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They already have engaged them, of course, per the otherwise successful raid to liberate an ISIS prison in Iraq last week that ended with one American soldier being killed. That sounds suspiciously like combat, and if there’s one thing Barack Obama stands for, it’s that the era of combat in Iraq is over.How can combat not be combat? Easy. Just call it something else. It wouldn’t be the first Orwellian euphemism this White House has used to reassure progressives that they may be at war but they’re not at war-war. Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook had been blunter on...

Here's the scene last week: Army Delta Force troops, in boots on the ground in Iraq, swooping into an ISIS prison camp along with Kurdish and Iraqi soldiers. The mission: Free more than five dozen Kurdish and Iraqi captives believed in imminent danger of mass execution. In the darkness, a fierce firefight erupts. The Kurdish and Iraqi break-in stalls. The experienced Special Ops guys, who happen to be heavily-armed in body armor, night-vision goggles and full combat gear, open up. Numerous ISIS troops fall. So does one U.S. operative, Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, a veteran of 14 deployments. They breach...

Just after dawn last Thursday, Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler, along with his fellow soldiers in the U.S. Army’s Delta Force, rushed into a firefight to help Kurdish commandoes. The Kurdish-American mission? To rescue approximately 70 hostages held and threatened with “mass execution” at an Islamic State prison near Hawijah, Iraq. Wheeler’s heroic actions helped save those commandoes and hostages. But the 39-year-old soldier from Roland, Oklahoma, was killed. Wheeler’s is the first American combat death in Iraq since November 2011, and the first American soldier killed by ISIS. Wheeler had 14 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and had earned eleven...

An Oklahoma congressman has sent a second letter to the Secretary of the Army demanding access to Ranger School records for the classes that have involved female soldiers. Republican Rep. Steve Russell, an infantry battalion commander who is Ranger qualified, has continued his quest as a third woman prepares to graduate from the Army’s most demanding combat leadership school Friday at Fort Benning. In a second letter to Secretary John McHugh dated Oct. 7, Russell said he is concerned that some of the documentation he has requested has been destroyed. “I was somewhat puzzled by the Army officials informing me...

Women in a new Marine Corps unit created to assess how female service members perform in combat were injured twice as often as men, less accurate with infantry weapons and not as good at removing wounded troops from the battlefield, according to the results of a long-awaited study produced by the service. The research was carried out by the service in a nine-month long experiment at both Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Twentynine Palms, Calif. About 400 Marines, including 100 women, volunteered to join the Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force, the unit the Marine Corps created to compare how men...

War is nasty, brutal and costly. In our latest wars, many of the casualties suffered by American troops are a direct result of their having to obey rules of engagement created by politicians who have never set foot on — or even seen — a battlefield. Today's battlefield commanders must be alert to the media and do-gooders who are all too ready to demonize troops involved in a battle that produces noncombatant deaths, so-called collateral damage. According to a Western Journalism article by Leigh H Bravo, "Insanity: The Rules of Engagement" (http://tinyurl.com/p59nlqs), our troops fighting in Afghanistan cannot do night...

A battle is brewing in Washington over the military's push to open all combat units to women. The Marine Corps is reportedly poised to ask that some positions remain available only to men, following a nine-month study that found units with all genders did not perform as well in combat. The issue is stirring a passionate debate in the military community, pitting the Marine Corps against its own service secretary and creating a bitter divide on the House Armed Services Committee. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who is the service secretary for the Marine Corps, blasted the study of the Marine...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Marine Corps is expected to ask that women not be allowed to compete for several front-line combat jobs, inflaming tensions between Navy and Marine leaders, U.S. officials say. The tentative decision has ignited a debate over whether Navy Secretary Ray Mabus can veto any Marine Corps proposal to prohibit women from serving in certain infantry and reconnaissance positions. And it puts Gen. Joseph Dunford, the Marine Corps commandant who takes over soon as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at odds with the other three military services, who are expected to open all of their...

Despite considerable backlash from within the service, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said again Monday that the Marine Corps infantry and Navy SEALs will open up to women, no matter what. After receiving heated comments from both male and female Marines who participated in and ran a Marine Corps integration study, Mabus clarified Monday at a forum by the City Club of Cleveland that many of the gender gaps on performance could be closed with more training and leadership. What this means is that he’s sticking to his original plan that all combat jobs in the Department of the Navy will...

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus criticized Friday the findings of a new Marine report that all-male combat units perform better on a number of tactical tasks than mixed-gender units. Mr. Mabus, the civilian secretary who leads the Navy Department — including the Marine Corps — has called for the Navy to open combat jobs to women, and said the latest report may have been tainted by negative attitudes from the beginning. “They started out with a fairly largely component of the men thinking this is not a good idea, and women will not be able to do this,” he said in...

Women in a new Marine Corps unit created to assess how female service members perform in combat were injured twice as often as men, less accurate with infantry weapons and not as good at removing wounded troops from the battlefield, according to the results of a long-awaited study produced by the service. The research was carried out by the service in a nine-month long experiment at both Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Twentynine Palms, Calif. About 400 Marines, including 100 women, volunteered to join the Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force, the unit the Marine Corps created to compare how men...

An experimental Marine Corps study obtained by the Monitor has concluded that units with both men and women are less effective than all-male units. The results of the experiment, known as the Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force (GCEITF), could be used by the Marines as grounds to ask for an exemption to the combat exclusion policy, which currently bars women from taking part in direct combat. The services have until January to open all jobs to women, or ask Pentagon leaders for an exemption by October. The GCEITF included roughly 200 male and 75 female volunteers, who were evaluated...

The A-10 Warthog is the only aircraft built for a close-air-support (CAS) mission. It was literally designed around its distinctive 30mm Gatling gun. The gun is more than 19 feet long and weighs more than 4,000 pounds. The distinctive sound made by the weapon (aka the BRRRRRRRRRT – . . . .

Female soldiers suffered double the rate of injuries compared with male colleagues in Army combat training, including jobs in field artillery and repairing the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The startling statistics come from Army studies obtained by the Center for Military Readiness (CMR), a research group that opposes what the Obama administration is expected to do by year’s end: put women in the direct land combat in infantry, armor, artillery and special operations units. Retired Gen. Raymond Odierno, who completed his four-year stint as Army chief of staff, said earlier this month that he already has decided to open all artillery...

The astounding female injury rates that are being hidden from the public -- and women in the military Last week, 1st Lt. Shaye Haver, 25, and Capt. Kristen Griest, 26, became the first women to earn their Ranger Tabs, graduating from the U.S. Army’s Ranger School at Fort Benning, GA. Maj. Gen. Scott Miller, the guest speaker at the graduation ceremony, emphasized that both women were held to the same standards as their male counterparts, insisting “a 5-mile run is still a 5-mile run. Standards do not change. A 12-mile march is still a 12-mile march.” True enough. But as...

Fellow Freepers, I am looking for the name and results of a late 1970's (perhaps 1980-81) field artillery experiment in which an all female gun crew were tested to see if they could sustain a required rate of fire. I am having trouble locating a copy of it or information on it. I remember Brian Mitchell wrote about it in his book Weak Link: The Feminization of the Military @1990 (I lent my copy out years ago and have not seen it since.) Any links would be greatly appreciated. V/R Bill

Two women have become the first to graduate from Army Ranger School. Therefore, women should be integrated into combat units. That's the "logic" we're hearing. Perceptions about "whether or not women are capable — physically, mentally or otherwise — those are now broken down," an ex-Obama administration official, whose claim to fame is having piloted military cargo aircraft, told one newspaper. "What's left here now would be the barriers about our social perceptions." Gee, that was easy! At least, if your goal is to feminize the military. But let's say that the goal is combat mission accomplishment with minimal casualties....

For the first time ever, two women have successfully completed the Army's elite Ranger school, one of the toughest combat training courses in the world, the Army said Monday. The female soldiers weren't identified beyond being described as West Point-trained officers. They were among 96 soldiers who will graduate Friday at Fort Benning, Georgia, with the coveted Ranger tab, the Army said. (snip) Unlike the 94 men who will graduate Friday, the two women won't be allowed to apply to join the join the 75th Ranger Regiment, the elite Special Operations force. It remains closed to women.

Last month we talked about some early flight test reports which hinted that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter might be in trouble after years of development and hundreds of billions of dollars of funding. At that time the military was evaluating the jet in early tests against our own previous generation fighters and the results were mixed at best. Now that the aircraft has been at least initially approved, additional analysis is coming in. One such study is broken down by Martin Matishak at the Fiscal Times and, rather than stacking up the Lightning against our own Tomcats and...

No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. — General George S. Patton What may be Old Blood and Guts’ most famous line is more than just colorful, it’s a great working definition of a warrior’s duty: killing the enemy and surviving to fight another day. That truth is particularly relevant in light of the recent failure of all 45 hand-picked, highly fit women to complete Ranger training and Marine-officer combat training. The 45 women were part of an effort to meet...