MORE SILLY CRAP FROM THE LIBERAL "ARMY OF ONE" MENATALITY - HELL, SHE'S GOT
HER "BLACK BERET", WHY DOES SHE NEED TO BE ABLE TO RUN?? WHAT A CROCK !!
July 9, 2001
Marines' training runs probed
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Defense Department is investigating a mandatory training run at a
major armed forces command after a female officer complained to Washington
that the weekly jog was demeaning.
A spokesman for U.S. Southern Command, which oversees American military
operations in Latin America, confirmed to The Washington Times that the run
has been canceled.
"The Defense Department IG (inspector general) is addressing the command
run and some other allegations," said Col. Ron Williams, the command's chief
spokesman. "The IG is involved in the investigation, and I'm not sure where
it's going to go."
Another spokesman confirmed that Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, who heads
the U.S. Southern Command, terminated the Friday morning run. It involved
uniform personnel running for about 30 minutes in a park near the command
headquarters in Miami.
Military sources told The Times an officer wrote a letter of complaint
to Congress and the Pentagon, and the case was referred to the office of the
inspector general. Another source said part of the complaint is that the run
subjected slow runners to ridicule from faster participants. The IG is also
looking into the "command climate" at the headquarters.
Col. Williams said Gen. Pace, a Vietnam combat veteran and former
commander of the Marine Barracks in Washington, did not participate in the
runs. The spokesman declined to discuss the female officer's allegations. The
run was begun by the previous commander, before Gen. Pace took command in
September.
Col. Williams said the runners were usually divided into groups based on
their abilities.
Said Kelley Spellman, a command spokeswoman: "The entire command would
run. They would run around the area of the command for approximately half an
hour. It was an esprit de corps endeavor and also physical fitness."
She said such mandatory runs are "pretty prevalent for the Army and
Marine Corps, but not so much for the Navy because they are on ships a lot."
The decision to terminate the run has its critics within the command's
officer corps. One suggested the decision is an example of an increasingly
coed military toning down its warrior culture to accommodate women.
In 1997, then-Defense Secretary William Cohen ordered a blue-ribbon
commission to look at the issue of mixed-gender basic training. Mr. Cohen was
so alarmed at the panel's findings that in 1998 he ordered the services to
add more rigor to training.
The run's cancellation was even more puzzling to some inside the
Pentagon, given the emphasis the Defense Department places on physical
fitness.
In 1998, the Pentagon kicked off "Operation Be Fit," a program designed
to encourage personnel to exercise outside their units' normal physical
training.
The short run at Southern Command was in addition to mandatory,
twice-yearly physical fitness tests taken by all military personnel. Each
branch has different, although similar, requirements.
In the Marine Corps, which places a strong emphasis on physical
conditioning, a male must be able to run three miles in at least 28 minutes;
a female in 31 minutes. Males and females must be able to perform at least 45
stomach-toning "crunches" in two minutes.
It varies from command to command on whether physical training is
required as a group activity.
Staff Sgt. Keith Milks, a spokesman at Marine headquarters in the
Pentagon, said most of his past assignments were at commands that required
group runs.
"We are all supposed to be war fighters, and this is a way for
commanders to gauge the physical strength of their warriors."
Because of odd working hours, he said, mandatory runs are not required
at Marine headquarters. "We run individually," he said.
At U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., a spokesman said workouts and
runs are left to the individual.
TONY NEWCOMB- (SOA-570L) (SFA-450L) (AFIO-5746L) (POVA#168)
State Outreach Coordinator, VETERANS LEADERSHIP PROGRAM of ILLINOIS
"The only easy day was yesterday" - Special Ops - "You have never lived
until you
have almost died. For those that have fought for it, life has a special
flavor the
protected will never know."