC because neither gender wanted to fail in front of the other.
What I'm getting at is that if you set a physical standard it should be the same across the board.
The 2-way shooting range doesn't make allowances for gender.
Allowing anyone to be held to a lower standard makes them a threat to themselves and the Marines at their side.
Train all Marines to the same standard, no matter who they are, and their combat effectiveness will not suffer.
Allow substandard platoons held to different standards based on a gender? God help us.
You want one of those holding your flank? I sure wouldn't.
