What the hell, the world needs more population. 

Aside from the physical limitations and the protective reaction in the males around them the one thing I noticed was the prevalence of pregnancy.  Once the balloon went up every single bomb shelter turned into a sexual den each and every night.  It seems to be an in-built human reaction to procreate in times of physical threat, I cannot count the number of marriages that were destroyed by gender integration on the battlefield.

phreddy wrote:

They also had to perform three pull ups, just as the men did

WTF?  Three pull ups?  They should be able to do three pull ups with the 90 lb pack on their backs.

Three is the minimum and to be honest doing "dead-hang" fully extended no bounce pull-ups it can be difficult if you have very long arms; leverage is just against you.  They banned "kipping" years ago so it is a task and basically a somewhat unnatural one.  When I got to boot camp I could only manage three, at the same time I had been logging and bucking bales for years and was strong as an ox at all other tasks.

I left doing 19 dead hang pull-ups, one short of the max and it took all of the calluses off of my hands leaving them bleeding for the entire twelve weeks.  I was 203lbs with 4% body fat at the time, these tests are certainly designed for a specific body type.  I also managed to rip off a 18:43 three mile run, hated every fucking second of it.

Most men have most of their weight in upper-body muscle mass and women are the opposite creating an issue for them with these types of tasks.  Gender roles didn't develop by accident but by natural design and trying to force equalization in some areas is beyond stupid.

phreddy wrote:

Em wrote:

Most men have most of their weight in upper-body muscle mass and women are the opposite creating an issue for them with these types of tasks.

I suppose that's why Marines use the descriptive term BAM.

Actually our favorite term has always been:  LBFM

Interesting side note to this discussion is that women can physically withstand higher G-loads then men, if you add that fact to they are far more vicious, protective and competitive you have a natural case to argue for them as Fighter/Close Air Support pilots.  However the pilots (all Officers) view themselves as the "Gallant Knights of War" and resist gender integration tooth and nail; amusing when you realize that from a physical point of view women can do a much better job in modern attack aircraft.

It's starting to change but that change makes much more sense then putting a few butch dykes down in the trenches with the grunts.

Good point - but I still stand by my personal experience that people in a life threatening situation are driven to procreate, much the same a people fucking like bunnies after a funeral.  Gender segregation has it's time and place...

Let's not forget that the majority of ground troops come from a portion of society that we wouldn't necessarily classify as "highly educated"

Jarhead wrote:

LBFM

Little brown fucking machines?

Emmeran wrote:

I miss them.

Among others, I also miss them.

At one time it was like unlimited menu.
pre HIV/AIDS