Posted on 02/18/2012 8:23:24 AM PST by darrellmaurina
At 9 o’clock this morning, Sgt. Sandra Coast will graduate from Basic Combat Training on Fort Leonard Wood, officially beginning her Army career — at 51 years old.
According to the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, the average age for an Army Reserve recruit is about 23, making Coast one of the oldest people to go through Basic Combat Training.
“Everybody in the world thinks I am a total nutcase,” Coast said. “I just want to support our troops. I love all of them.”
From 1982 to 1993, Coast devoted her life to the U.S. Navy. She gave up her lifestyle as a Sailor to raise her son, Jeff, who ironically led her back to the military she left behind years ago.
“When Jeff graduated high school, he joined the Marine Corps. When I was at the recruiter’s office with my son, I walked into the Army recruiting office and said ‘I want to join,’” Coast said.
For as long as she can remember she has had a special place in her heart for troops and a hunger to serve.
“I have a friend in the Navy that was emailing me from Afghanistan. It’s his third combat tour in seven years. I don’t know, I can’t explain it, I just had this overwhelming desire to give back to the military somehow. I was doing the same job day after day after day; I can’t live my life that way,” Coast said. “There is more to life than this, so I ended up in basic training.”
She was stunned to learn that as a paralegal specialist she would have to go back to basic training — this time, Army-style.
“I wasn’t quite expecting to be running around with a M16 and all of this gear,” Coast said. “This is nothing even remotely similar to being a Sailor. I was blown away by the total difference of it. We carried M16s during Navy Boot Camp, but we never shot them. Here we are shooting several times a week. Shooting this weapon with all of the gear on takes a toll on me.”
Coast started preparing for Basic Combat Training months prior to stepping foot on Fort Leonard Wood.
“Before the recruiters would even talk to me I had to lose 30 pounds. I went from sitting at home every night eating ice cream to exercising and watching what I ate. I also started getting up at 4 o’clock in the morning to exercise and tried to go to bed early at night. I knew I needed every advantage I could have to get through this,” Coast said.
Her 10-week journey from civilian to Soldier was spent in Company B, 2nd Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Chemical Brigade. Her first sergeant said when he first heard he had a 51-year-old headed his way he was perplexed, “Wow, that’s strange,” he said. Now, 1st Sgt. John Byars has a new perception of his elders.
“I was impressed because she can do everything the younger Soldiers do,” Byars said. “She never expected us to feel sorry for her. She even got one of the highest Army Physical Fitness Test scores in the company. She is a prime example that age is just a number. She ran faster than Soldiers young enough to be her kids.”
Coast even amazed herself when she came in second place during the PT test.
“I am still kind of blown away by that. I even ran faster than all but one female,” Coast said.
The APFT may have been a breeze for Coast, but she said one of the hardest things for her to adjust to was the divide in life stages between her and her fellow roommates.
“Everything about basic training is pretty tough, but living with more than 30 teenage females is one of the hardest things,” Coast said.
Despite the age gap, 1st Sgt. Byars said Coast was treated just like every other Soldier-in-training.
“We don’t treat her any different, and we don’t see the privates treat her any different,” Byars said.
Coast agreed. “They treat me as an equal. The males especially have the utmost respect. They will do little things that they probably aren’t suppose to do, like give me their seat on the bus and hold the doors for me. It’s the little things that mean so much,” she said.
Although, Coast recalls an instance during hand-to-hand combat training that was particularly tough for one of her battle buddies.
“We had to slap each other in the face. The poor guy that was up against me said ‘I cannot do this, I cannot slap her.’ I told him I would pay for his counseling when we were done. I was slapping him — he finally slapped me,” Coast said.
The thing Coast is looking forward to the most today is wrapping her arms around her son.
“I am thrilled to wear the title of sergeant in the U.S. Army, but the title that is also very near and dear to my heart is Marine mom. You can’t beat that. I feel totally blessed,” Coast said.
Pfc. Jeff Coast didn’t think his mother was serious when she expressed interest in joining the Army, but recently he started seeing a side of her that was new to him.
“She is doing what most people her age would consider crazy,” Jeff said. “I think she is hardcore. I hope when I get older I am still active and do all kinds of cool stuff.”
Sgt. Sandra Coast feels like she made it through boot camp because of the support family, friends and even outsiders expressed to her.
“It blows my mind that I am able to accomplish this. I couldn’t have done it without the support of my Marine mom friends. I get more mail from them than anybody. That support keeps me going. They are constantly cheering me on. Even random people around here will tell me they are cheering for me. At the dining facility the workers walk up and tell me they are cheering for me,” Coast said. “I cry pretty much every day. Not a lot because it’s not an Army thing to do I know, but it’s mind boggling to me how supportive strangers can be.”
She is delighted to be at the end of her boot camp adventure, and thankful for all of the new experiences she had.
“This has been very challenging. It makes me realize that I can do all of this. I got to do some really fun things. After the repelling tower, I decided to start rock climbing when I get out of basic training,” Coast said.
Coast is also looking forward to her life in the Army Reserve. She said she enlisted hoping to work directly with active duty troops, but instead was attached to a reserve unit. On the plus side she will be able to work near her son’s reserve unit.
“I wanted to go active duty, but they are not taking people as old as me for active duty. So, I got attached to a virtual unit. Everything I do will be by the internet and phone,” Coast said.
Being in Army Basic Combat Training left Coast with a new respect for combat Soldiers — and a new respect for herself.
“Their gear is heavy and they are doing this constantly. We have some really awesome troops out there,” Coast said. “I am 51-years-old, and I can do this.”
Thank you for your note. I didn't remember the percentage but I did know there was a percentage long ago.
This woman is a paralegal. I do not see a problem with her wearing the uniform, and being trained to handle what could happen if her Army Reserve unit gets called up. We don't have front lines today and anything can happen to anyone during a deployment, whether they're officially in a combat role or not.
You may want to add Army intelligence and logistics to that list of things women could do long ago — some of the early female generals came up through those routes, which probably means they started their careers in the 1950s in the same fields. I'm not sure exactly what MOSes were authorized for women and I'm guessing the rules changed over time based on the needs of the Army, with more women being allowed to do more things during wartime based on the “free a man to fight” principle, and fewer women being recruited for fewer roles during peacetime.
The article details just one cog in the machine being used to destory our military.
The link I provided in another post shows just how succesful that machine has been. More destruction is obviously on the way.
Soon even people like you won’t be able to turn away from it.
Actually the most funny things I ever saw in the Army came from when a mixed sex MI unit spent some time living around and supplying security for my small element, the females were an embarrassment, they could not even put up the heavy 30 man tent, their guys had to go over and do it. The female weakness kept showing up during the outdoor living period that I could observe them, in other words, it was just like regular life.
Females in logistics are a problem because they are weak, things that were done simply, quickly, and without a second thought in the old army become major challenges with females, even the little 155 round weighs 93 pounds, females have a problem loading a lot of those by hand, if they can do any of them, or lifting a 100 pound industrial size pot of soup off a stove, or mounting heavy munitions under the wing of a plane, or holding up operations while they try to lift a heavy truck tire to replace it.
Replacing your second layer of warriors, and rear guard with replacements who are smaller, shorter, lighter, weaker, more prone to injuries, less physically aggressive, unable to match the men they are replacing, is the ultimate leftist success story. One has to ask, Why? Why move backwards into a downward spiral.
If you have ever watched video of the logistics people trying to slog through the snow and mud of winter warfare, with trucks breaking down, being sunk to their axles, ice braking, tires blowing out, loads having to be off loaded, reloaded, transferred to other vehicles, while being ambushed and strafed, then you will see that it is all about muscles, raw tough guy, manpower.
Women, as women, don't really add much to the readiness of the US military to perform its mission, and detract from readiness in a number of ways.
Women make up about 14 percent of the active duty military. Subtract out nurses and administrative personnel serving primarily in the US (and whose duties could be taken up by civilians) and the actual impact of removing all women from all deployable units would be very small, and quickly replaceable by increased recruiting of men.
Meanwhile, the PC atmosphere that women in the military create, and the cost of accommodating them, decrease readiness.
True, the Army training is the same for all, the only difference is that after all the schools, or between some of them, the person is a part of a Reserve or Guard unit.
Some are softer than the regular military, some are tougher, some are better than their active duty counterparts.
Reserve and Guard SEAL units, Special Forces, Rangers and such, are good units, I don’t know what it is like now, but the Guard used to have better pilots and tank operators, and medical people in the Reserves. Take two tanks, one driven by a team that have been active for 3 years, the other who were also active for three years, but for the last dozen years they have all been on the same tank in their Guard unit, they get hard to beat.
Women make up about 14 percent of the active duty military. Subtract out nurses and administrative personnel serving primarily in the US (and whose duties could be taken up by civilians) and the actual impact of removing all women from all deployable units would be very small, and quickly replaceable by increased recruiting of men.
Meanwhile, the PC atmosphere that women in the military create, and the cost of accommodating them, decrease readiness.
I agree to some extent but disagree in others. Patriotic women volunteering their service in non-combat but none the less very important roles in areas like the medical corps, procurement, engineering, IT, data analysis, administration and the like, means that physically able bodied men don’t have to fill all those roles, roles that in some cases women are very good at, if not better than some men at doing.
And I disagree about delegating all those roles to “civilians”. Outsourcing too many military jobs to civilian contractors has been a disaster in some cases IMO.
Women serving in the US military or otherwise supporting our men in combat zones, have a long and proud history of service to our country and that shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.
I do agree with your point about the PC BS. And many of the women I know who have served in the military would agree.
I will defer to the comments by women who wrote on the other thread about how those things can't teach men about pregnancy because they don't simulate morning sickness and bladder issues. Makes sense to me.
I'm aware of a Fort Leonard Wood water aerobics PT program for pregnant soldiers; there are probably other things going on I don't know about. The issue of pregnant soldiers is not something to which I've paid much attention in a garrison environment, though I am certainly aware of the problems of women deliberately getting pregnant to get sent back from a deployment. Those women get blasted by their fellow female soldiers for being shirkers at best, and often immoral tramps and marriage-wreckers as well. I've also heard female soldiers who themselves keep fit during pregnancy grouse about how some of their female colleagues use pregnancy as an excuse to get out of PT.
Here's the other side of that coin when pregnancy **DOESN'T** get used as an excuse.
I remember a female Marine who received the joint servicemember award several years ago for having the best performance of any permanent party junior enlisted non-Army servicemember ranked E-4 or below in the thousand-member FLW Marine Corps detachment, the Navy Seabee detachment of several hundred sailors, or the Air Force construction detachment of about four hundred airmen. She's married to another Marine, and from the ages and dates of marriage, there was no reason to believe anything other than two young servicemembers getting married and deciding to have a baby.
This female Marine showed up to receive her award, in dress uniform if I remember right, a couple of days after giving birth and was clearly in pain at times when she moved the wrong way. The woman presiding over that ceremony, who herself had been an Air Force officer many years ago, said she couldn't believe the Marine actually showed up in person to receive her award. Her answer was some version of “Ma'am, I'm a Marine. I got out of bed to get here, but I got here.”
My recollection is this female Marine was a truck driver for the Marine Corps who had become an instructor at an earlier-than-usual rank due to exceptionally good skills. I don't know what her Marine husband did. It seems to me that she proved not only to her Marine colonel but also to the LTC who headed the Air Force detachment and the Navy LT who headed the Navy detachment, as well as the senior cadre serving in those three detachments, that she was the very best junior enlisted person on the entire post despite being pregnant for nine months of the year during which she was evaluated.
We can say what we want about women in uniform, but it seems clear that at least some of them can not only do the job but excel in doing the job.
Those who want to use pregnancy to get out of their duties need to either get out of the military entirely (a legitimate option, in my view, if a soldier wants to be a full-time mom) or get the ****-chewing they deserve for collecting the benefits without doing the duties.
As for those who get pregnant while deployed: unless the dad is their husband, they deserve to have the wives of their FRG decide their punishment — but that kind of verdict would probably get ruled cruel and unusual punishment.
We're in somewhat agreement. As far as the non-combat slots, the military women filling them get expensive training, yet are not really deployable into combat.
In WW2, the men holding administrative posts were deployable to combat, being replaced behind the desk by women. This made a lot of sense. But a woman army clerk would NOT be similarly deployable to combat if needed. This reduces reserve combat capability.
Sorry for missing your earlier note, Rev. Henrickson.
I don't know the answer. I know nothing about Coast Guard requirements, but I'm guessing her age was the issue, plus maybe location.
Historically the Army has been more willing to waive age requirements than any of the other services since the Army has a greater need for more people, and also because the Navy and Air Force have been reducing their personnel for some time, including periods when the Army was expanding. For a while the Army had a formal program to process people through AIT who had left the Navy and Air Force but wanted to re-enlist in the Army. I don't know why this woman had to go through basic and couldn't do that AIT program — maybe the program doesn't exist anymore, or perhaps she had been out of uniform long enough that the powers-which-be decided she had to go through basic to make sure she could do the job.
In WW2, the men holding administrative posts were deployable to combat, being replaced behind the desk by women. This made a lot of sense. But a woman army clerk would NOT be similarly deployable to combat if needed. This reduces reserve combat capability.
True but even during WWII, men who were not necessarily deployable in combat zones were still drafted and served in support roles. In an all volunteer military, those same men are not as likely to voluntarily enlist if they have other opportunities available to them.
But for some women, the military offers an opportunity to train and advance in nontraditional and non combat careers such as in civil engineering.
I had the privilege of being friends with a woman who served in the US Air Force as a Civil Engineer who after 30 years in the military and obtaining the rank of Colonel, “retired” and then went to work for the Army Corps of Engineers as a civilian employee. And she was absolutely brilliant and very well known and respected in that field of work.
She told me that if it wasn’t for the military, she’d probably never have had the opportunity to develop her skills or get that type of real world and cutting edge technology in the civilian world that she did during her military service. While her male and female peers from college were rubber stamping building permits and road lane expansions, she was designing complex air strips, dams, bridges, some of them in war zones and in very tight time frames and budgets that would make her civilian counterparts heads spin.
She was very conservative, wickedly funny, very proud of her country and as a brilliant engineer, she served her country well and with great distinction. Her talent in engineering in many ways helped our soldiers in the battle field even if she never took up arms in combat.
Sadly a few years after going to work for the Army Corps of Engineers, overseeing damn building and safety, she succumbed to breast cancer. I was very privileged to know her in the short time I did.
Female Sergeant wins Silver Star - Terrorists Humiliated By Woman Warrior From Hell
Thank you, Sarajevo!
Today's reaction to what I thought was a good news story from the Fort Leonard Wood on-post newspaper was not at all what I expected.
I respect people's right to their opinion, but what I've seen today on this thread on Free Republic simply does not track with anything I've seen in the last ten years covering the Army or the Air Force, either from the active duty or recently retired community.
The comments on the link to the article about Sgt. Hester are a fair reflection of what I usually hear from the military community about women in the military.
I didn't know that. In many sports (gymnastics or tennis for example) women are often washed up at 20-22 years old.
No prob. I just think she's a little looney for doing it at the ripe age of 51 though. She's in my present age category.
I retired at the age of 41. The Team Sergeant was the next oldest on the team, and he was 36. It was a bear trying to keep up with those young'uns, especially on the runs.
In long-distance running or swimming, women don’t tend to peak until their 30s.
What's a virtual unit.
she did better on her PT than most of the people her son's age in her basic training company.
You guys realize that this never happened don't you? That this is fake?
The woman did not meet the standard of the young male soldiers, she was not " treated just like every other Soldier-in-training" as any real soldiers know about.
The army PFT as I understand it—running, pushups and situps in 2 minutes each—is very easy, even with the standards for 21yo males. Yes, a fit middle-aged woman could meet the requirements imposed on young men in the test, but doesn’t at all measure the strength needed for lots of real-world combat soldier situations.
If the woman is going to be a reservist paralegal, there’s no reason that she needs the upper-body strength of a young man. But even 99% of fit young women don’t have the upper-body strength of an average, fit young man.
I would of course be against such being women put in situations where they don’t have the strength they need for the safety of themselves or their fellow soldiers. (As I would for firemen, police, etc..) I hope that the army later sufficiently filters out those without the physical capabilities needed for each each role into which their recruits are assigned, but I suspect that it doesn’t.
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