Females in the Marine Corps currently are not required to do even a single pull-up, and a deadline mandating that by Jan. 1, 2014, they be able to do at least 3 pull-ups as part of their training has been delayed for at least a year, the Corps quietly announced on social media.
Unlike their female counterparts, male Marines have long been required to do at least 3 pullups as part of the Physical Fitness Test (PFT).












So GI Jane was just a movie. It didn't reflect the real women in combat arms?
I'm shocked. My trust has been shattered.
mid island mike
Actually, what I found really shocking is that male Marines need only do _three_(!) pullups to pass their PFT. I can't say for sure, not having served in the Marines, but I'm pretty sure that in earlier, less sensitive times, they were expected to do more. As a standard of comparison, when I was in college, and hardly a warrior-type, in my late teens and early 20s, I could do 25 without pushing myself too hard. At 60, I can still do at least 10. I don't try for more because of the stress pullups can put on a heart with slight, but detectable, aortic valve insufficiency.
I'm shocked too, although I can't do a pull-up anymore either. But I'm also shocked that the Marines of all people only require men to be able to do three pull-ups. I wonder what the old time Marines would say about that. I guess, unfortunately, the proof will be on the battlefield. You have to wonder what the powers that be are thinking. I can only say that it is a good thing the US has the funds to outfit their warriors like futuristic combatants because that and technology is the only hope they have.
Marines today only have to do three pull-ups? My god, we are lost. In the Army in 1962, I had to do a dozen, some of them with somebody on by back. And I was a lard ass. Yes, I know the difference between a pull-up (try it on loose bars) and a chin up. I have rotator cuff problems today because of someone on my back. In my squad was an all american from Georgia Tech who could do his pull-ups with one hand. We also qualified at 300 yds KD M1 and 800 yds M2. Can any Marine today do that, let alone an affirmative action Marine? I can't believe 3 pull-ups! Well, when the balloon goes up, you can always call on us old pharts to bail you out.
I love it. As I have said to my politically correct friends I will not rest until I see a black female paraplegic fireman driving a motorized scooter up a 110 foot ladder to rescue a healthy 25 year old man who is too afraid of smoke to go down the fire escape himself. When I see that fluorescent orange whippy flag attached to the back of the scooter disappear into the clouds of smoke I will know we will have arrived at the pinnacle of our society.
Western Society Greatest Achievement = Lowest Common Denominator
I often wondered how the meek would inherit the earth and here we are.
3? As in Three? Total? To be a US Marine?
If I could crochet at light speed, that would be an equivalency, right?
And what about squats? No, not with weights or anything like that - just, you know, squatting?
From the Halls of Montezuma,
To a gang of real Fifis...
Progressives take down the US marines .... that's how they do it.
If we don't get some improvement here, we will soon be singing the "From the Halls of Menteczuma" to the tune of Clementine. They are not even using real men's guns now. The 30-06 and .308 are now .223s. The M1911A1 .45 is now a 9mm.
Some of the most heroic actions in WWII came when the cooks, wounded, and anyone who could walk took to the trenchs. Soldiers didn't have to be deployed to defend other soldiers. Everyone is trained as a basic infantryman and should be able to function as one. The forces are full of non-lesbian women, lard asses, PTSD victims, and civilian contractors. What percent can acually do the job they are paid to do?
Only 3 pullups? For a marine?
What the....?
I think the problem is more than just with the women!
Only 3? To pass your FIT test for policing in Ontario you're required to do 5.
This sounds very much like a "make do" method to get some women rushed through
trades training and then out into the field to get some work out of them before their
enlistments expire. Good way to keep basic training facilities at full strength, too.
There are likely budget penalties if females being trained fall below a certain level.
Wait, a marine only has to do 3 pull ups? I am old and pretty fat and I can still do more than that!
Meanwhile military and national security resources are focused at spying on and controlling Americans in a quasi police state while China, Russia and the Norks make nuclear threats to America - do you think predatory tyranny can smell corruption/weakness like a Shark smells blood?
The current Washington (and some state)administrations should undergo a Nuremberg-styled trial for treason to the constitution, the American people and the nation. GOP is part of this treason, not an antidote.
Marine: old Ojibwa word for "weak squaw".
The US has decided that human soldiers are unnecessary.
Casualties, morale, enlistment and medical care are thereby eliminated.
Nukes, space weapons, bio-weapons, robots and drones are the future. Vets have been kicked to the curb.
The federal gov't. here is still run mostly by P.C. standards. They're increasing their contingent of female RCMP officers, I wonder what the RCMP standards are these days?
I mean how much strength/judgement does it take to kick down the unlocked door of a law-abiding citizen, who isn't home, as in High River?
The Officer in charge of that, she's been promoted.
Obamas'a pansie marines won't be required to fight anyway; just perform red square-like parades.
I'm shocked finding SDA to be a hotbed of misogynistic misogyny! Shocked!
BDT -I often wondered how the meek would inherit the earth and here we are.
Meek and weak are two different terms.
Somethings are more equal than others.
At least when the USA goes down for the last time, it will go down equally.
Scar
Which trenches you talking about in WW II?
There were plenty of trenches in WW11. Not like WW1, but every time soldiers go into a defensive posture, they dig trenches.
Pullups ??? Would filling 3 sets of Depends equally qualify?
When I was in the RCMP on the ERT in the early 1980's these are the requirements that were then in place. 1,5 miles in no more than 10m30s, at least 15 pull ups, no less than 50 situps in a minute, there was a grip strength test as well and one other that I can't remember.
All this stuff about "equality" is just hogwash, or something that smells even worse. I have no objection to women serving in the military, provided they can cut it. Some can. I have a lot of respect for those who can.
The same thing happened to firefighters where I live. For obvious reasons, nearly all firemen in years past were men; the job requires a lot of strength, from handling heavy hoses to carrying someone down a ladder on your back. Fine– so they said they'd take those who passed the written test and met the physical requirements, but in the next several years, only a handful of women did. There followed a lawsuit about "disparate impact," which says that an employment policy may be considered discriminatory, and therefore illegal, if it has a "disproportionate impact" on some minority or a protected class. So a policy that appears to be neutral, that nonetheless weeds out too many of a protected class, that is considered illegal employment discrimination. There are now quite a few women firefighters in my city. The male firefighters hate it, because most of the women cannot cut the physical demands of the job, so guess who's doing the heavy lifting?
I just visited the USMC website. There are three initial strength tests that must be passed before beginning recruit training– pull-ups, crunches, and a run. Men must do TWO pull-ups. Women can do one pull-up, but they have to hold it for 12 seconds. 44 crunches in two minutes is the minimum for both sexes. The men have 13.5 minutes to complete a 1.5 mile run, and the women are allowed 15 minutes.
Those are standards that only apply to recruits. There are different minimum standards to graduate from basic training, and to qualify for combat. Men and women have different stands to meet in all cases.
BTW, I had a friend who joined the Marines in the late 1990s. To gain admittance to Officer Candidate School, he had to first pass the Marine's physical fitness test. A perfect score was three hundred. The minimum passing score was 275. To get a perfect 300 score, he had to do 20 dead-hang pull-ups without dropping off the bar, then 100 crunches in under 2 minutes, followed by running three miles in under 18 minutes. These were done consecutively. He exceeded all the benchmarks.
I googled around. The marine corps has never required that woman do pullups before. If you'll remember it was this past spring that the marines allowed women into the infantry. Perhaps that is what caused the change in the standard.
@Carlos and others who are shocked by the '3 pull ups' requirement;
Of course you must realize the average Mercans are a lot fatter on average than they were 40 years ago.
Hence if they can do 3 pull ups, they are stronger than those skinny candidates who can do 10+. Perhaps that is the thinking of those pansy leaders who change the requirements.
I'm not a military expert but aren't Marines supposed to be in top physical form when fighting wars, ect.?
Who doesn't feel safer already?
Canuckguy
for such deep thinking you qualify for desk sargent:-))))
Say goodnight Western civilization. Don't think this wasn't in the plan.
This is what the radicals want.The destruction of western Ideology, particularly Christianity. What they will get is another thing.
Pagan societies along with cults like Islam are not known as warm fuzzy people.
@NME:
I was actually hoping for a battlefield commission
Cal2
"Which trenches you talking about in WW II?"
The one every friggin infantryman with a will to live dug every friggin day.
The minimum fitness standards do seem a bit low. As I recall the minimum for the 1.5 mile run in the CF was 12.5 minutes - very few if any of us had a problem with that.
The present Canadian Military College fitness standard is an excellent test for both sexes IMO:
http://www.rmc.ca/ji-ir/ppt-tap-eng.php
At 57 out of shape years old and 235lbs I can still manage two fingertip pullups on a door frame, never mind a chin-up bar. With no warmup. This is not an awesome feat of strength, it just means I've managed to keep some muscle on my pudgy self. At 40 I could do ten fingertip pullups and rock-climb all day long. Nothing remarkable, just normal male capability. Not being able to do three chin-ups indicates serious de-conditioning in a kid.
Three chin-ups means a soldier can probably hoist a Jerry can of fuel out the back of a truck and pour it in the tank without spraining something. Being unable to do even one chin-up means they will need help with the Jerry can, or anything else that comes along. God help them if they have to fight somebody.
This says to me that the military of the USA is now viewed by its civilian leadership as a welfare organization and a cash cow to be milked, not as a force of men that kills people and breaks things.
It also says that the generation of officers who were inclined to resist that view has all retired or been fired. Now is not the time of the fightin' Joe, the mustang who made officer on the battlefield. Now is the time of the Perfumed Prince. The ladder climbing, brown nosing, politically astute weasel whose every thought is for his own career advancement and to hell with military realities.
Now would be a really good time for every American soldier and officer who values their honor and their skin to take early retirement. Same as the 1970's in Canada.
Three pull=ups, not chin ups. Chin ups have your hands facing you and your body is below the bar- no leverage required. Pull-ups mean your hands are facing away from you and your body us below AND beside the bar. Since your upper arms are between the bar and your body, you must be much stronger to leverage up.
I'm guessing this photo is of Marine recruits at the base in San Diego.
http://24.media.tumblr.com/a5cc9ceddb32502f378ae9fd73e585ef/tumblr_mjeaql6nFC1qigaa4o1_1280.jpg