Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 55

WOMEN IN THE INFANTRY

(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Tyler L. Main)

Marine students with the Infantry Training Battalion practice marksmanship 26 September 2013 at Camp Geiger, N.C. The students are
part of the first ITB company to include female Marines as part of research into opening combat-related jobs to women.

combat historian S.L.A. Marshall said, “Men who
have been in battle know from first-hand experience
that when the chips are down, a man fights to help the
man next to him.”57 In his book Cohesion: The Human
Element in Combat, William Henderson contends that
small-unit cohesion is “the only force capable of causing soldiers to expose themselves insistently to enemy
fire,” and have “all members willing to risk death to
achieve a common objective.”58 Fighting cohesion is
a critical component of battlefield success. Before
introducing the dynamic of young women into this
relationship, the possible effects must be examined.
Perhaps women can assimilate into infantry units
without any disruption in cohesion. However, assessing the possible effects of this change must be done in
light of our common understanding of the relationship between young men and women. In interpersonal relationships, young military personnel behave in
large measure as their civilian counterparts.59
Few members of Congress have military experience.60 Before lawmakers and policymakers charge
into the uncharted territory of this proposed change,
they need an understanding of fighting cohesion,
which should come from combat veterans. Otherwise,
this critical component to battlefield success is likely
to be dismissed out of hand.
MILITARY REVIEW  March-April 2015

Conclusion
Wise policymakers will look beyond today’s
conflicts and consider the future. No military reason
exists for the Panetta policy, and reliance on the
current counterinsurgency battle instead of the next
full-spectrum conflict to analyze this issue is misplaced. Infantry combat, especially in a full-scale
conflict, is a relentlessly physical ordeal. The optimal
demographic for this endeavor is young, healthy
males. Overall, women have not proven to be medically suitable for sustained ground combat. Thus,
it is cost-prohibitive to recruit and train women for
assignment in infantry-type occupations. Moreover,
permitting women in the infantry opens the legal
door to drafting women, with all the associated legal
and economic issues. Whether introducing women
into the infantry will adversely affect unit cohesion
must be analyzed through our common human experience and as enlightened by those veterans, who can
speak to the nature and necessity of unit cohesion
for success in battle.
These are the military issues surrounding
Secretary Panetta’s directive. It is incumbent on
those military members with kn