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Larry L.'s avatar

Served 27 years in the American Navy. Another difficulty that was discovered in the deployment of women on ships was that they have a much lower tolerance of heat. My understanding of this is due to less muscle mass (have to work harder under the stress of heavy work) and extra fat which both acts as insulation and is extra weight that must be carried around. On my ship, women in hot areas of the ship (usually ratings that work deep in the bowels of the ship) were constantly coming down with heat exhaustion. The CO talked to the Personnel Officer on the ship. Quietly, without fanfare, women were not assigned into these areas of the ship.

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps is already speculating that the few women who make it into combat roles face the greater likelihood of injury and recommendations have been made for force planning that many women will have to be medically retired before age forty--just as they reach levels of training and experience that would lead to mid-level, and more senior level responsibility as enlisted personnel.

One last practical problem at sea is the average difference in strength. Everything on a ship is heavy, e.g. watertight hatches. If I am injured in a fire and need evacuated, I want people around me who can carry me out. The Navy's solution to date has just been to increase the number of women during drills or to put four women on a fire hose instead of two men. So, depending on the circumstances, where one or maybe two men can evacuate one man, it may take three or four women to do the same. This means other injured may not get evacuated. Women can be valuable assets in the military. But they need to be deployed in areas that make sense and best utilize their skills. So far the American Navy's approach has been to lower qualifications for women and then rig the promotion system with affirmative action. If the balloon goes us, it will needlessly cost lives. But by then the current Generals and Admirals will be working for Gov't contractors and their successors will have to clean up the mess.

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Roderick Goggenheimer's avatar

It is encouraging to see more and more people willing to speak directly about these issues. However, does anyone have the courage to talk about racial differences?

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