All Marines to undergo 2-day training as women join combat units

[Rocky C]

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — The Marine Corps is requiring that all leathernecks complete two days of training on the service's gender-integration plan as women take on new roles in ground combat units.

All active-duty Marines will complete the 16-hour training by Oct. 31, said Lt. Col. Larry Coleman, integration branch head with Manpower Plans and Policies. Reservists must finish the training by Jan. 31.

The two-day sessions will include discussions about new gender-neutral physical standards for certain military occupational specialties, why some units were closed to women and how the Marine Corps' gender-integration plan will work, Coleman told Marine Corps Times on Wednesday.


“Then we start talking about the plan itself: Here are the phases of the plan,” he said. “We break it down and go into detail of each phase. So it’s a good 90 minutes to two hours just talking about the plan and how we got to where we are.”

Not all Marines understand why combat jobs were once closed to women, Coleman said, so they're taking steps to explain when and why the recently lifted ban was in place.

“We weren’t really treating them differently because they were females; we were treating them different because it’s what the law or policy said we had to do,” he said.


The trainers will also address questions or misconceptions Marines have about gender-neutral physical standards. Those rules were developed by Training and Education Command before the Marine Corps began its gender-integration research, Coleman said.

Battalion commanders can determine how to conduct the training, but service leaders recommend that trainers meet with between 10 and 20 Marines at a time for guided discussions, he said.

The training is for everyone, in part to allow Marines who have served in units with women to share their insight with their colleagues, Coleman said.

“They’re passing on best practices from a gunny to a gunny, or from a first sergeant to a major, to say: ‘Hey, we had that same problem two years ago and here’s what we did that worked’ — and even as important, ‘Here’s what we did that didn’t work,’” Coleman said.


Right now, Coleman said he is training the officers and staff noncommissioned officers who will facilitate these discussions. The trainers often ask him why the service is opening all combat jobs to women if mixed-gender teams did not perform as well as their all-male counterparts during the service's Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force experiment.

“We tell them that, yes, the majority of the tasks they performed at a lower level; however, their performance was not unsatisfactory,” Coleman said. “Their performance and the attacks that they executed were not failures. They just were potentially slower, maybe it was less accurate – whatever the metric that was being used for that particular task.

"It may have been a little bit off from what the males were, but they were still meeting what we have in our training readiness manuals as the standards.”


One aspect of the training looks at how Marines form biases, but Coleman made clear it will not be a discussion about Marines’ feelings.

“Everyone has bias,” Coleman said. “It’s part of the way you were raised; it is part of your life experiences. You have biases that exist in you. The thing we’re trying to tell them is: A bias, again, is not necessarily a bad thing to have. Sometimes it’s what keeps you alive in certain scenarios and in certain contexts.”


In March, Marine Corps officials said the training would include discussions on Marines’ “unconscious bias,” but a Corps spokesman said later, “This is not sensitivity training.”

The subject of unconscious bias is a “very minimal” part of the planned discussions on how Marines think, act and make decisions, Coleman said. Marines are asked if they associate words like “deployment” with military or family life so they can see that not everyone thinks the same way.

“They start to realize that: ‘OK, I do see things a little bit differently,’” Coleman said. “Then we start to roll into … 'This is how your biases are formed; this is how the way you think is formed.' Bias is a way you think. It’s just identifying that."

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[Tennessee Top]

"This is not sensitivity training". Raise your hand if you believe that for one minute.

[Kegler300]

16-hours of training??? You have got to be kidding.

[chulaivet1966]

"This is not sensitivity training". Raise your hand if you believe that for one minute.

I've not moved a muscle for fear of being accused of 'raising my hand'.

In the context of this thread I have no words (that I would express on any open forums) for all that's occurring in the USMC and other services.
I'm not pleased with any of it.
But...that's just me, I'm probably in the minority with my views.

Hence....I've been off the grid here for a while but still lurk every day over morning mud.

Hope all are doing well.
SF....carry on....

[FoxtrotOscar]

In the context of this thread I have no words (that I would express on any open forums) for all that's occurring in the USMC and other services.
I'm not pleased with any of it.
But...that's just me, I'm probably in the minority with my views.
SF....carry on....

I'll agree with you opinion Chulai, and I really don't think your views are in the minority at all...

FO

[m14ed]

I'll agree with you opinion Chulai, and I really don't think your views are in the minority at all...

FO

I feel just "So-Cuddley"
you wanna take a vote for a
"Group HUG"
?

[thegimprider]

Jar heads are so slow it will take us 2 days to learn how to leave the toilet seat up

[Blutic]

You guys have it all WRONG. I've actually attended the training. The Marine Corps has moved to a standards based approach to assigning Marines (male and female) to units. This whole thing has resulted in an IMPROVED Marine Corps. The standards across the board have been raised from shipping to boot camp, to graduation, to assignment to MOSs, and assignments to units - for both genders. There are certain physical tasks every Marine has to complete to be assigned a certain MOS and to certain units. For example, to be an 03xx both sexes must be able to lift a MK19 over their heads. To be a motor T bubba you have to deadlift a certain amount to simulate a tow bar. The Corps looked at all the MOSs and determined what are critical and common tasks for each and developed tests accordingly. So if a male or female sign up for combat engineer, infanty, etc and cant pass the test at the end of MOS school they get reassigned.

[Blutic]

There are several physical tasks that must be accomplished in order to go to MOS school, more demanding tasks are required to graduate, and there are even more required to go to a load bearing unit such as a recon Bn. The Corps has essentially made it so both genders have an equal opportunity to serve in any MOS in any unit but you have to pass the physical test to get it. I suggest doing some more research before bad mouthing my Corps!

[advanced]

No offense, but I believe it was our Corps 1st, matter of fact, not opinion. I'd suggest that you use your inside voice, after all this is the day of the kinder, gentler, MC. Just saying.

[Blutic]

I don't have time to be offended because I'm packing my seabag to head back to Afghanistan. I've been a Marine for over 20 years and seen many improvements over that time. This is one of them.

[Rocky C]

Woody !!! Good to see you post Sir. You have been missed. Lost my job as Forum Administrator here today but seeing you post the truth in my thread made be feel better.

Watch you 6 over there Brother.

Semper Fi,
Rocky

[Blutic]

Thanks I certainly will. I read posts pretty regularly but don't post much.

[Rocky C]

A lot do the same as you. Good to see you.

[oldtop]

OK, so do these NEW standards mean that ALL MARINES take the EXACT SAME PFT, with the exact same pass/fail requirements??? or do the ladies still get a break and only have to do half a run and hang from the pull up bar instead of doing real pull ups??? I have no problem with the "standards approach" to assigning an MOS, but IMHO, the BASIC STANDARDS need to be the same to start with...