Almost completely ignored by the American news media, a very hush-hush blow was delivered to the social engineers in the Obama-controlled Pentagon as the Marine Corps announced that a scheduled change in physical strength requirements for women would be delayed for at least a year, according to CNSNews.com.
Never held to task to perform dead hang pull-ups as men are required as part of the Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test (PFT), women were scheduled as of Jan. 1, 2014 to successfully execute three dead hand (no body momentum) pull-ups as part of the three event strength and endurance test.
Marine Corps spokesman Eric Flanagan stated, “Women aren’t able to make the minimum standard of three pull-ups.” Upon completion of boot camp, 55% of female recruits were unable to do three pull-ups, whereas 1% of male recruits failed. The men who failed were “recycled” (sent back) in the recruit training cycle in the effort to strengthen both mind and body.
Per Marine Corps regulations, any Marine regardless of rank who fails the PFT twice will face an “AdSep” removal from the Corps, usually a discharge classified as General under Honorable Conditions, which is technically one step below an Honorable Discharge.
According to NPR, officers said the pullup requirement was delayed to avoid losing not only recruits but also current [active duty] female Marines who couldn’t pass the test.
The Myth of a Nintendo Military…
While many Americans believe that raw physical strength has gone the way of chainmail due to advancements in technology, the Marines still adhere to the notion that victory on the battlefield isn’t quite as antiseptic as unisex theorists proclaim. A case in point is the Marines’ continual combat training with edged weapons.
While most NATO armies dismissed bayonets as little more than glorified openers for hard plastic MRE containers, Marines have found them invaluable in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially in the close-quarter combatthey found in the bloody house-to-house conflicts during the battle of Fallujah.
As noted by the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, “Marines know how to use their bayonets. Army bayonets may as well be paper-weights.”
