Female intergration on to Maintenance Teams

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 10:35:43 -0500

I am an ALC instructor here in FT. Benning. We recently integrated females in to our MOS. Well we have SGT/SSG coming to school telling us how their units will not allow them females to be on the maintenance teams unless they have 2 to put on them. There is no Reg. saying this has to be done (unless in TRADOC for training). Now they also are being told since one of the female soldiers in non deployable they have to lose the other female off their team. Is anyone seeing the issue here, or experiencing this?

Response by CPT Aaron Kletzing made Jan 15 at 2015 10:47 AM

CPT Aaron Kletzing — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 10:47:09 -0500

SFC Private RallyPoint Member that seems a bit extreme to me, perhaps because I am not clear on why there must be TWO females on a maintenance team in order for there to be any at all. Especially if there is no official guidance (Regs, etc.) that states this as a best practice or something that should be done. It follows then that I also don't see the point in why a female cannot deploy with a maintenance team unless there is ANOTHER female going along with her. What are the arguments for this being a good idea? I am open to insights...just curious.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 15 at 2015 11:49 AM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 11:49:00 -0500

From what i get out of this is that you cant have one without the other. I think it has to do with the female having a battle buddy to thwart fraternization and sharp complaints for deployments. But then again your not always going to have just one female within a deployed unit either. Sounds to me more like an EO complaint or something for IG to look into.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 27 at 2015 7:27 AM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 07:27:08 -0500

In 2000 I was a Commander of a Tank Battalion Headquarters and Headquarters Company in the Big Red One at Fort Riley. In addition to the BN Staff, HHCs of Heavy Battalions (Tank and Mech In) had a Scout PL, a Mortar PL, a Maintenance PL, a Cook PL, a Medic PL, and a Support PL for about 300 personnel authorized.
We 'deployed' to NTC for our regular rotation (Light BDE from the 101st with our Tank Pure BN attached) and of course were short folks across the board, but none more than in our Support PL. We received Soldiers attached from other CSS units including several Female Soldiers (Drivers and Fuel Handlers). Of course, being in a male only unit, some had questions about this, but since the BSB we worked closely with in the BSA already had Females, we did not see an issue with it.
From my observations during the rotation, from our AAR comments, and more imporantly, from the Female Soldiers themselves, we had no issues because of having Females. I'm sure the PL and PSG took some additional thought into their operations, but I don't remember having to have two Females together at all times.
One SPC was a highly motivated, extremly competent Soldier who always volunteered for the hard missions and impressed me everytime I saw her, one PFC was always complaining and was a leadership challenge for the CoC, and the others were good Soldiers. I don't even remember how many we had, but it was at least three, and probably four or five.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 4 at 2016 4:25 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 16:25:13 -0500

I know we recieved two females to my maintenance team as I was sent to recruiting, so my team did get a pair of them in mid 2014.