This soldier refused to give up on an Army road march. Your thoughts?

I thought it was awesome to a brother/sister of arms roughing it and not quitting.

Personally, I was proud of her - as I was for all of her fellow soldiers who successfully completed the course and earned the EFMB. I found myself "cheering from my chair" as she showed her grit and determination to complete her challenge. Although it is debatable whether this was a "newsworthy" event, it is great to see one of our own being highlighted for an accomplishment versus another controversy.

ARMY RULES!!!! that and the captain has heart she deserves her badge.

While I congratulate this soldier for finishing the task at hand I am still uneasy with this. Clearly this soldier had the heart of a warrior, but where is your preparation? Or overall physical fitness?

I did a 12 miler back in December. I did zero prep for it, and it was the second day of being on my feet and tested for 20 hours. I did no prep for this, no extra rucking around town, no training, yet I didn't fall out from exhaustion near the finish line. I did lose 2 toenails and a couple layers of skin off my feet, but none of it was heroic or an amazing feat of fighting spirit. It was a Soldier meeting the requirements of the competition that I chose to compete in.

I will continue to applaud the determination and spirit this soldier showed while competing in this physically and mentally draining competition. I still feel that she should have been more prepared for the physical portion of the competition.

12 miles? Mine was 25! I fell asleep while on that road March. 12 miles....

First off, "succeed" is spelled succeed, secondly, I enjoy watching anybody succeed a difficult challenge regardless of gender, race or creed. I would imagine in the Army today, the fact she is a female should be irrelevant. To touch on the third option "Why are they getting attention for stuff men have been required to accomplish all along." I think it's because the males of the Army are the ones who established those standards in the first place. Why not celebrate the females that possess the ability to accomplish harsh training conditions, but to be fair, everybody completing the training should be celebrated.

I think we should give credit where credit is due.

We all know she would have never made it across that finish line if that reflective PT belt hadn't been securely fastened to her rucksack....

Finished my EFMB road march with two minutes to spare. Spent two days on crutches because of blisters. Should have done more to break in boots.
49 tested; 7 passed.

Gotta, love when anyone has the Heart to gut it out when their own body is trying to betray them.

Ok time to set myself up as a target.

-IT IS A WEAPON!!!!! NOT A #%$!!& WALKING STICK.

-Any Marine that no longer maintains interval and unit integrity is already a unit down check, and is going to remedial physical training

-12 miles is a normal movement to or from the field, not a test. Back when Sabre-toothed dinosaurs ruled the Earth I couldn't ask for transportation to or from the field unless a every day's movement for the duration of the exercise exceeded 10 miles. WE were then expected to complete the day and night's training objectives. I could not get transport both to and from the field (Live Fire exercise)unless the combined movement to and from the field exceeded 25 miles on the day in question. So trucks were rarer than clear photos of a sasquatch.

-I've had 19 hours to move a company sized unit 45 miles with a TO&E load in a non-evaluated task. The last 2 miles were in a tactical movement in a temperate zone forest (The Rainier training area of Ft Lewis), not an administrative force march. Then complete a deliberate defensive position including submitting all supporting planning documents to the Battalion CP. The only vehicle support we had was an CUCV Truck. We failed, it took 20.25 hours before we got the last "hump drop" into their regulation fighting hole. Turns out the 9th ID brigade we were aggressing needed us in place in 24 hours, they just wanted to see what we Marines could do.

-How is this Captain going to perform a Company Commander's duties to supervise a unit's responsibilities to develop a defensive position at their destination. At what distance was she still capable of dropping her pack and carrying on like a Company Commander setting up the defense. That is the real limit to that unit's ability to carry on foot mobile operations. 12 miles is inadequate.

I am not against women serving in combat units but this is 12 miles is not a useful standard, unless there are a lot of details being left out of the story. If I was receiving Marines that could do no better than this from the School of Infantry, you can bet there would be some fist fights at the O'Club on Friday night.

For an officer to "finish" is not good enough. There's work to be done right now.