Posted on Apr 22, 2016
What is your advice for Females joining the ranks of the combat jobs in the Military?
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I am an Army Recruiter and it would be great to share.
As we gear up to ship out some of our first female Future Soldiers in combat jobs, I ask of the members of RP, what is your advice for these young soldiers?
Please keep it constructive and nothing along the lines of they shouldn't be able to serve in these positions because that ship has sailed and opinions about how they should not serve in these positions are not going to change anything.
Edit: The conversation among RP members about mentoring these service members is amazing. Honestly, I did not know what to expect when I started the thread, because this is a subject many feel strong about. Thank you so much for all of your advice thus far, I cannot wait to share it with our female and male recruits and hope you share it in your ranks/communities as well. Together we are molding the future of the military.
As we gear up to ship out some of our first female Future Soldiers in combat jobs, I ask of the members of RP, what is your advice for these young soldiers?
Please keep it constructive and nothing along the lines of they shouldn't be able to serve in these positions because that ship has sailed and opinions about how they should not serve in these positions are not going to change anything.
Edit: The conversation among RP members about mentoring these service members is amazing. Honestly, I did not know what to expect when I started the thread, because this is a subject many feel strong about. Thank you so much for all of your advice thus far, I cannot wait to share it with our female and male recruits and hope you share it in your ranks/communities as well. Together we are molding the future of the military.
Infantry
Combat
Training
Women in the Military
Combat Arms
Edited 8 y ago
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 403
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I say start running the same PFT, get promoted based on the same standards/scores, etc. expect the exact same treatment and get it.
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My advice is to be a PT beast. PT is the first opportunity to show that you can carry your own weight but the goal should be to carry your battle buddy's weight. Be confident in yourself. Be physically strong but more importantly be mentally tough and resilient. "Embrace the suck." Have fun.
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I am an 19k nco. With that said myself and my crew spend countless hours stuck inside our tank. If you know anything about tankers you would know about the infamous tactical pee bottle. Somtimes we have to go in the worst times where we cannot get out of the tank and knowing so we always keep bottles,more spacifically Gatorade bottles and pee in them. What options would we have with a female inside with us. Battles wont stop for pee breaks. Maybe this wasn't thought out when it comes to atleast the armor community. Dont get me wrong, females have evey right for the same hobs if the meet the same standards but there are other things to consider specifically the close prolonged quarters in a tank, Bradley or stryker. This is also unfair to the male soldier that now cant relieve himself because of female presence.
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My first thought would be for them to understand the physical differences but the mentally is they are Soldiers. As a former 19D male training was hard even for me and I was a 300+ Soldier but I worked my butt off. My mentality was no one was going to stop me but me. If I had to stay up training late at night or doing extract physical fitness, I did it. We all reach a point of physical exhaustion but believing in yourself is a good self motivator.
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Suspended Profile
I can see you are already a woman who has a PH and CAB. I am sure you could pass on some wisdom just from your experience to females and your advice would be highly regarded.
SSG Bethany Viglietta
PO1 Dave Martin Thank you. It's always nice to have other opinions as well. I know what I did to ensure success as a female attached to a combat unit may not always work for others. I definitely have some lessons learned as well as some funny stories about breaking the ice when the infantry unit grumbled about having not only an intelligence team attached to them but also one with a female. I worked very hard to prove myself and eventually earned their trust and respect. Some days if I was sick and they needed a female/intelligence collector, I would just strive to be stronger than the weakest Infantryman on the foot patrols. When ever I would support the SF teams, I asked for additional training on tactics/weapons, etc.
In my personal experiences, I dealt with a Warrant Officer inviting me back to their hotels after a training event while I was a private. I knew it was wrong, so I did not accept the invitation and told him never to contact me again. He was using his position within the special missions community to tempt me to come have some drinks in his hotel room. Until I got older/wiser I didn't realize that this tactic was likely used on other females as well. I learned my lesson from this experience, so when a MSG (cadre) pulled me out of training one day to talk to me about "being cute as a button" and how he wishes we would have met under difference circumstances, I knew he had definitely gotten away with that sort of activity before because he was ballsy to do it in the school house. More or less I told him it wasn't appropriate and then approached my instructor later about the incident. My instructor guessed who the individual was immediately, and said there were rumors of that sort of thing happening before. After talking to the females in the training, we realized he approached several of us in different ways. One he sent text messages to after getting her number from the call roster. We made complaints because he is a predator, then we wrote it onto our end of course critiques to ensure it went up since he obviously got away with it before.
Everyone worries about females coming into combat arms because of harassment, but I can say I experienced no harassment while attached to the combat arms units. We sassed each other of course and built rapport, but the line was never crossed. However these are just two of the examples of being approached inappropriately. Generally you can just take care of it at the lowest level, but in cases where the individual is a predator, you have to ensure the report truly goes up the chain of command. If everyone acts like professionals, these young women will just have to worry about their work ethic and motivation when it comes to serving in all positions in the military. Professionalism will level the playing field and allow the women to earn respect like their male peers.
Sorry this turned into a bit of a ramble.
In my personal experiences, I dealt with a Warrant Officer inviting me back to their hotels after a training event while I was a private. I knew it was wrong, so I did not accept the invitation and told him never to contact me again. He was using his position within the special missions community to tempt me to come have some drinks in his hotel room. Until I got older/wiser I didn't realize that this tactic was likely used on other females as well. I learned my lesson from this experience, so when a MSG (cadre) pulled me out of training one day to talk to me about "being cute as a button" and how he wishes we would have met under difference circumstances, I knew he had definitely gotten away with that sort of activity before because he was ballsy to do it in the school house. More or less I told him it wasn't appropriate and then approached my instructor later about the incident. My instructor guessed who the individual was immediately, and said there were rumors of that sort of thing happening before. After talking to the females in the training, we realized he approached several of us in different ways. One he sent text messages to after getting her number from the call roster. We made complaints because he is a predator, then we wrote it onto our end of course critiques to ensure it went up since he obviously got away with it before.
Everyone worries about females coming into combat arms because of harassment, but I can say I experienced no harassment while attached to the combat arms units. We sassed each other of course and built rapport, but the line was never crossed. However these are just two of the examples of being approached inappropriately. Generally you can just take care of it at the lowest level, but in cases where the individual is a predator, you have to ensure the report truly goes up the chain of command. If everyone acts like professionals, these young women will just have to worry about their work ethic and motivation when it comes to serving in all positions in the military. Professionalism will level the playing field and allow the women to earn respect like their male peers.
Sorry this turned into a bit of a ramble.
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Suspended Profile
We had numerous female FMF Corpsman on both my combat deployments as ETTs. All served on the front lines and at our FOBs and COPs. My personal experience from being in country was nobody cared so long as they got the job done.
Unfortunately there are leaders who try to take advantage of impressionable young people. Best way to deal with them is report them and not ignore them. We had a SFC on my last combat deployment who was a sleeze ball and way glad he finally was sent home for being a creep, but a male E-5 reported his behavior.
Its a NCOs job to ensure professionalism at all levels. Keep up the good work.
Unfortunately there are leaders who try to take advantage of impressionable young people. Best way to deal with them is report them and not ignore them. We had a SFC on my last combat deployment who was a sleeze ball and way glad he finally was sent home for being a creep, but a male E-5 reported his behavior.
Its a NCOs job to ensure professionalism at all levels. Keep up the good work.
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Sit them down and have a candid talk. Remind them that they're the first wave, that whether they like it or not, all eyes are going to be on them. People looking for any excuse to say they aren't good enough. Remind them that while they might be told they're on the same level as a man, they're going to have to earn people's respect, and hold themselves to a higher standard than anyone else will.
And besides that, I'd highly recommend you urge them towards exercising so that they exceed the physical standards set for them, and not just meet them. They won't really know whether or not the person in charge of them will treat them like any other soldier, push them harder, or coddle them. Better to be in shape and able to do any job asked of her than hope they go easy on her.
And besides that, I'd highly recommend you urge them towards exercising so that they exceed the physical standards set for them, and not just meet them. They won't really know whether or not the person in charge of them will treat them like any other soldier, push them harder, or coddle them. Better to be in shape and able to do any job asked of her than hope they go easy on her.
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I would tell/remind them that the reason that you are talking to them is because of them. They walked into your office because they felt a bigger calling. Women all over the world have been fighting regardless of WarFare Laws and the Geneva Convention. Look at Israel. EVERY citizen serves a minimum of two years. They just have to want it.
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SPC Timothy Repetto
ALSO......... Probably the most important........ SHE HAS TO HAVE THICK SKIN. that all plays into morale. The best way to shut the ignorant jokes up is to out do them in everything. Can't point and laugh when your being promoted and they aren't.
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I think you know the answer to this: do not expect any special treatment. Do not go filing IG complaints when your commander makes you run as hard as the males, because "Oh, my APFT run time is 22 minutes and I don't have to run as hard as males to achieve that goal." You're expected to be as proficient and physically fit as males. EO, right?
Don't the person who makes the formation (run or ruck march) turn around to come get you because understandably, people will resent you for it just like they would resent a male Soldier. Provided the standards are not lowered and there's true EO, 99% of the females joining the Infantry or Spec Ops will change their minds within a year.
Don't the person who makes the formation (run or ruck march) turn around to come get you because understandably, people will resent you for it just like they would resent a male Soldier. Provided the standards are not lowered and there's true EO, 99% of the females joining the Infantry or Spec Ops will change their minds within a year.
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Staff Sergeant, Thanks for the qualifier and I'm sure a professional would offer nothing but support. Were I still active, my comments to the naysayers would be; We have been given a mission and we will complete this mission. Both my son and daughter in-law went to West Point and I gave my son one sentence; They will try to make you quit. The results were evident, two grads, two professionals, and more pride than an old dog-face/swabby ever dreamed of. So, even though it may be counterproductive, never shy away from truth even if it means losing a recruit. I thought I was a recruiter and volunteered in 1970 for duty. During school at Ft Ben Harrison, one of the instructors made the statement, from the podium; We need "body's, warm and breathing". I didn't believe I heard that and glanced around the room to gage the reception of such a mindless comment. I looked at a friend of mine from Bragg, and almost in total concert, both of us stood and headed for the door. The instructor ask, " and where are you two going"? My friend said " I don't think that's proper recruiting instruction ", and I said, " I didn't volunteer to recruit cannon fodder". When we turned to leave, 15 more stood. The commandant had to issue a formal apology to the class. The name of the commandant was the color of the instructors face. In 2 months on recruiting duty, I had 2 walk-ins and signed both, one as an engineer and the other as an infantryman, Both also to jump school. I had been back from Viet Nam 18 months and both questioned me about combat. I told both that I was a military police investigator and hadn't seen actual "bush" combat, just scared ........less, rocketed, mortared and shot at. After the swearing in, I told both to " keep their head on a swivel and remember what that had been taught. Last I heard both had wrangled their way to RVN. If the " category system is still Cat 1 thru Cat 4, after the test at your office, cautiously advise both to concentrate on a field that their scores indicate good chances of success. Nothing can be as disheartening as a low Cat 2 who wants to be a nuclear sub commander. Maybe a little "over the top" but you get my drift. Good Luck .
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SSG Bethany Viglietta
PO1 (Join to see) Thanks so much for sharing. You are right about the test. Too often we get young recruits in who want to be medics or intel and are in one of the lower categories. Previously the males would select combat arms and the females would be lucky to find a job. Now I worry about both genders getting pushed into a job they don't truly want. Fortunately there is about to be a physical test implemented for both genders to aim for the more "physical" jobs. This should weed out those who are not truly ready to be in the combat arms jobs.
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