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Survey: 17 Percent of Male Marines, 4 Percent of Females Likely to Leave Service If Women Put Into Combat Roles

Feb. 1, 2013 8:42pm Jason Howerton

US Marines 2nd Batallion, 1st Marines Regiment with Female Engagement Team (FET) unit Sergeant Savanna E. Malendoski (R) and Corporal Ashley A. Cardona (L) patrol in Gamser, Helmand province southern Afghanistan on February 19, 2011. US Marines deployed about 40 Female Marines in Helmand province and Nimruz for a program called Female Engagement Team (FET) to interact with Afghan civilians specifically the women and children. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Male Marines listed being falsely accused of sexual harassment or assault as a top concern in a survey about moving women into combat jobs, and thousands indicated the change could prompt them to leave the service altogether.

The anonymous online questionnaire by the Marine Corps surveyed 53,000 troops last summer, with the results provided to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta before he opened thousands of combat positions to women last week.

The Marine Corps released the results to The Associated Press on Friday.

Among the other top concerns listed by male Marines were possible fraternization and preferential treatment of some Marines.

Respondents also worried that women would be limited because of pregnancy or personal issues that could affect a unit before it’s sent to the battlefield.

Military experts said the results were not surprising because the Marines have the highest percentage of males among the branches of the armed forces.

Former Marine infantry officer Greg Jacob of the Service Women’s Action Network said the Pentagon’s estimate that 86 percent of assault victims opt against filing complaints “suggests that there’s hardly an overabundance of reports, false or otherwise.”

Some, however, said the survey shows the need for sensitivity training and guidance from leadership so the change goes smoothly, as occurred when the military ended its policy that barred openly gay troops.

“I think there is this sense among what I would imagine is a very small minority of Marines that this male bastion is under siege and this is one more example of political correctness,” said David J. R. Frakt, a military law expert and lieutenant colonel in the Air Force reserves.

Just as the Marine Corps adjusted to the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” despite being the most resistant among the military branches, troops will likely fall in line again with this latest historical milestone, said Frakt, a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

Marine Corps officials did not respond to a request for comment on the survey results.

About 17 percent of male Marine respondents and 4 percent of female respondents who planned to stay in the service or were undecided said they would likely leave if women move into combat positions. That number jumped to 22 percent for male Marines and 17 percent for female Marines if women are assigned involuntarily to those jobs, according to the survey.

Both sexes mentioned intimate relationships between Marines and feeling obligated to protect female Marines among their top five concerns about the change.

Female Marines also said they worried about being targeted by enemies as POWs, the risk of sexual harassment or assault, and hygiene facilities, according to the survey, which did not give specifics.

The women surveyed also expressed concern about acceptance and physical abilities if given a ground combat job.

About 31 percent of female respondents – or 1,558 women Marines – say they would be interested in a lateral move to a combat position as their primary job, and 34 percent – or 1,636 – said they would volunteer for a ground combat unit assignment.

US Marine Corporal Jessica L. Williams (L) and Lance Corporal Shawnee Redbear of 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines Golf Company patrol in Basabad, Helmand Province, on March 9, 2011. The US Marines deployed about 40 Female Marines in Helmand province and Nimruz for the Female Engagement Team (FET) programme to interact with Afghan civilians, specifically women and children. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

Elaine Donnelly of the conservative Center for Military Readiness and a vocal critic of the change said the survey asked the wrong questions and should have been asking if troops favor it and whether it will make a more effective force.

The questionnaire also relied on the “mistaken belief” that training standards will remain the same, which Donnelly said is not realistic given the differing physical abilities between the genders.

She said the Pentagon is bent on imposing gender-based quotas that will drive down standards. Defense leaders say standards will not be lowered.

“The results that are being put out there are designed to manage public perception,” she said. “There is a lot about this that still needs to be discussed and it’s really not fair to the women who serve out there.”

The infantry side is skeptical about how women will perform in their units, and some positions may end up closed again if too few females meet the physically demanding standards of combat, said Gen. James Amos, head of the Marine Corps, who spoke to reporters Thursday at a defense conference in San Diego.

“I think from the infantry side of the house, you know they’re more skeptical,” Amos said. “It’s been an all-male organization throughout the history of the U.S. Marine Corps so I don’t think that should be any surprise.”

Most Marines support the policy change, Amos said.

It will be up to the military service chiefs to recommend and defend whether women should be excluded from any of those more demanding and deadly positions, such as Navy commandos or the Army’s Delta Force.

Over the past decade, many male service members already have been fighting alongside women in Iraq and Afghanistan. Women who serve in supply units, as clerks and with military police have ended up on the unmarked front lines of modern warfare.

More than 150 women have been killed in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while serving in support roles.

About 7 percent of Marines are female compared to about 14 percent overall for the armed forces.

Both sexes surveyed said getting women closer to the action will improve their career opportunities.

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Comments (96)

Krutch
Posted on February 3, 2013 at 4:42pm
Let those Marines leave the service. We are going to need them here at home when the feminized military loses the next war.
Bama is purging the military of its’ best military thinkers replacing them with his puppets. Stalin did this, by murder, and their army was prostrate before hitlers’ blitzkreig due to the fact that the generals were stalins political hacks and not battle savvy.
With the recent shutdown of the southern lookout system (by obama) we are now subject to more infiltration from drug cartels, muslim extremeists, and just plain criminal elements. Along with this push to disarm the people, does anyone NOT see our countries downfall?

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welovetheUSA
Posted on February 3, 2013 at 3:25pm
Do not leave yet…………the surpreme court ruled that since women donot serve in combat they are allowed to serve in the military…….now women are told to serve in combat…so now they must sign up at 18 like everyone else does…and that will not go over well with all those women who push for Equal rights…cause now these women must sign up for selective service at 18. Its going to the surpreme court boys.

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pandora665
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 11:10pm
This is an incredibly stupid and counterproductive move. Whether it is a result of biological forces or social forces men are far better at physical aggression as a whole. That doesn’t mean that women are not aggressive, it just manifests in other more covert ways. We are not an asexual society and legislation such as this is doomed for failure. Equality doesn’t mean that one has the exact ability as others, it means both can play an equally important role in a given area. Successfully find a way to utilize female covert aggression, coupled with male overt aggression and the results would be far better then attempting to utilize strengths that are not necessarily present.

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KingCanon
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 8:56pm
Exactly. That’s the reason for this implementation.
Wake up folks. This administration wants a smaller
military and craftiness will get it for them.

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Verceofreason
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 5:37pm
1/2 the folks in the military only joined
because Folks like Mitt Romney sent all
their jobs to Asia.
The REAL reason the military budget is never cut
is it’s a welfare program for the MIC contractors and to hide
the country’s true unemployment figures.

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Charybdis
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 2:24pm
“Everything is working out just as I have foreseen.” – Darth Hideous (aka Obama)

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righthanddrive
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 1:52pm
This is sad news. This is exactly what the president wants to achieve – a degrading of our military capability. Then the USA will not the premier force in the world and will have to defer to international opinion. Not good. Time folks woke up and took notice. Go back in history and see what presidents like Wilson did to the armed forces and why we were caught napping when Hitler strutted his stuff. At least then we have factories and capitalists like Ford and Chrysler who knew how to ramp up manufacturing. Over the last four years Obama has destroyed these capabilities.

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Chuck7884
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 1:30pm
Will Allowing women to serve, maybe a ploy to have Unisex Bathroom Facilities. nothing more or the troops can demand separate bathrooms for gay and lesbian troops!.

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Karama
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 12:27pm
I would be more impressed with the number quitting if it were 60-70%. These numbers are almost equal to a staged liberal event that they pay people to show up to. Apparently the Marines know something most state side don’t.

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Uechi
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 12:27pm
The reality is that men and women are physically and mentally different. Are there exceptions to the rule maybe. How many toughened women soldiers can carry a 200lb+ 6 foot soldier out of harms way by themselves?. The answer is few if none. I think we should experiment in the NFL first before we do it on the battlefield. Open up all positions for females. Let’s see how many are still standing after the season is over.
Typical Progressive everybody is equal bull crap. The truth is we are not all equal physically or mentally that applies to men versus men, women versus women and men versus women. There are lots of outstanding combat roles opened to females, being a grunt isn’t one of them.
What will happen is you will the left lowering standards so females can make the cut. That will mean sub par soldiers including males. You want to decrease the military’s effectiveness and get more of the solders killed put them in the front lines on the ground. Incredibly stupid.
At the same time they want to put female boots on the ground the Messiah is talking about how dangerous football is and that if he had a son he wouldn’t let him play. Make sense?

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paperpushermj
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 12:19pm
All we have to do is look to the Private Office to see what will happen in some remote outpost on some distant Land to know that the 17% of Men who would leave the service are the smart ones. What will happen is a few Women will charge men with Sexual Harassment, this fact will create an atmosphere of a poison pill in every Unit that are posted under these conditions. Men will give the Ladies a wide berth out of fear that what ever they say or do will be filtered through the Harassment filthier. Just the slightest inference in the mens file will be a Career killer.

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truthnstuff
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 11:21am
Everything is right on target. Real leaders are being ushered out of the military, anyone who will not follow the fuehrer is being ushered out, the men are being replaced by girly men, and now there will most likely be a diversity quota for women who vote with their female parts.

We will be all set for take over, even by France. The emotionally challenged will have no compunction about firing on U.S. citizens.

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Chuck7884
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 11:08am
the description of the photo is wrong. it should have said the women listed is attached to 2nd battalion 1st Marine Regiment 1st Marine division. There are no Females in a Marine Rifle regiment period. The can be attached but not serve in.

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Chuck7884
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 10:57am
First of all only Officers can resign there commissions in which they either leave the service or they are forced to serve the remainder as Enlisted. But Enlisted can not quit the military!.

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Kinnison
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 10:56am
We currently have an all-volunteer military. What with first allowing openly-gay people to serve and now authorizing women in front-line combat units, what happens if the continual social engineering at the DOD causes the supply of recruits willing to serve in such a military to drop off? What if parents of young men from traditional-military-service families advise their sons not to serve? What happens if the middle and upper-level experienced career NCOs and officers decide to leave and return to civilian life? What if the U.S. military is politically-correct but can no longer win battles or wars? Be careful what you wish for, liberals…

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- Chuck7884
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 1:28pm
  Allowing women to serve maybe a ploy to have Unisex Bathroom Facilities. nothing more or the troops can demand separate bathrooms for gay and lesbian troops!.
  
  Report this comment
B-Neil
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 10:06am
President Bush stated; ( This will be a differant type war like we never seen before. This war could last one hudred years. ) There are no front lines. This war is a Swat Team dream. Women can perform combat functions. I don’t believe there will be any Pork Chop or Hamburger hills. D-Day invasions are out of the picture. I don’t believe an all out assualt on a specific area is a proper use of females. I climbed off my high horse and changed my opionion. I myself cannot see a (Star Ship Trooper Billeting picture ). We just have to face the fact; we lost our moral compass. Have a nice day.

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- Beachmastermax
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 12:51pm
  We did not have to sign up for a forever war. This war was winable in about a week. We just needed the will to use the power at our disposal.
  
  GWB did not have the fortitude to do the necessary thing.
  
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- B-Neil
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 5:23pm
  BEACHMASTERMAX: Pres. Bush was refering to the Terrorists. He was correct. If you don’t believe me, ask Maxwell Smart who combats Chaos on a daily basis. Or James bond who battles the world bad guys& girls, cant leave out the ladies. By the way, what is a BEACHMASTERMAX? I think you missed your calling. Your not Al Bundies kid are you???
  
  Report this comment
justiceday
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 8:56am
The US marine corps really needs looked into by this government. This pole is very telling in their attitude toward women that is so disturbing, if this were a company there would be huge sexual discrimination and harrassment suits.
If you saw the men they let into the marines you would know why they are worried.

Most don’t meet their requirements of standards. They accept about 14,000 drug waivers a year and allow them to continue to get away with it while serving.

Most women are better and stronger than them. They have a high rate of sexual assault and ignore it when women report it anyway.

There is a great site that has evidence of how the marines ignore rape, accept convicted druggies whose political views are “killing bodies” and solid evidence of how they view women.
http://www.theusmarinesrape.com/MarshmallowHead.html
http://theusmarinesrape.com/FaceBook.html

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elphi43
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 8:02am
Lets see, under Obama, the military has to work along side Gays, Women, and now there is serious talk about Major military cutbacks. Who is Obama talking with on his Blackberry?

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Concerned Green Beret
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 6:56am
These polls are idiotic. They ask these questions, like wow dude if they do this or that will you leave your job tomorrow??? Uhhhh, it don’t work like that you idiots. These migrations happen over yeas. Joe just don’t get up and leave tomorrow. He leaves after the gets fet up with the BS that is about to be bestowed upon him. Once the reality of such lowered standards, rape, political correctness, Men having to pick up the slack for a woman who can’t carry her ruck up the hill, etc………….

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revelation2012
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 1:07am
February 1, 2013

State Dept. Publicized Names, Photos of Stevens’ Benghazi Security Detail

Before 9/11/12; Suppressed Their Identities Afterward

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/state-dept-publicized-names-photos-stevens-benghazi-security-detail-91112-suppressed

State Magazine December 2011

http://digitaledition.state.gov/publication/?i=91715
click on Search – enter DS Agents – click on zoom to read article

DS Agents:

Jeremy Clarke
Chris Little
Mario Montoya

Medic:

Jack Van Cleve

Regional Security Officer:

Mike Ranger

Security Protective Specialists:

Domingo Ruiz
Ronald Young

(protected mission staff traveling in Benghazi or in the rebel-controled towns in eastern Libya)

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Beachmastermax
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 12:49am
Guys, you are missing this. The idea behind this is to make our military impotent. No one will want to fund sending women over seas to endure the unendurable. Obama will soon disarm our nuclear forces. We will have no military in a few years. They have been saying this for decades. The money will go to the Obama phone lady. NO ONE HAS LISTENED. It is upon us. Good luck to you and yourn.

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Chancellor
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 12:38am
This is the government destruction of the United States armed forces so the Gastopo…..I mean Homoland Unsecurity can take over.

Like the old saying go’s….”The first person you may have to shoot is the one in the Foxhole next to you”

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Beachmastermax
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 12:30am
Don’t worry, when the “voluntary” force concept fails to work, they will go to the draft. All women will have to be registered and to insure non-descrimination only Social Security numbers will be provided in the lottery for call up.

Marcheth off into the mine fields. Hoohya!!!!!

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Toltepeceno
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 12:23am
4% of women marines like collecting the same pay and benefits as males unless they have to pull the same load.

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