A female Marine officer has failed the Infantry Officer Course for the second time, raising concern as no woman has been able to pass the course.
According to the Marine Corps Times, The female officer and 33 of her male counterparts have fallen out from the original class of 97 Marines, who are slated to graduate from the 84-day course later next month.
However, the second failure of the female Marine officer proves particularly troubling for the Marine Corps, particularly since all occupational jobs have been opened to women.
“At this time, there are no female officers enrolled or slated to attend IOC,” said Captain Joshua Pena, a spokesman for Training and Education Command (TECOM).
The woman fell out of two conditioning marches during the course, which exceeds the number of marches that can be failed. She has since been assigned another occupational specialty.
The female Marine -who has not been identified- was the 30th woman to try when she attempted IOC for the first time in April, dropping out after 11 days.
The Marine Corps showed great resistance to Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter’s push to open all occupations to women, but was ultimately overruled by the Carter and -by extension- Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.
Despite resistance, Mabus assured Marines that women would be required to meet the same standards if they wanted to be in the more-demanding combat roles.
“Standards will not be lowered for any group to get through,” Mabus told Marines and sailors at Camp Pendleton in April. “Standards may be changed as circumstances in the world change, but they’ll be changed for everybody.”
Mabus also recalled visiting IOC and being asked what would happen no woman was able to pass to pass the course in the next five years.
“My response was: No woman made it through IOC,” he said. “Standards aren’t going to change.”
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I AM HAPPY I MADE IT THRU PARRIS ISLAND AND CAMP GEIGER IN 1967 …………..PEOPLE SHOULD BE SUITED TO THEIR MOS………..
SINCERELY, L/CPL ANDY M. BIRMINGHAM O311…………2391733
If a woman has a different Physical Fitness Test and Combat Fitness Test than our male counterparts, what makes them think they can pass IOC and become an infantry officer. This needs to be squashed. I’m a female Marine veteran and I understand science and science says that biologically, women are not the same as men. We don’t have the same strength. I’m not dismissing women, I am saying that even the different physical fitness standards are different to accommodate women because these tests were made knowing our limits. Why can’t people pandering to idiots understand this?! SCIENCE
Much respect young Marine. You have motivated an old Salty Dog who was born on MCRD PISC in Sept 1972.
Be safe Hard Charger.
Semper Fi
Sounds to me like we’ll have to disband the Marine Corps. We wouldn’t want part of our government to be non-inclusive, would we?
When a non-prior military service strap (SECDEF) makes decisions to keep his non-prior military service boss (POTUS) happy, guess you can see where this is going. Just wish the other branches had kept their standards as high as the USMC.
I appreciate the response by the Female Marine, a Marine None the Less. For the last seven years the administration has been Social Engineering each branch of service in order to weaken our war fighting capabilities. The good thing happened when God created the Marine Corps. We became the Guardians of Heaven and Earth.
As the Hard Charging Woman Marine has logically stated, women and men are physically different, thus the reason for different standards. Civilians and Haters of the Marine Corps, push for unreasonable ideologies, which if approved, will endanger all Marines engaged in this race to cause death or great bodily harm to our Marines in combat and in peace time functions.
Stop these ridiculous games, and let each branch of service to maintain their individual missions.
Be well and be safe, Marines
The Gunny
[…] 30th female Marine was dropped from IOC in August, 2016 — one more attempt was made early this spring, but the officer didn’t […]