1st 3 Women Marines Graduate From Infantry Course

     With the Pentagon and the military actively pursuing expanding the roles of women in combat, much to the disdain of many male infantry Marines such as myself. The first three women have successfully graduated from Infantry Training Battalion East in Camp Lejuene, NC. While this is a pilot program and the females will not receive the military occupational specialty of Infantry. This was a milestone positive or negative nonetheless. Earlier this year 15 females attempted the subjectively harder Infantry Officers Course and all failed to pass, while three enlisted females out of 15 passed the enlisted equivalent. The article argues that this is a positive milestone in the history of the Marine Corps while many male infantrymen and other females recognize and argue through example and precedent that females are physically weaker than men as well as have special hygienic needs that men do not require. There are other that argue putting women into austere locals with men can have a negative affect on unit cohesion and combat effectiveness and that simply holding females to different physical standards as the Marine Corps currently does, shows that they are already unequal and that is not a bad thing. It is just a bad thing when you are doing the kind of work that is required of the infantry in general. Many argue that this is a political effort to have equality for all, when the simple facts remain that men and women are not built the same and have different strengths and weaknesses.