Posted on 05/09/2015 7:08:14 AM PDT by iowamark
The military is presently under a national spotlight regarding women in combat, with branches testing how women can physically handle grueling physical standards associated with combat arms training. A video going viral adds some interesting context to that. The video shows a U.S. Army captain, who is a woman, completing a 12-mile ruck march on a course that is open to women and outside of the discussion on women in combat arms — the Expert Field Medical Badge course. The competitive decoration is open to soldiers in the medical field and is one of the toughest decorations to earn.
In the video, Capt. Sarah Cudd grinds out the final steps of a 12-mile ruck march that had to be completed in three hours as part of the qualifications for the course. It’s one of the most grueling courses in the Army; a 2013 Army report describes the success rate as just 17%. Cudd, an Army veterinarian, joins those ranks in an extremely motivating fashion.
The video was posted to Facebook April 28, by Capt. Lloyd Mason, whose Facebook page describes him as the program manager for the Expert Field Medical Badge course at Fort Dix, New Jersey. The video has been shared more than 22,000 times since.
It’s fiercely motivating — Cudd can be seen gritting it out just a few dozen feet from the finish line. She crumples to the ground from exhaustion twice, and is slow to rise each time. The determination, however, is palpable, as is the energy and support from the onlooking soldiers who surround her. The crowd’s cheers grow as Cudd gets nearer to the finish line. When she finally crosses it, she’s surrounded by supportive soldiers; the cheers are deafening, and she immediately collapses. The time on the clock reads 2 hours, 46 minutes, and 53 seconds. She had three hours.
The U.S. Army’s Public Health Command shared the video to Facebook days later, saying Cudd “shows us all what ‘never quitting’ looks like.”
The Expert Field Medical Badge course also involves tasks surrounding tactical combat care, medical and casualty evacuation, warrior skills, and communication; as well as a physical fitness test; a land navigation course; weapons qualifications; and a comprehensive written test.
Task & Purpose reached out to a former Army combat medic, Samuel Innocent, who served with the 10th Mountain Division in Fort Drum, New York. He described the course as, “The second-hardest badge in the Army to get outside of the Infantry Expert Badge.”
But it has nothing to do with anything you mention. It has to do with social engineering.
There will never be true equality in our country until every female between the ages of 18 and 55 is forced to register with the Selective Service.
Physical fitness is more or less irrelevant for a lot of positions. Think drone operator.
Ran across a very interesting essay on the subject of women in combat. Recommended.
http://www.baen.com/amazonsrightbreast.asp
...and DRAFTED for military service.
I don’t know how to feel about this video. In the fire service there are many women who are in better shape than many of the guys. I remember one icy night we responded to a building that had what looked like smoke coming out of the top of it. I was on a “truck company” and my “third person” was a woman, Joyce who was in her fifties that weighed in at about a 110 pounds.
Joyce was in incredible shape for her age. She rode her bicycle into work almost every day all year round... rain or shine and she lived 30 miles away with many, many hills on the route. Joyce was one of the first women to join the fire department. Over twenty years before her husband had been killed at a fire. He didn’t have a decent life insurance policy and she had four young kids, so she took the test and passed the agility test and managed to get hired by the fire department herself.
It was 2:00 in the morning and Joyce and I were 30 feet up on a metal roof and there was a steeper section to climb up to the heat exchangers. Joyce scrambled up the steep section like it was nothing, and then I tried. I had a very difficult time even getting started and then I struggled to the top. I was determined not to look like it was too hard for me after Joyce made it look so easy. She weighed a 110 pounds and had 50 or 60 pounds of gear on her back; I weighed 200 pounds and had 50 or 60 pounds of gear, but she made it quite obvious that she had the better power to weight ratio.
The “smoke” was mostly steam and a couple of v-belts had been slipping after some water had frozen on them. But everything was fine. Joyce scrambled back down like it was nothing. I was happy to be going down instead of up, but I slipped as I was descending. Joyce and another of my crew caught me as I hit the flatter section of roof and managed to catch me and keep me from falling 30 feet to the ground.
If I had flown to the pavement 30 feet below.. I most likely would have been seriously injured or maybe even have broken my neck as my trajectory would have been head first. So I may even owe my life to a 110 pound tough as nails woman who was in her fifties at the time.
So even though some of the women I worked with were major pains in the a**es. I can’t help but think of Joyce and many others who were very professional and very dedicated. This video showed what looked to be a very small woman carrying a very large pack on a course that has only a 17% completion rate. I don’t know the details, but it looked like a worthy accomplishment to me and I congratulate her whole heartedly.
+1
LOL! You read my mind. Try 24 miles with a full combat load at rout step.
In 1982, my battalion completed it in 6 hours and 15 minutes. And that time was nothing special. Now we prepared for it but only marching ever increasing distances once every two weeks for about four months. But here is the difference, we had new people checking into the units all of the time. We had one Marine check in to the unit two weeks before the MCRESS march. Did that Marine have problems- yes- but he made it.
So think about it, one female does a 12 mile mile in 3 hours and it is newsworthy, but Marine units did even more with regularity and it was just business as usual. But then again, I guess it is the way it should be.
After I got out of comm school I went to 1/5. 4 days later we did that hump. We did 26 miles in 7:15.
My feet were blisters but I made it. A lot dropped out. Enough that the CO decided we needed to practice humps. Every other Friday we were humping, but these were not easy humps like the mccres. Camp pendleton has a lot of hills and be became very familiar with most of them.
It’s little more than a third of a standard thirty mile hump.
I assume after school the army winds up doing those too.
If you struggle with the short training humps, what are you gonna do in the field?
“Running through the jungle with my multimeter leads...”
And, have their heads shaved upon entering Boot Camp.
Shoot fire and heck; I’d re-up for that :)
In essence, she was rendered combat ineffective by a 12 mile hike.
How many dads and moms want their daughters drafted? For the last 6 thousand years countries have tried women in combat. There is a reason it has never worked. Even in Israel they have had significant problems.
This really isn’t that impressive, though I don;t know what else the badge requires, and in what time frame before the ruck.
When I went through basic training, our AIT (Cavalry Scout) involves a 20k (12.5 miles) ruck march as one of our final mandatory training events. After spending 3-4 days in the field, we pack up all our gear (probably 75-100 pounds), and then rucked back to the barracks. Talking to one of our Drill Sergeants, the walk back was closer to 24k than 20k. So no, I’m not really that impressed that she completed this. I’m guessing the Medic Badge failure rate is due to other requirements, definitely not a simple ruck march like that one.
Force marches used to be 20 miles, not 12.
Barely surviving a 12 mile hike doesn’t show that one is ready for combat.
She is a veterinarian. My guess is that she took on this challenge as a personal achievement and has no desire to get into combat. I don't know much about the "hike", but apparently only 17% of those who participate in the course complete it. The pack she was wearing looked like it weighed nearly as much as she did.
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