Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Do women lower Army Date: Thu, 29 Oct 92 14:38:17 EST Message-ID: \SE A \HD Do women lower Army standards? \SH Pentagon rebuts historian's report \BY Rowan Scarborough \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES An Army historian rocked West Point by charging that the academy has gone soft - lowering training standards solely to "accommodate" female cadets who could not keep up with male colleagues. Army headquarters at the Pentagon, which initially approved the officer's research work, now has distanced itself from the finished report, delivered this month to the Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces. "Everything that is going on there he blames on women, when in fact the changes would have been made with or without women," said a senior Army official who spoke on the condition that he not be identified. "This report was not sanctioned by the Army." West Point officials were so disturbed by the allegations they compiled a point-by-point rebuttal, accusing the historian of "flawed and biased" work. The Pentagon last week reviewed and approved the rebuttal. "Women have earned their appointments and their commissions. They have proudly and successfully joined the Long Gray Line," the academy said. Yet the academy's response acknowledges that "concern for the performance of women" was a factor in changing some training exercises. All the fuss is over a 12-page report from Maj. Glen Hawkins, a 1973 West Point graduate assigned to the Army's Center for Military History. It comes at a time when the Pentagon, Congress and the presidential commission are weighing a major change in the way the nation fights wars by allowing women to participate in direct combat. At the request of a commission member opposed to women in combat, Maj. Hawkins traveled to West Point and researched the archives to chronicle changes in physical-fitness and combat training since women were first admitted in 1976. He had been a history teacher there in the mid-1980s. In an interview, Maj. Hawkins said he found a pattern in after-action reports: Women were dropping out at a high rate during certain exercises. West Point's solution was to change the regimens or, in some cases, eliminate them altogether. "I did the report because for the longest time I felt there were changes at the academy that were being made because of the presence of women and I felt the academy was not being straightforward and honest about what was being done," Maj. Hawkins said. "The academy has softened," he said. "'It used to be 'Put the bayonet in the teeth and prepare to stick somebody in the belly.' "I think West Point has slipped away from the very hard, military combat arms approach and has focused in on producing sort of a generic officer to go out there and work in an office as well as anyplace," Maj. Hawkins said. In one case, he writes, the school divided cadets into three groups of runners - fast, average and slow - to stop a "high dropout rate for women." The report says: "In the interest of eliminating the embarrassing spectacle of large percentages of female cadets straggling in behind the unit, and the morale problems this caused, the Military Academy decided to forgo the cohesion benefits derived from unit formation runs." Maj. Hawkins' report has been embraced by commission members who contend putting women in combat would hurt military effectiveness. The commission is due to vote Nov. 2-3 on whether to continue a Defense Department policy that bans women from direct air, land and sea combat. West Point graduated its first female cadets in 1980. To date, 1,182 women have earned second lieutenant bars, about 10 percent of all academy graduates over the past 12 years. Of 4,289 cadets enrolled today, 488 are women. Col. Patrick Toffler, the academy's director of institutional research, said typically 12 percent of all West Point applicants are women, compared with a nationwide college application rate of 50 percent. Female cadets experience a higher dropout rate - 40 percent, compared with 30 percent for men. "This doesn't have anything at all to do with their ability," Col. Toffler said. "It just appears the motivation to retain and graduate is not as high for the women as it is for men." He said this stems in part from the fact that women are a distinct minority at West Point and do not always feel accepted. "They don't really know what they're going to expect until they see a little bit of the Army," he said. "Some say, 'Well, maybe this isn't what I want to do for my life's work.'" ****BOX WEST POINT CHANGES An Army historian charges the U.S. Military Academy has lowered several of its standards to accommodate women cadets. Some of the changes noted in the historian's report and West Point's responses: * "Recondo," a week of stressful, fast-pace combat training, was eliminated in 1981 "primarily due to difficulties encountered by women in successfully completing the [endurance] run." West Point says Recondo was "replaced by longer and more demanding training called 'infantry week.' " * Cadets no longer run in combat boots because women experienced a high rate of stress fractures and blisters. "West Point changed well in advance of the Army in response to difficulties experienced by women as opposed to perceived training improvements." West Point answers that the entire Army eventually switched from combat boots to running shoes. * "Ability running groups" were created so women could be placed in slower units and thus not be embarrassed by faster-running men. West Point says it made the change, "but not simply to accommodate women. It's worth noting that the infantry has also adopted the practice of ability running groups." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM