A female Navy Seal? not yet.

"Although the United States’ past 10 years of war have propelled women into new and far more risky roles across the military, some doors still are closed. Chief among those are the Special Operations forces"

I don't understand why this door is still closed. If a woman can pass the test. She should be allowed in. Period.

The speaker in the article states that they have to be very, very careful about implementing women into the special forces. What is it that you have to be so careful about?

Women may not have the arm strength of men, but they have the leg strength, generally have better aim and targeting skills, and pay more attention to detail and can read social cues. There are many benefts that can outway physical prowess in that setting.

Now I know that special ops is brutal. I know that the testing to be a Navy Seal is obscene. So if a woman wants to try out, and passes, I can't see a reason to not let her participate.

www.washingtonpost.com...

one thing, if you are captured abroad, whos more likely to get horrifically raped, you or a male ?

Seems obvious to me ?

i totally agree but what happens when the womans deployed to the middle of the jungle and starts her monthly cycle. that would cause a distraction that if your in special forces you dont need. you depend on your squadmates to be in full combat mode so you and them dont die.

reply to post by Vanishr


Men can't be raped? And I can tell you most women are fully aware of this being a possiblity when signging up for the forces.
It happens quite a bit within our own military.

reply to post by DankKing420


If you really think that is a legitimate concern, you can take birth control to stop your cycle. Funny how men find the menstrual cycle as a legitimate excuse to eliminate women from everything. Which is really another way of saying: " I can't find another reason to discriminate against women for something"

And how exactly would a woman's cycle distract a man out in the jungle? We are talking about humans..right?

Originally posted by nixie_nox
I don't understand why this door is still closed. If a woman can pass the test. She should be allowed in. Period.

There are no women in the NFL for the same reason. They can't take the physical aspect of the training. The BUDS (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEALs) fitness test requires a minimum of 42 push-ups in 2 minutes but anything under 100 is a joke. Don't forget that these push-ups are done after swimming 500 yards.

Most women can't do a single military push-up correctly.I'm not saying that there are no women that can complete the training but very very few.

I didn't like serving next to them when I was in the marines, I joined a all male MOS in the national guard so I didn't have to deal with their unstable mood swings. They just tend to get more emotional then men when stress is put on them. They can deal with a lot of stress but I wouldn't bet my life on it, and that's what it really comes down to.

reply to post by nixie_nox

Not to explain how the female body works for you, but when women menstrate, a paticular smell is emitted. In the jungle, where smells are even more important, this could give away location of your forces.

A woman Navy Seal will never happen. Women are simply not strong enough physically and to a lesser extent emotionally to be able to complet BUDS training.

It would be a waste of money to even entertain the notion of letting women participate in the training. Besides that, it would take up a slot that a male with a better chance of making it passing could have had.

The military should not be made to lower their standards anymore then they already done in order to accomodate the weak. That is exactly what will happen if women are accepted in BUDS training.

The reiquirements to even be considered for BUDS exceed the requirements for entering regular service. Even if this requirement is met, on average, 80% of those accepted will drop out.

There is no different training for officers or enlisted in BUDS. They both go through the same training together, unlike other SF units.

I feel that there may be a need for female SF operators. Their training would be with an all female units with the same requirements that men must meet for graduating. You may ask,"Why the same requirements?" If they want to integrate then physical and mental requirements should never be compromised to accommodate for anyone.

Should this all female team prove themselves in both training and actual missions, then and only then should it ever be considered to allow women to join the SEALs.

This ain't Hollywood and G.I. Jane is so bogus.

reply to post by nixie_nox


I understand where your coming from, but think about it logically, your captors know that you are a special ops soldier, If they genuineky believed you had information to help them, you wouldnt be interviewed by some ragtag militia, it would be by specially trained torturers, taught to extract information through extreme methods of pain, Not that there would be any boundaries on what they can and cannot do, so what they are Taught, wouldnt make much difference.

They will torture you to find out why your there etc... I wouldnt like to think the methods they would try to use to extract information, depending on where you are apprehended.

The things they would do to a woman, especially if youre attractive. I wouldnt like to imagine and im sure you wouldnt either.

Iam not disputing that woman may get raped in the military just as likely as a man might.

Seriously I am amazed at the attitudes of some of the guys here. You guys really believe that guys are better than women? I can't believe in this day and age that sexism is still so rampant.

I know that most men are stronger physically than most women, I'm not delusional, but if a woman can pass the same tests and meet the same requirements then why should they not be able to serve?

Btw, I have a friend who is a professional kickboxer. Some guy kept mouthing off to her about how he could beat her ass becuase she's a girl. Guess what, she gave him the beat down of a lifetime. It was hillarious.

You guys are seriously underestimating women.

reply to post by Redwookieaz


No we are not, you're taking our comments as if we are thinking in a sexist manner, we have stated facts. It is not to discredit women, its the truth. Women dont have what it takes, its not sexist, its not racist, its the truth.

reply to post by Vanishr


It is NOT a fact. No matter how badly you want it to be. It IS your opinion.

Originally posted by Redwookieaz
Btw, I have a friend who is a professional kickboxer. Some guy kept mouthing off to her about how he could beat her ass becuase she's a girl. Guess what, she gave him the beat down of a lifetime. It was hillarious.

I don't have any doubt. Lots of women are in better shape than men. If you level the playing field however and put her in the ring with a professional male kick-boxer she'd get her shorts handed to her quick. We're not talking about women being equal with just any men. We're talking about putting women in with the toughest of the tough. That's an entirely different story.

Excuse me? First lets answer the push-up question; I was in the Navy; had to pass physical fitness testing which included push-ups and let me tell you they were just the same as men; passed EVERY time but some of the oh so strong men didn't.

How dare any man come on this or any other thread and make some inane comment about women not being as strong emotionally. Are you kidding me? I'd love to see men deal with what we deal with on a daily basis. In the event of an emergency I'd rather have the women I work with then most men.

Now let's address the argument of oh my gosh what happens when she has her monthly cycle? We deal with it. I trained as a member of the react team on my base and we didn't stop training or responding because we were on our period. That is about the lamest excuse for discriminating against women I've ever heard. Give me a break.

It all boils down to this; if a woman can pass the same test as the men and is crazy enough to want to do it then she should be allowed to. Too bad if men don't like it. Some men don't like lots of things women now do for a career; tough beans.

reply to post by dbates


I can appreciate your perspective here. I definately don't think they should change their standards at all. And you are right a male kickboxer would beat her badly but we're not talking about an average female vs an average man. I am positive that there are a few women that could hack it.

Originally posted by Redwookieaz

You guys are seriously underestimating women.

No, I am living in the real world and work with women in the military. Did you know that there are two differant PT tests for men and women? Did you know that most women in the military routinely score low on marksmen tests?

Could there be 1 or 2 women in the military who could pass the training? Doubtful, but possible.

Is it worth the time and money that it would take to accomodate them? Not at all.

Also, who cares if your friend knocked out a bum? That has no bearing on being trained as the worlds most elite warriors. Can she hike 12 miles with an 80 pound ruck on her back in full battle rattle in less then 3 hours?

Doubtful and that use to be a requirement to pass Basic Training before to many women started failing it. Now Soldiers just have to complete 2 out of 5 force marches. Women do alright on the 2 and 3 mile ones. After that they tend to ride in the back of the 5 tons.

Truth hurts.

reply to post by Redwookieaz


If you read my comment, i state only facts, nothing i have said is my opinion.

Iam sorry all i can think of is women just being utterly pathetic & getting in the way in the face of war, or anything that would be like it. Not that it would only be women, there are wimpy men also, most wouldnt be in the military, do not mistake this for a sexist remark, iam merely saying the majority of women are not physically strong, most are not mentally strong either, they think they are, but they really arent because they havent experienced that unique situation which will render her useless and an added weight to the other soldiers around her.

reply to post by Redwookieaz


It's not just about physical strength. I don't know to many woman that can handle the things actual combat MOS's do. If you were taking fire from a house and you knew there were children in there could you shoot back or destroy that building? After that is done you have to go verify who you killed and probably help remove any bodies. Now do that every other day for a year. Can you stab, jab, cut and kill a pig just for practice for when you have to kill a man? This list of bad things goes on, but I'm sure you get the picture.

From what I have seen most woman can't take the stress, hell some of guys can't either. Just think about what you would have to do before you jump the gun and call us all sexists.