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Are Marines Lowering Standards?

February 20, 2018 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/2-20-donnelly-blog.mp3

The United States Marine Corps is no longer requiring infantry officer candidates to pass the grueling Combat Endurance Test to qualify for the position, a move Marine officials say is reflective of modern needs but critics say is proof that standards are being watered down so more women can meet the criteria for difficult jobs.

“The U.S. Marine Corps will no longer require prospective officers to pass a punishing combat endurance test to graduate from the service’s Infantry Officer Course.

“Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller quietly made the shift to standards in November, altering the test from a pass/fail requirement to just one of many exercises measured as part of overall IOC evaluation,” reported the Washington Free Beacon.

The story was based off a report from the Marine Corps Times, which characterized the policy change as minor.

“In a slight change to the grueling initial stage of the 13-week Infantry Officer Course, Marines will no longer be required to pass the Combat Endurance Test to move on.

The Corps has come under criticism for what some have claimed to be unnecessarily high standards to graduate from the course. To date, only one unnamed female Marine has successfully completed the entire course,” the Marine Corps Times reported.

“’Over the past 40 years, the Marine Corps has made multiple modifications to Infantry Officer Course (IOC) program of instruction (POI) to reflect the requirements of the operating environment,” Training Command said in a statement to Marine Corps Times. “The quality of the course remains the same,'” stated the Times.

Center for Military Readiness President Elaine Donnelly isn’t buying it.

“Nobody’s going to be fooled by that.  If the test is no longer pass/fail. if it’s no longer must-succeed, it certainly has changed.  It’s changed a great deal,” said Donnelly.

“To make it just another evaluation point on the way to being an infantry officer changes the character of the program.  It is a lowering of standards, and it’s not being done for operational requirements,” said Donnelly.  “It’s not operational, it’s political because the pressure has been on the Marines to change the nature of the combat endurance test.

She believes a move like this proves that military readiness is not the top priority in the Marine Corps right now.

“It really is regrettable.  It is an unforced error.  He didn’t have to do this.  The purpose is to reach gender diversity metrics.  Metrics is another word for quotas.  The quotas were imposed during the Obama administration.  It’s a new administration and there should be official action to put them to an end,” said Donnelly.

Donnelly is calling on Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer to reverse the policy.

She also described what the Combat Endurance Test is and why she believes it needs to be a tool for identifying the best leaders.

“It’s a very tough, full-day, starts-before-dawn, exhausting exercise.  It involves long marches, heavy loads.  You’ve got to make your way through unknown terrain.  You have to survive.  It’s exhausting, deliberately so, people with bloody feet and falling because  they can’t march anymore.

“This test is tough for a reason because infantry officers are supposed to lead men into battle so the test has to be tougher than it is for the enlisted soldiers and Marines.  To say that officers no longer have to succeed on this test is indeed a major change, not a minor one,” said Donnelly.

When then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced ground combat roles would be opened to women in 2015, he was quick to assure the nation that standards would not be watered down to accommodate the policy change.  Donnelly says this news seems to prove Carter’s promise wasn’t kept.

“Neller didn’t even announce this.  He started it in November.  Only now has the story come out that the Combat Endurance Test is now just a combat evaluation test.  That it’s something different than what it was before.  It’s the application of what wee call the Dempsey Rule.

“When Army Gen. Martin Dempsey was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in January 2013, he was asked what would happen if women couldn’t make the higher standards for the infantry.  He said, ‘If the standards are too high so that women can’t succeed, we’ll ask why is it that high?  Does it have to be that high?” said Donnelly.

It’s a bit ironic that the Marines are making such headlines.  During the debate over whether ground combat roles ought to be opened to women, the Marines commissioned a major study showing the physical differences between men and women were substantial and that women were much more susceptible to injury in such capacities.

“We didn’t get to see [that] report.  The administration brushed it aside and forced it on the military anyway.  But in this case the Commandant of the Marine Corps said we’re going to do it even though he wasn’t ordered to do it.  That’s what’s so disappointing, the way that this has happened not with a bang but a whimper,” said Donnelly.

Donnelly is also wondering whether the Marines lowered the standards on the endurance test before deciding that it wasn’t necessary to pass to remain an infantry officer.  She says credible reporting from 2012, 2013, and 2014 showed an attrition rate of 20-30 percent among Marines attempting the endurance test.

Yet, the Marines claim attrition rates are now three percent, and just one percent in 2017.

Donnelly says no one should think less of women in the military as a result of this controversy.  She says the leadership is failing.

She also says the bottom line is that men and women are different.

“There is a physiological inequality that needs to be taken into account.  Otherwise, we’re going to lose a lot of good female officers who would otherwise progress in their careers.  Why would we want to do that?” asked Donnelly.

“And if you make it possible for all the women to get through without being injured then you’re not going to be demanding as much of the men, and the men will be less prepared for battle,” she added.

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: combat, combat endurance test, Marine Corps, news, quotas, readiness, women

Court Rejects Transgender Military Ban

December 11, 2017 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/12-11-SPRIGG-BLOG.mp3

A federal judge fully rejected the Trump administration’s proposed ban on transgender service in the military and also refused to delay the onset of transgender enlistment while the administration considers appealing the decision.

Back in October, federal judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected much of the Trump administration policy on transgenders in the military.  On Monday, she ruled there was no compelling reason to for military to postpone enlistment of transgenders.

According to the Washington Post, Kollar-Kotelly said she “is not persuaded that defendants will be irreparably injured” by mandating that the Defense Department begin accepting applications on January 1.

“With only a brief hiatus, Defendants have had the opportunity to prepare for the accession of transgender individuals into the military for nearly one and a half years,” the judge added.

Family Research Council Senior Fellow Peter Sprigg says the judge’s decision is alarming on a number of fronts.

“I’m not terribly surprised given the obvious bias on the issue that she has shown.  She has simply shown herself determined to impose her will upon the executive branch and not show any respect for the constitutional prerogatives that the president and the Defense Department have for making decisions regarding military personnel policy,” said Sprigg.

While not an attorney, Sprigg says Kollar-Kotelly’s legal reasoning seems backwards when it comes to the burden of proof in this case.

“She apparently said that there’s no emergency for the government, that it’s not going to cause any irreparable harm to the military if they begin this process.

“The standard is supposed to be the question, ‘Is there irreparable harm to the plaintiffs?’  I think that it hasn’t been demonstrated that there will be irreparable harm, particularly with respect to this issue of new recruits,” said Sprigg.

Without the policy being implemented, Sprigg says no plaintiff could be suffering irreparable harm.

“Where is the irreparable harm if someone who has not joined the military perhaps has to delay for three more months?” asked Sprigg.

In a brief statement, the Justice Department disagreed with the decision and said it was considering which legal steps to take next.

Sprigg hopes the DOJ appeals soon.

“I hope that the Justice Department would appeal this to a higher court and that they would consider at least giving a delay in the implementation, particularly of this portion of the policy,” said Sprigg.

Sprigg says that without a delay until the legal dispute is resolved, Kollar-Kotelly could be the one inflicting damage to transgenders seeking to serve in the military.

“If they are allowed to join the military beginning on January 1 and then the ultimate disposition of the case is that in fact that they can be discharged, you could argue that they would be worse off than if they had never been permitted to join in the first place,” said Sprigg.

He insists the effort to prevent transgenders from joining the military is entirely a question of readiness.

“The reason for this policy is not because the president or the Defense Department just does not like transgender people.  It’s because they have a unique medical condition which make them ineligible for military service because they have limited deployability,” said Sprigg.

“To be fully deployable in military terms, you are supposed to be able to be sent anywhere in the world at any time without the need for specialized medical care.  People that are undergoing transgender hormone therapy or have undergone gender reassignment surgery inherently have a need for specialized medical care,” he added.

With the Army suggesting and then scrapping an effort to allow recruits with some history of mental illness to enlist, the military revealed that it is struggling to meet recruitment goals.  Sprigg says instead of pushing harder on a political agenda, recruiting numbers would probably improve.

“Perhaps if we moved away from these politically correct social engineering, then we would have an uptick in our overall recruiting picture,” said Sprigg.

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: ban, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, military, news, readiness, recruiting, transgender

‘This Judge is a Disgrace’

November 3, 2017 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/11-3-nash-blog.mp3

Retired U.S. Navy Captain Chuck Nash is blasting the military judge who ordered no jail time for admitted U.S. Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl as a “disgrace” and says the actions of both men strike a serious blow to good order and discipline in the U.S. military.

He also says this episode is just the latest wound absorbed by the military due to the advancement of political correctness and social engineering.

Bergdahl is the U.S. Army soldier who recently pleaded guilty to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy for walking away from his unit in Afghanistan in 2009.  He was subsequently captured by the Taliban.  Six U.S. service members were killed looking for Bergdahl and others were severely wounded.

In 2014, the Obama administration agreed to free five high-value detainees from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Bergdahl, whom then-National Security Adviser Susan Rice said “served honorably.”

On Friday, the judge in Bergdahl’s court martial, Col. Jeffrey Nance, decided there would be no jail time for the crimes of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.  Instead, Bergdahl’s rank will be lowered from corporal to private, he must pay $10,000 in fines, and he is to be dishonorably discharged from the Army.  Bergdahl plans to appeal the dishonorable discharge.

Bergdahl’s attorney repeatedly tried to have the case dismissed based upon statements from presidential candidate Donald Trump since 2014 suggesting Bergdahl is a traitor and that past traitors were shot as punishment.  Judge Nance said that was not grounds for dismissing the case but said it would be a mitigating factor in sentencing.

Regardless of the rationale, Nance’s decision is hitting a very raw nerve in the military community.

“It’s insane,” said retired U.S. Navy Captain Chuck Nash, who is also a military analyst for the Fox News Channel.  “This judge is a disgrace.  He should have recused  himself.  By doing this, he just brings more discredit upon himself.”

Nash says the military will suffer as a result of Nance and Bergdahl.

“The rules are the rules and everybody in the military is held to the standards,” said Nash.

“The whole thing about the military and good order and discipline and all of that is just taken a serious hit today by this guy’s actions,” said Nash.  “And I mean both of these guys: Bergdahl for doing what he did and this judge for doing what he did.  Just disgusting.”

Nash further asserts that the military is built on the understanding that orders will be followed and rules enforced.  He says the overwhelming majority of American service personnel fulfill their oaths despite countless tours and immense disruptions for their families and Nance’s decision shows a lack of respect for that.

“You have someone who admits he did two really heinous things – desertion and cowardice in front of the enemy – and this judge says Donald Trump, when he was a candidate, said something that actually affected [his] ability to sentence?” said Nash, who would not be surprised if Bergdahl wins his appeal on the dishonorable discharge sentence.

“He’ll probably find some Obama appointee who will back him on it,” said Nash.

The Bergdahl sentencing comes just months after President Obama commuted the sentence of Bradley Manning, who was convicted on 19 charges – including six counts of espionage, for illegally leaking nearly 500,000 military reports to Wikileaks.  Manning was sentenced to 35 years in military prison but immediately announced he was identifying as a woman named Chelsea.

As a result, Manning became a popular figure in the LGBT community.  President Obama commuted Manning’s sentence earlier this year, less than four years after the convictions.

Nash says Bergdahl is just the latest example of a cultural agenda infecting the military.

“If this were the only thing to have happened, that would be one thing,” said Nash.  “But it’s not.  It has been a constant erosion and politicization of the military.  And it’s got to stop, because the military is that shield for this nation.”

He says the erosion has been underway for decades.

“It has been since the early ’90s.  What you’re seeing is social engineering that is corrupting the military ethos.  It’s corrupting good order and discipline.  It is the political left in this country that has always been trying to weaken America and now they’ve gotten to the last vestige of true meritocracy,” said Nash.

Nash contends that the politically correct bedrock of dividing people based on gender, race, and other criteria is a direct contradiction with the message drilled into the armed forces.

“It doesn’t matter what service.  They all have one thing in common, and that is the training programs.  Those are to soften personal identity and build team identity, where it’s “us,” it’s “we,” it’s “team.”  Once that is inculcated, then that person fits into that military organization,” said Nash.

“Now all of a sudden it’s, ‘Let’s go back and break that cohesion up.  Let’s identify the differences.’  It’s not differences that really help in a team.  It’s one team, one fight.  That’s what helps,” said Nash.

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: Bowe Bergdahl, desertion, Jeffrey Nance, news, readiness, social engineering

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