Like every other American Combat Arms Officer, I was more than pleased to see 50-plus Hamas murderers of women and children, summarily dispatched to explain their misdeeds to Allah. It was icing on the cake that such an accomplishment was at the hands of an all female, “infidel,” Israeli tank crew. In my previous article regarding this I opined:
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.”
Read: Women in Close combat Units; Israel vs America
I meant every word of that. I also meant it when I said,
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.
Previously, we focused on the sheer physicality required of close-combat unit members, in this particular case, tank crewmen. Today, we will focus on two competing issues. First, we can recognize that it is indeed possible to find women who can meet minimum standards for just about any given position. Second, the effort required to do so, must be an analysis of the costs, versus any expected benefits of doing so…especially when finding men to exceed the standard is so much easier than finding women to can barely meet it. We’ll get into that particular discussion in a follow-on piece.
Here’s why the discussion. It’s just biology. Let’s look at one physical act in detail to explain the point. These two extracts show the “military/shoulder press” capability of both men and women, aged 25, at varying levels of weight lifting experience/ability. The source is from Strength Level website, where you can compare and contrast various factors in physical fitness. I chose this particular exercise as experience shows it’s closest to the movement required to lift a main gun round overhead and hand it to another crewman on the tank deck.
Each extract is divided into age groups (rows) and experience/ability (columns). The far left (Beginner) represents the lowest 5 percent performance-wise, of those engaged in a directed program of strength development. “Intermediate,” represents the midpoint, while “Elite” is the top 5%.
If you look at the the table extract, a 25 year old male who walks in the door at the lowest 5 percent, can already perform a 50 pound overhead lift, with 16 pounds to spare. “To spare,” is important for repetitious movements like uploading tank ammunition.
Looking at the table for females, a female walking in the door, can overhead lift, less than half of that. Moving further along the experience/capability columns, women do not exceed male “Beginner” capabilities, without much more training.
Throughout the physical training experience/training timeline, women do not ever become any stronger, than a little less than half of male capability. Moreover, even with intensive training (and the right genes) an “Elite” Female (think Ronda Rousey here) will only be able to exceed the Intermediate (average) male capability, by 1 pound.
What does all of this mean?
- It is possible to physically train females to meet some physical standards.
- All other factors being equal, men will be more physically capable than women, in both strength and endurance.
- In most cases, it requires extensive effort to bring females up to a physical level that meets average male capability. This becomes important when recruiting for large numbers of positions from a limited applicant pool.
At this point, we have determined that for this particular requirement (and there are a host of others in this category) it takes extra effort to bring females up to the physical standard of the average male. When we begin to consider national-level personnel policy for our armed forces, we need to consider this and a number of other factors as we weigh the cost versus benefit of deciding to put/keep women in close combat units.
In our next segments, we’ll look at these factors. We will examine the strategic situations of both these United States and the State of Israel and how those might have, should have, or actually have, affected their particular decision-making cycle. We’ll look at the circumstances and potential benefits that would make a country decide to actively integrate women into close combat formations. Put another way; What problem(s) require that as a solution? Or, as some might ask; Is the United States Government simply foisting a dangerous “solution” that is in search of a problem?
Stay tuned.
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Might wanna check your tables, Fearless Leader, I’m seeing the same numbers in both.
Thanks Mucho! I’m glad you have my back!
Another excercise in common sense that will bounce off the heads of liberals and never penetrate their cranium.
One related item that routinely gets overlooked in this discussion is the consequences of women trying to maintain what amounts to an elite level of fitness during a military career. Every man I know that retired after 20 years in the military has significant muscular or skeletal health problems, bad knees, bad hips, bad shoulders, etc. And they were required to only maintain the adult male average level. If you examine similar health issues from men and women maintaining an elite level of fitness, few can maintain past their late 20s, and all have similar serious health problems. Asking women to maintain what amounts to an elite level of fitness through a military career is likely demanding the impossible, knee, hip, and shoulders problems will likely arise by the time the woman turns 30, dramatically increasing medical costs for the armed forces, and realistically forcing medical retirements for the women.
Which leaves our armed forces degraded in the long and short term. So-called “elite” status for women is average for men, therefore, women are not improving the combat and fighting capability of our armed forces, day one. This is no way to win future wars and secure our country.