There is a piece of video propaganda making its way around the news services and the internet. It features imagery of an all-female, Israeli Army tank crew. This particular crew is credited with retaking a town previously occupied by Hamas terrorists and killing over 50 of them. From where I sit, all I can say to that crew is, HUZZAH! The more Islamist terrorists sent to meet Allah and explain their misdeeds, the better! Even more so, if it’s by a bunch of female “infidels.”
Here is the 14 or so minute special story on that crew.
That crew of dedicated Israeli patriots deserves nothing but kudos. They have stepped up to defend their nation against an evil force of terrorists who murdered infants in the crib among other atrocities. My beef, is with Americans who want to use those achievements to promote the provably and long-proven, false proposition, that generally speaking, females perform just as well as males in close combat units–moreover that somehow this Israeli example justifies the continued feminization of the American military. That’s. Just. Not. True.
If you watch the video, it shows rolling scenes where the crew is inside the moving vehicle, searching for and engaging targets. The rest of the video is devoted to an interview format where the soldiers tell of their experiences. The video also attempts to promote that idea that the “issue is settled,” as far as the efficacy of women in combat.
I strongly dissent. Here’s why. Two (of many) things left out of the video would demonstrate why women are physically unsuited for the role of tank crewman. What occurs inside the tank during combat isn’t relatively speaking, the physically demanding part. It’s what occurs prior to and after the battle that beats your body to death and requires strength and stamina to perform.
One of these crew tasks, is the manual upload of the “basic load” of tank ammunition from the ammo carrier or ground pallet, into the turret of the tank. Tank main gun rounds, depending on the type, weigh between 40, and over 50 pounds each. The Israeli Merkava 4, carries 48 rounds of 120 mm main gun ammo. Each round must be manually uploaded and placed into the vehicle’s storage magazine. (The Merkava 120mm main gun will also fire U.S. manufactured, 120mm ammunition.)
Here is a photo of what that looks like. Note that the soldier on the ground is effectively doing a “military press” of 40-50 pounds, to hand off the round to the soldier on the tank. Depending on what’s already on the tank, he may have to perform that move up to 50 times.
Back when I was a lot younger (and a whole lot lighter) I had the opportunity to help with a partial ammunition upload for tank gun, familiarization firing. I, along with 3 other fairly fit 19 year old men, were able without (too much) difficulty, to accomplish the task of handing up 50-pound tank rounds to the guy in the turret, who in turn handed them down to the gunner for stowage in the ammunition rack. It merely required an average (for a male) amount of upper-body strength. But, it was still a workout.
A female crew attempting that same task, easily accomplished by males of average strength, in anywhere close the time standard, would have to be in the top 1-5 percent in upper body strength for women. That’s just biology. The idea (not demonstrated in the propaganda piece) that it could be possible to find a few barely capable females, might be be relevant to the Israeli Armed Forces given their particular situation. Using that factoid in strategic force development for the U.S. military, is a mistake of the highest order. It’s also likely why that particular operation was left out of the video. We’ll get into those issues in a follow-on piece.
Another onerous task required to be performed by armored vehicle crewmen, is “breaking track.” This physically demanding operation takes place when one or more of the track shoes must be taken out and replaced by a new one…or when the tank, or other armored vehicle, “throws” a track and it must be manually put back in place.
In my career, I’ve had to help with this task on a number of occasions, both in a paved motor pool and knee deep in mud out on field operations. It’s physically exhausting, even for fit young males.
The above examples are just two of the many reasons that make females generally unsuitable for close combat units and operations. When placed in these situations, they often require the assistance of males…males who are diverted from their primary tasks. Other reasons for this assessment include, cultural, social and emotional issues that must also be dealt with. That brings us to a cost-benefit discussion. We’ll discuss some of that and differences between the Israeli and U.S. militaries in the next installment. Stay tuned.
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It’s worth noting also that these ladies are part of a TRAINING unit–their job is to teach others how to fight, not to do it themselves, and it’s a testament to character that they “ran to the guns” and to their skill that despite being nominally noncombat and playing “pick-up ball” they won the day Playing D when trouble came to their neighborhood.
A number of years ago I wrote a piece: 10 Reasons to Not Have Women in the Infantry. Might be time for a reprint.
It’s not beyond the wit of man nor the resources of the US Army to devise and execute a year long test of women in the infantry.
Since the squad is the essential unit of the infantry, have a squad test. Since you need a N = 30 size sample to do multi-variate regression analysis, have at least 30 squads (10 soldiers each – whatever the squad is today) for all men, mixed gender, and all women. About 900 soldiers. Add the a battalion commander and company commanders and platoon leaders for span of control.
Select soldiers from the time they are recruited and mix new recruits (after training in the separate cohorts ) with soldiers with the experience they would find in a unit. (Or put all the recruits in units with NCOs like you would during national mobilization or do both) Don’t stack the decks with Amazons. Run them through Basic and Advanced.
Then run them through full up instrumented dismounted urban, jungle, artic, mounted and dismounts from Bradley scenarios. Run it over a year – it’ll help to show how many pregnancies happen.
Measure “Combat effectiveness.” See what happens.
Should read all women, mixed, and all men.
Fixed…now reads: …all men, mixed, all women
The Marines did a version of what you proposed…as did the Army. Thee Army blatantly skewed the test so it looked like women weren’t;t “that far off” the male standards. The Marines refused to do so. they tested all male units, mixed units and all female units. They found that not only did all female units fare the worst, the mixed units suffered from degradation of male performance because of the presence of females. Report was quietly quashed.
I was aware of the tests. Also, keenly aware that the reports weren’t widely disseminated – which always means the findings weren’t favored. I’m just saying it could be done again in a very thorough, statistically significant manner.
Bottom line, no one can speak to the how women increase the combat effectiveness of an infantry unit. Probably true in other combat arms requiring the upper body strength and close living like armor and tube artillery.
Common sense, which the left has none. No real man wants a woman fighting his battles for him, thus liberal men are all for women in combat. Liberal men think men and women are the same and interchangeable. Real men do not. Real men respect women. Liberal men want women treated as badly as men are. Real men revere women. Liberal men look down on women (and everyone else, for that matter). Every woman on the front lines represents one less man on the front lines and, therefore, a degradation of our fighting capability. Sadly, we will only learn this in our next war when good men are lost protecting women who shouldn’t be beside them. Even then, our “leaders” may not acknowledge what is happening. It may be too late already.
Spot on. There are significant physical, emotional, mental, psychological differences between men and women which are further sharpened by cultural norms. Those are hard facts – and common sense as you clearly said – ignored at our Nation’s risk.
How many women coach in the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB? The ultimate male sports meritocracy has small unit leadership with coaches.
Men doing manly things want to be led by men.
In the Army After Next and FCS studies, some AMEDD R&D PhD in the leadership studies talked about their estimates that 3 in 100 American males are Alpha Males. 1 of those 3 are criminals. The other 2 gravitate to the military or law enforcement or rise to the top of whatever field they choose. The other 97 men don’t want to admit they aren’t Alphas, but naturally follow Alphas and want to be lead by them and in their company. I wonder if those studies have been buried too.
I assure those studies are buried. He who controls history, controls the future. History is being rewritten before our very eyes and our “leaders” are doing nothing or very little about it.
EHL wrote:
Yup!
Not to mention the sick fetish the Leftists have for making Americans watch their wives and daughters die… a despicable trait they share with their fellow Feral Hominid Animals at Hamas.
I’ve said this countless times, women have no business in infantry, armor, or tube artillery. HIMAD air defense, rocket artillery, that’s OK, but nothing on the forward edge of battle. One shock that will hit this country at some point in the future, when one of our top gun aviators gets shot down, and she’s raped. A lot of American people, not just liberals, don’t understand the “bad guys” out there don’t play by the rules.
The part nobody reported about Desert Storm: Three American servicewomen were captured by the Iraqis, and they were repeatedly raped until being rescued. I’m sure Schwartzkopf heard their screams in his nightmares until the day he died.
When it comes to breaking track. they are probably much less likely to need to do it in a mud pit, which seemed to be the default location back in the day. On the other hand, even in the Holy Land there are likely a few that a tank can find.
“mudpie…..which seemed to be the default location back in the day.”
I just spit out a mouthful of coffee….good thing it ain’t happy hour yet.
Women fighting in combat units is hardly the ideal situation, and even Israel only sexually integrates some units, but when their lives have been on the line, Israeli women have fought, and fought well.
This isn’t new: women fought during Israel’s war of independence, because they needed every body available. In what the USSR called the Great Patriotic War, Вели́кая Оте́чественная война́, some Russian women fought, and a couple of their best snipers were women.
In the end, it’s simple: people of courage do what they have to do.