It’s imperative to adopt American military policies that create the strongest and most powerful forces in the world. Fact-based impartial research not biased emotional responses should be the foundation of military decision-making. Women should be included in any military job for which they can meet the same merit-based standards required of men.
In a Defense Department document from 1998, leadership indicated there were no plans to consider ground combat for women. Yet there were experiments underway that same year to test integration of women in Marine Corps combat ranks through training in the Camp LeJeune area.
Restoration News interviewed a retired Marine infantry officer with firsthand knowledge of early experimentation with integrated male-female combat training. In 1998, the Marine Corps placed females at Camp Geiger, North Carolina for integration in Marine Combat Training. At times, platoon size reached 100 entry-level female Marines—3 times the size of all-male platoons. When the company was in the field, male and female platoons would coordinate training together.
The leadership was thrust into a no-win situation with heaps of problems. After being in the field for 12 days, many female Marines developed urinary tract infections due to a lack of hygiene. Leadership also discovered prostitution in the ranks—with female Marines accepting money for sex with male Marines while in the field.
This failed experiment was not widely publicized.
In 2015, the Marine Corps conducted new research to determine how mixed-gender ground combat teams performed against all-male teams. The mixed teams fell far behind in important tasks such as simulated casualty evacuations—which are a matter of life or death in real-world situations.