JerseyBoy
08-24-2001, 00:53
I know this is military related, but since a lot of the board is ex or reserve military, I thought some might find it interesting.
Pentagon to Stick with Coed Recruit Training
The State Journal-Register Springfield, IL
August 21, 2001
WASHINGTON - Despite mounting pressure from conservatives, the Bush administration appears to have no interest in forcing the Army, Navy and Air Force to change their practice of training male and female recruits together.
The leaders of 14 pro-defense groups, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urging him to stop the services from combining men and women during recruit training. The letter complained that the coed recruit training promotes sexual misconduct rather than military discipline.
"Our members hope that you will act quickly to end this and other demoralizing personnel policies that have vitiated discipline and morale," the joint letter said.
But David Chu, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said this week he will continue to allow the services to decide how best to train their recruits, unless he sees evidence that the existing policies are not working.
"We look to the leadership of the military departments to advise as to what makes sense from their perspective," Chu told Pentagon reporters.
He said the administration was focusing on results, and "what counts is, we need to have individuals who are trained and ready to do their responsibilities properly."
Chu noted that the services have different policies on recruit training and he was not inclined to impose "a one-size-fits-all policy."
The Marine Corps separates men and women in boot camp, but combines them to some extent in most subsequent training. The Navy and Air Force integrate men and women in most phases of basic and advanced training. The Army mingles the sexes in basic training for soldiers going into support units, where men and women can serve together. But it trains male recruits separately if they are going into infantry and armored units, from which women are barred.
Conservatives used a number of highly publicized cases of training supervisors having sex with females in their units to push the Clinton administration to end the coed recruit training.
The services, however, insisted that, because men and women increasingly serve together, including in combat situations, they must train together from the start. The Democrats, with the support of feminist organizations, tightened rules on separated berthing for the sexes, but did not change the coed training policies.
Conservatives hoped for a change under the Republicans.
But Chu said the Pentagon civilian leaders would not interfere if the services were meeting their obligations to produce well-trained personnel.
"If, in an important dimension they're not achieving that result or we're unhappy with that result in some fashion, then that's the point at which we ought to intervene," he said.
"To my knowledge, none of the military departments is so claiming that there is a problem," Chu said.
"That's not an adequate response," said Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness and one of the signers of the letter to Rumsfeld.
Donnelly said she did not think Chu has had time to study the issue in the two months he has been in his post.
But, she said, "to retain coed training, with all the additional costs and inefficiencies, is totally inconsistent" with Rumsfeld's emphasis on making the military more cost efficient and combat ready.
The troops coming out of coed training, Donnelly said, "are less ready, less prepared."
"It's a matter of a system that encourages indiscipline, rather than discipline," she said.
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., another vocal critic of the gender integrated recruit training, called it "a prime example of a politically correct solution to a nonproblem that cannot be ended too soon."
But retired Navy Capt. Lory Manning, of the Women's Research and Education Institute, noted that the sailors who saved the USS Cole after it was devastated by a terrorist bomb "were products of gender- integrated basic training. When confronted with a real attack, they performed magnificently."
The failure to reverse the so-called "feminization of the military" policies of former President Bill Clinton is adding to pro- defense conservatives' disappointment with the Republican president, who promised the military last year that "help is on the way. "
Bartlett and 27 other members of the House Armed Services Committee have written to Rumsfeld asking him to examine Clinton administration changes in the rules that supposedly restrict women from ground combat roles.
But Rumsfeld told the Washington Times recently that no one in the Pentagon has raised military social issues with him.
The conservatives also have been disappointed in the level of defense spending President Bush has requested.
(C) 2001 The State Journal-Register Springfield, IL. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved
Pentagon to Stick with Coed Recruit Training
The State Journal-Register Springfield, IL
August 21, 2001
WASHINGTON - Despite mounting pressure from conservatives, the Bush administration appears to have no interest in forcing the Army, Navy and Air Force to change their practice of training male and female recruits together.
The leaders of 14 pro-defense groups, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urging him to stop the services from combining men and women during recruit training. The letter complained that the coed recruit training promotes sexual misconduct rather than military discipline.
"Our members hope that you will act quickly to end this and other demoralizing personnel policies that have vitiated discipline and morale," the joint letter said.
But David Chu, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said this week he will continue to allow the services to decide how best to train their recruits, unless he sees evidence that the existing policies are not working.
"We look to the leadership of the military departments to advise as to what makes sense from their perspective," Chu told Pentagon reporters.
He said the administration was focusing on results, and "what counts is, we need to have individuals who are trained and ready to do their responsibilities properly."
Chu noted that the services have different policies on recruit training and he was not inclined to impose "a one-size-fits-all policy."
The Marine Corps separates men and women in boot camp, but combines them to some extent in most subsequent training. The Navy and Air Force integrate men and women in most phases of basic and advanced training. The Army mingles the sexes in basic training for soldiers going into support units, where men and women can serve together. But it trains male recruits separately if they are going into infantry and armored units, from which women are barred.
Conservatives used a number of highly publicized cases of training supervisors having sex with females in their units to push the Clinton administration to end the coed recruit training.
The services, however, insisted that, because men and women increasingly serve together, including in combat situations, they must train together from the start. The Democrats, with the support of feminist organizations, tightened rules on separated berthing for the sexes, but did not change the coed training policies.
Conservatives hoped for a change under the Republicans.
But Chu said the Pentagon civilian leaders would not interfere if the services were meeting their obligations to produce well-trained personnel.
"If, in an important dimension they're not achieving that result or we're unhappy with that result in some fashion, then that's the point at which we ought to intervene," he said.
"To my knowledge, none of the military departments is so claiming that there is a problem," Chu said.
"That's not an adequate response," said Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness and one of the signers of the letter to Rumsfeld.
Donnelly said she did not think Chu has had time to study the issue in the two months he has been in his post.
But, she said, "to retain coed training, with all the additional costs and inefficiencies, is totally inconsistent" with Rumsfeld's emphasis on making the military more cost efficient and combat ready.
The troops coming out of coed training, Donnelly said, "are less ready, less prepared."
"It's a matter of a system that encourages indiscipline, rather than discipline," she said.
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., another vocal critic of the gender integrated recruit training, called it "a prime example of a politically correct solution to a nonproblem that cannot be ended too soon."
But retired Navy Capt. Lory Manning, of the Women's Research and Education Institute, noted that the sailors who saved the USS Cole after it was devastated by a terrorist bomb "were products of gender- integrated basic training. When confronted with a real attack, they performed magnificently."
The failure to reverse the so-called "feminization of the military" policies of former President Bill Clinton is adding to pro- defense conservatives' disappointment with the Republican president, who promised the military last year that "help is on the way. "
Bartlett and 27 other members of the House Armed Services Committee have written to Rumsfeld asking him to examine Clinton administration changes in the rules that supposedly restrict women from ground combat roles.
But Rumsfeld told the Washington Times recently that no one in the Pentagon has raised military social issues with him.
The conservatives also have been disappointed in the level of defense spending President Bush has requested.
(C) 2001 The State Journal-Register Springfield, IL. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved