WOMEN CAN’T PASS PHYSICAL FOR COMBAT

USMC finds that 55 percent of female Marines are unable to do three pull-ups

A minimum of three pull-ups are required of all male Marines. When it was recently announced that women Marines would be able to join combat infantry units, the corps ordered that as of January 1, 2014, all women would have to pass the three-pull-up physical test. So far, 55 percent of the women tested have been unable to perform the required three pull-ups. Only one percent of male recruits have been unable to pass that test.

The corps has now postponed the January 1 deadline. According to Newsmax, a corps spokesperson said that the pull-up test had been put off until sometime next year, in order to gather more data and "ensure all female Marines are given the best opportunity to succeed."

Robert Maginnis, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, says the delay shows that women can't meet the same standards. "Young women, in spite of all the training and all the best intentions, are not going to be the equal of young men in terms of upper body strength," Maginnis says. "You've got to have a lot of upper body strength to lift the stuff. Been there, done that."

There was a time when one of our military branches – I think it was the navy – required two men to carry a stretcher bearing a 150-pound dummy for a distance of 100 feet within a certain time frame. When women recruits were unable to pass this test, the requirement was changed to four recruits carrying the stretcher and they were given more time to complete the task as well. Thus the standards were lowered for all personnel in order to accommodate women recruits.

For me, when I was in the army, those daily pull-ups were the hardest of all the physical exercises I had to endure, but I never had any trouble doing at least six or seven. And then there were those fucking duck waddles … it still hurts when I think about them.

Can’t do three pull-ups? Hey, that must be why women are called the weaker sex.