Did you miss me? You are probably saying, “Oh no, he’s back.” LOL Had a wonderful trip up and back, and a wonderful Christmas. The only thing bad about it was I froze my you know what off. As a Floridian, my blood is so thin it can’t handle those northern temperatures for very long, not to mention how this broken up, busted, arthritic body handled it. But it is nice to be back in shorts and sandals again. LOL
Finally, someone with a left and right brain asks some serious and valid questions about why the Marine Corps is gender integrating recruit training.. Listen to the you tube video and decide for yourself. I suspect I already know your answer.
Isn’t it heartening to listen to the officers explain what they are doing, then try and explain “why” they are doing it? Seriously?
Col hope you are doing well, it’s been a few years. Steve Larose is a CWO5 Marine Gunner who works at the Close Combat Lethality Task Force in the Pentagon and has served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. I can assure you he agrees there is no reason to fix which was not broken. Our country is being governed by fools who claim to stand on virtue berating the lowly peon, us, to follow the science yet they refuse to follow the science of genetics. It’s been over 5 decades since my basic biology class but I seem to remember an XX chromosome made a baby girl and an XY chromosome made a baby boy each developing differently. Those differences don’t require any remediation for anyone with a thimble full of common sense.
Thank you for the update. But I have to say he doesn’t come across like a Pat Woellhof to me. Yes it has been decades since we ate the same dirt. Hope all’s well with you and the family. Still in JAX
Col moved just outside Kinston NC. I have a farm up here along the Neuse river and wanted to get closer. Working on it is therapeutic or that’s what I keep telling myself.
The criticism towards integration has been primarily focused on our senior military leaders and not the elected civilian leadership that provides the legislative and legal requirements for the DOD. The USMC completed an in depth and thorough assessment of male/female integration with the Ground Combat Element-Integrated Task Force (GCE-ITF) circa 2016. This was a heavy investment in resources by the USMC to provide objective data and inform decisions that were largely ignored. The USMC is doing as it is told to do, that’s how it works. This is not the result of USMC senior leader decisions, but like good leaders, they will own the responsibility for the tasks they’ve been given. Again, this integration is directed guidance from the folks that the American people have elected as the leadership and oversight of the DOD. Just a fact. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is the standard for the DOD now, performance and objective reality is no longer the basis for many policy based decisions demanded by civilian leadership, and the USMC is not exempt from that.
I hear you sir, and I understand completely CMC has no say in the matter as far the integration in boot camp. However, that is not the only issue at hand here. All the other woke changes CMC has made is what is destroying my Corps. I know not if you wore the EGA as I know nothing about you sir. Conversely, my history is an open book for all to see from where I come. Our Corps’ days are numbered, and it appears you are either unaware of the serious changes CMC has made, or simply have no dog in the fight. I do!! Thanks you for the comments, albeit we are all aware of what you are pontificating about in your comments.
Colonel, your frustration, and those who have also expressed their frustrations, are well understood and undoubtedly justified, but I would like to assure you and those that share the same frustrations that the current USMC is being led by the very best, and continue to serve in the same fashion as those giants they walk amongst that came before them. LtGeneral George Smith, for example, led the GCE-ITF effort, and anyone who knows this Marine understands that no punches are held back. The USMC was granted an extension to delay male/female integration until the GCE-ITF data was collected and submitted. Again, this objective data was ignored by those elected to lead the DOD, and the USMC had to come to attention, do an about face, and turn to it’s directed tasks as we have always done. As for haircuts, headwear, and boot camp attendance (or lack thereof), heck, we just had a CMC that never attended OCS recently! The “Presidents Own” band never attends recruit training, and I am proud to call them Marines every time they perform. As a grunt, I can care less where you get the future Cyber Warrior from and whether that MOS attends boot camp, they just need to make sure I have the coverage I need to do what “Mud Marines” have done for 240 plus years. As for grooming standards, our legendary Marines like John Basilone, and Mitchell Paige, to also include Chesty Puller, had hair the likes most would frown at today, but hair never made the Marine…. And I can attest that todays Marines (criticized like every generation before them) still fight like the savages we would expect them to be in combat, just like their forefathers did on Peleliu, and Tarawa.
As I stated earlier, your frustration, the frustration of folks felt around you, is well understood and deserved, my summary is that the energy produced from this frustration can better be served when fired on the right target, and the current crop of senior leaders in the USMC are not the problem.
Thanks Pat for providing a basic explanation of who I am to the Colonel, I failed to do so, I was hoping my words would speak for themself without a resume’ needed to back them, but if a resume’ is needed, then I have that covered. As for me not being like you as the Colonel stated, well, there won’t ever be another Pat Woellhof, so the Colonel is right, but that initial impression may not last with the realization that I am the 6’6”, younger, and better looking Pat Woellhof model, who was blessed to have you as a mentor, friend, and supporter when things got tough.
Gunner sir! While I hear what you are saying, but that is not what I hear from the young mud Marines, and I talk with many. And you sir don’t need a resume’ nor do I. My life is an open book for anyone who has the time and inclination to read about it, I take you have not. You keep banging about the female issue. One small issue among many. As for the President’s Own not attending boot camp, you have that partially correct. I served with them. They wear a Harp in the chevrons, not crossed rifles, and there are real Marines in that band. You are lecturing to the wrong Marine sir. Perhaps you might want to ask Pat about my resume’. I did not attend OCS or TBS either, in fact, I was commissioned a HS dropout. I disagree emphatically with your statement, “the current crop of senior leaders in the USMC are not the problem.” Really? Where have you been of late Gunner? They are sorriest batch of three and four stars the Corps has ever put forth. Oh BTW, Chesty said the M-1 would never replace the Springfield 03. No hair does not make a Marine, that’s for sure. See how easy it is to write off issues? It is so easy to excuse all that’s going on in the Corps, just ask the senior officers, their good at it. But don’t ask the company grades as I do. You will find different answers that may shock you. Enough of this rant, I’m tired and it’s happy hour.
Soooo, do they still have open squad bays? Open heads?… live together, eat together, shit together. Unit cohesion. What a joke. And since when is it daylight when you put your feet on the yellow footprints? Beurocrats ruin everything. Happy new year all. Semper Fi
O.K. so maybe my opinion is an opinion of one, but coed Marine Corps Boot Camp is not Marine Corps Boot Camp at all. What they are training are counterfeit Marines, people who want the honor of being called “Marine” without paying the price. Having a young man learn how to be screamed at by Sergeant Shirley is only training him to be an abused husband, not a combat warrior.
So now the Commandant has asked all retirees to put aside their differences and help with the recruiting effort. I for one have always been a fan of Marine Corps Boot Camp and have encouraged young men to take on the challenge, to become better, and to serve their Country. I will gladly do so again when the Marine Corps decides to train Marines and ceases to act like the gender studies department at Vassar.
LOL, loved the gender studies comment Robert! Right on sir, you said it well!
Call me old fashioned if you wish, but there are many differences between men and women and those have existed since the beginning of time. To answer his question, I say, hell no, we do not want to try to train women to be men, for two essential reasons. I say try because no matter what the woke want no amount of training will make a man of a woman, physically, emotionally or in any other characteristic relevant to the need to maintain warriors. And it’s not just an issue as he suggests of young men showing up to MCRD with some preconceived attitudes about women. It’s genetic.
Secondly, as humans we want and need women to be women: they birth us, feed us and educate us in how to be good men and women. Those facts, which have served civilization well for over 2,000 years, will not change no matter what the woke would prefer.
Soon enough, I hope, our leaders will admit sexual difference is not socially constructed, we are not “assigned” a sex at birth, and the various attempts to act otherwise are very significant mistakes.
Thanks, Jim for the chance to rant.
S/F
Not a problem Mike, appreciate the rant, hell, I do so myself periodic alloy LOL
Happy New Year Colonel. Many thanks for your leadership and mentoring at a critical time in my career. Always remembered and appreciated. Semper Fidelis, Brian
Thank you for the kind words Brian, deserved or not. LOL. I was mentored myself by many, many leaders in my career, one is never too damn old to learn