OBAMA’S NAVY SECRETARY SLANDERS MARINES
Published on The Weekly Standard(http://www.weeklystandard.com)
Obama’s Navy Secretary Slanders Marines
John McCormack
September 12, 2015
A new nine-month-long study by the Marine Corps found that including women in combat units had a negative impact on unit cohesion and performance, the Washington Postreports:
[O]nly a small number of women were left by the experiment’s conclusion — two of the roughly two dozen who started — mostly in part because of the physical and mental stress that comes with combat roles. Both the men and women in the task force also reported a breakdown in unit cohesion with some voicing a perceived unequal treatment from their peers. […]
The Marine Corps Times report cites a number of instances where women had a difficult time completing physical tasks, like moving 200 pound dummies off the battlefield or from the turret of a “damaged” vehicle. Peer assessments were also mixed.
Lance Cpl. Chris Augello, a reservist who prior to the experiment was pro-integration, submitted a 13-page essay—which he shared with the Marine Corps Times—on why he had changed his mind. “The female variable in this social experiment has wrought a fundamental change in the way male [non-commissioned officers] think, act and lead,” he wrote, referring to the female presence and its effect on how Marine Corps small-unit leaders do their job.
But Navy secretary Ray Mabus immediately dismissed the study and attributed its conclusions to preconceived prejudices of the Marines who conducted it. The Hillreports:
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus on Friday criticized a Marine Corps study that showed that female Marines in a mixed unit did not perform as well as men in several key areas.
“They started out with a fairly largely component of the men thinking this is not a good idea, and women will not be able to do this,” he said in an interview with NPR.
“When you start out with that mindset, you’re almost presupposing the outcome,” he said.
Aaron MacLean, a Marine Corps infantry veteran, writes at the Washington Free Beacon: “Is there any precedent for such a senior civilian defense appointee publicly challenging the integrity of the commissioned officers who serve in his department? What a low moment in the history of the office of the Secretary of the Navy.”
What’s worse than Mabus’s questioning the integrity of the Marines who conducted this study is that he’s simply ignoring evidence that the Obama administration’s desired policy change would unnecessarily endanger the lives of Marines–both male female–for the sake of political correctness.
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