Who else thinks the US military needs to end gender integrated basic training/boot camp?

Question

I am not a sexist or a bigot. However, I went through the US army's gender integrated basic training at Ft. Jackson, SC, in 2003. I can tell you this.

IT DOES NOT WORK.

While I believe in letting women serve, the bottom line is you just cannot effectively conduct co-ed basic/boot camp. Guys and girls at their most sexually active being put together causes problems. Maybe it's a self control matter, but it's different when you know what people will do.

You can't effectively train people when they're spending all their time planning where they're going to screw in secret. People got caught everywhere. Dumpsters, laundry rooms, port-a-johns, foxholes.

Next, our smoke sessions didn't last long because the females couldn't take it. Therefore, it wasn't punishing people very effectively or instilling discipline very well.

There's a reason why the Marine's boot camp is the hardest. It's still completely gender segregated. The military is trading effectiveness to be PC.

Ok, Henry VIII, that was just stupid. No, a girl did NOT get over the wall before me, and if they did I wouldn't have cared. I'm guesing you just read my question and not my reasons.

White/black girl, I do agree with you on that, but integration should come AFTER basic training/boot camp, when in you're in MOS training and when you're at your units.

Basic training/boot camp is there to get you adjusted to the military life and instill values and discipline in you quickly, so that you can meet the standards later on.

Integration there slows down that process, so the values and discipline aren't in you right away, and it takes longer to get soldiers up to the standard.

Answer 1

To the guy saying he coaches middle school co-ed soccer... BOOT CAMP, dude! Its completely different, because its BOOT CAMP!

You sleep together, shower together, bunk beds together, and are told when to eat, when to shower, when to wipe, and when to do a lot of things with an enormous amount of pressure with only 4 hours of sleep per night... Along with a drill Sargent screaming 2 inches away from your face day in and day out humiliating you to see how long you can stand it before you crack... Plus, if you had the opposite sex in the same circumstances between the ages of 17 and 25 with sexually peaked hormones rushing through their veins... You think that can be compared to middle school coaching?

In middle school coaching, these kids are fully clothed and get to go home at the end of the day to their mommys and daddys and soft pillows.

So, that's where some of our tax dollars are going in the military.

My boot camp was strictly one sex, but the experimental one across the way with both male and female is insane and that was during the 1980's.

I had no idea they were still doing that! It has to end.

Answer 2

you are soooooooooo right this is PC gone mad. As a mother of three boys let me tell you a secret boys are DIFFERANT than girls! I don't care what the fems say. A Man in top physical condition will always be able to out run a girl in top physical condition. That is why the olympics is not coed racing!!!! So you have to soften boot camp to allow the girls to keep up. Secondly the whole hormone thing uh yah! Myhusband was in Iraq last year and he couldn't believe the crap that went on there with all the women in the military there. SO I can only emagine the stuff that would go on in boot camp. As you pointed out a bunch of boys and girls in their late teens um lets see what do they think will happen. I can say all this because I am a women and I don't care about PC as a mom!

Answer 3

I'd agree, although as soldiers we're expected to have more will power, but you can't expect a bunch of 18 year old kids, locked up together for 9 weeks, to be completely celibate. I think it would allow both sexes to get a better basic training experience. I went through at Ft. Benning where there were no females, and it was no walk in the park, but that's the way it should be. BCT is the foundation of every soldier and since they keep making it easier and more "politically correct" pvts seem to be showing up to units more and more jacked up.

Answer 4

I dont know---all I can tell you is I did 4 in the Air Force---and never had any probs at all serving alongside females all the time---I see it as a personal problem that some guys have

Answer 5

I agree and I think boot camp needs to go back to the way it was long ago. When it was still the old army.

Answer 6

I understand what you are saying....
but girls need to be trained with guys as well as guys need to be trained with girls..and the simple reason is that..

You need to learn how guys and girls differ...and what if you are put out in a war with a few guys and girls they may be used to going slower then you and so on..its many things like that...
think about it

Answer 7

Gender integration is as senseless as forced racial integration. I am not a bigot or racist but forcing people together, then having to deal with related issues, is plain stupid.

I agree 100% with you on this.

Excellent question.

Answer 8

I didn't know they were doing that, but they for damn sure need to stop immediately. I think you covered some of the reasons very well.

Answer 9

It's a really dumb idea, on so many levels.

How could one possibly have an intelligent conversation on the subject with anyone that could even conceive of it being beneficial in any way?

Answer 10

Darn. I knew somebody would come along
and rain on my parade.