Women May Possibly Join Infantry Units By 2016

[ChillDoubt]

No, no, no, no, no! It's a total recipe for disaster. We've been through this before and it would IMHO be detrimental.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30539111

This(and similar incidents) has been discussed at length previously on AB, I'll post links as I'm unsure the 'Related Threads' thingy will work:

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1210131-3.html

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1353548-2.html

[ChillDoubt]

I tried to read this thread seriously but gave up at "alpha males at their physical peak"
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That's ok, I'm amazed you even got that far.

[ChillDoubt]

Chilli.....I am lead to believe that "infantry Units" exclude the "Para's and the Marines" in this case.
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How so Sqad? They are set up as such and their training is exactly the same, just that one has the added task of completing P Company, the other Commando training.

[Baldric]

Someone here has been quite vociferous in their support for the idea, I suspect their knowledge and experience of Combat Situations is on a par with their knowledge and experience of Women in general, based on other postings on Site.

[ChillDoubt]

LOL @ Baldric

[mikey4444]

Well...couldn't they make the Tea ?

[jim360]

Nothing like a bit of playing the man not the ball, eh, Balders?

[Peter Pedant]

// is on a par with their knowledge and experience of Women in general, based on other postings on Site. //

do you have to know women in order to want to send them to the Front ?

[jim360]

"Want" is probably inaccurate. "Recognise the necessity of maintaining an army and sending it into combat on occasion, and thinking that this is best achieved by not automatically excluding 50% of the population out of some baseless assumption that the other 50% are incapable of self-restraint" would be a bit closer to the truth.

[wolf63]

I think that woman should not be excluded from being a front line troop - there are some really scary women out there.

But the fitness and psychological requirements should be the same as for the men.

I don't think that it is an environment that is suited to women - we are physically weaker, (but we are also stubborn and bloody minded and that can enable us to do tasks we would otherwise fail at.

Maybe a solution to the sexual tension would be to get the guys hormones under control. Maybe something to cut down their testosterone or maybe castration. (that last bit was a joke - women do have a sense of humour).

There are other areas of the military where women will be more suitable - (and I never never never thought that I would ever say that).

But it is fundamentally wrong for either gender to be barred from the opportunity to serve in whatever bit of the military that they are suitable for based solely on their gender.

I always wanted to be a sniper or helicopter pilot - maybe being Bipolar would have been an obstacle. Or maybe the psychotic episodes would have helped - who knows.

I hope that the above makes sense - my eyes, brain and fingers don't seem to be talking to each other tonight.

[mikey4444]

Wouldn't the women's petticoats get in the way if they went to war ?

[Peter Pedant]

abiding rumour in the seventies that they put bromide in the squaddies' tea at the weekends

[mikey4444]

PP...in the 60's we lived in Watchet, in West Somerset. There was an Army Camp near by, at Donniford, which is now Haven Holidays site.

The Squaddies seem to exhibit no sign of a lessened libido, especially at weekends. My Dad was the local Taxi Driver in Watchet.

Fridays and Saturday evenings were my Dads busiest time, transporting thirsty and extremely randy young soldiers into Watchet, to visit the various Pubs.
I have no wish to cast Nasturtiums on who must be veritable Matrons, now in their late 60's and early 70's, but the Squaddies were terribly popular with the local girls. In a similar way the the GIs during WW2 were said to be over-paid, over-sexed, and over here !

So if bromide WAS added to the tea in the Army Camp, it seemed to have no effect whatsoever !

[grasscarp]

How times have changed. I tried to join the navy as a helicopter pilot many years ago and was told Only the Israelis put their women in the front line!

[wolf63]

mikey - you have a point. My petticoat spent most of today twisted around my hips. It is frustrating.

PP - the word Bromide was in my mind but I wasn't sure that it was the right word. My dad did his national service after the war (he was in Berlin during the airlifts) and used to say that they put 'stuff' in the tea.

[wolf63]

grass - or 'women have periods/PMS so can't fly jets'.

[grasscarp]

but I have piloted jets professionally, so how did I manage that?

[grasscarp]

when it comes to brute force we havent got it. e.g Apparently any man can throw a ball further than 98 percent of women.

[wolf63]

grass - maybe its the bombs and torpedoes/missiles that are too dangerous for us to use.