There’s an article in today’s WP by Sage Santangelo that I really like.
(Edited to add: Actually, it looks like it was originally published on March 28th, and I missed it then. But an update was added today.)
Ms. Santangelo is a Marine officer. She recently went through the Marine Infantry Officer course. She didn’t make it through. Neither did the three other female Marines who went through the course with her.
But Lt. Santangelo isn’t whining about not making it through the course.
So what’s held women back in the Marines Corps Infantry Officer Course? I absolutely agree that we shouldn’t reduce qualifications. For Marine infantry officers, mistakes mean risking the lives of the troops you are charged to protect. But I believe that I could pass, and that other women could pass, if the standards for men and women were equal from the beginning of their time with the Marines, if endurance and strength training started earlier than the current practice for people interested in going into the infantry, and if women were allowed a second try, as men are.
In other words, she’s asking that women be treated just like men are. That seems fair.
I like this, too:
I’ve always been taught that failure provides the greatest learning opportunities. My failed effort at Quantico has helped me better understand the needs of the Marines on the ground and will allow me to better support them in the future. At the same time, I love the Marine Corps philosophy that failure should never be viewed as permanent or representative; it is an opportunity to remediate. Marines cannot meet standards all the time. What do we do? We train until every Marine is competent. “No Marine joins the Corps to be a failure,” Gen. James F. Amos has said. “We don’t raise them up that way.”
(And another recommendation for a really swell book: Nathaniel Fick’s One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer
.)
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