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Old 01-03-2013, 11:26 PM   #13
BourbonBoy
 
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Alamo City, USA
Posts: 764
You're right, I misunderstood the post I quoted V, sorry about that. I would like to think that the military could do something about sexism in the service based on my own experiences though.

For instance, while I wasn't the type that saw women as a piece of ass going in, I did have a lot of preconceived notions about them when I entered basic at Ft. Leonard Wood that was a coop BCT facility. It was after training with them and having drill instructors that ranged from NBC specialists, 88M's, and primarily members of the 11 series (this was long before the 11B became the rubber stamp for basic infantry when there were specialists in mechanized, light, armored, engineering, etc.) that started to change my mind. Believe it or not, it was the 11 series Drill Sergeants that not only said how to treat female soldiers, but also set the example and always acted accordingly to them that started to change my mind and world view on women. It wasn't the fact that my company commander in basic was female, it was how they treated not only the CO and fellow drill instructors, but also the recruits.

Sometimes, female recruits were disciplined by only female Drill Sergeants, other times, male recruits were disciplined by female DI's or vice versa; in other words the punishment fit the crime. There were also times when the female DI's seemed more sadistic than the male DI's when issuing corrective training for shining our boots or ensuring wall lockers were secured. There were also times when male DI's nailed males for something as slight as trying to conceal the fact that they were scratching their crotch in front of females. In a lot of ways this could be viewed as being too politically correct; however, it also taught recruits such as myself that we need to respect women and not act like baboons.

Bottom line is, I was taught from basic on up to not only respect the female soldier from day one but to respect the rank before I respected the person/gender/skin color/ethnic group. I think the army can learn from the example I experienced. As crazy as it sounds, I'd have all recruits, regardless of their MOS, start off in similar facilities as Leanord Wood like I did if we truly wish to address the problem.
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