Ideally it is, especially at the company level. What was your experience with evaluation reports, advancement, and opportunities for leadership positions in infantry units?
I was the youngest sergeant in the US Army in 1991. Why. Because I wanted the job and had the experience and desire to do it.
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They do take some of the lower ASVAB scorers into the Infantry. But in reality to be a leader in the infantry you have to be very smart, very calm under pressure, and have the ability to lead.
I had an ASVAB of 120 (at 1986 standards)- I could have gotten any MOS that I wanted. I chose airborne infantry. I retired as a lieutenant colonel and my most fulfilling times in the military were as a corporal and sergeant.
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Do you know how the point system worked in the late 1980s? The cut off score was extremely high for infantry prior to Desert Storm. I had very high scores, but being in an airborne unit put me over the top. So far as I know, nobody over my company commander had a say in my promotion. But anyway, the army made a wise choice when they made me their youngest commissioned officer.
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I heard they broke to the pressure.
Faced with towering attrition rates, the Marine Corps has steadily modified its grueling Infantry Officer Course ― changes that top Marines say are not attempts to water down standards, but to more accurately replicate today’s real-world requirements.
Recent changes include the number of evaluated hikes required to pass the course, and the removal of the physically demanding Combat Endurance Test as a strict requirement to graduate.
Under the new requirements, only three of those nine hikes will be evaluated, and Marines will have to pass all three evaluated hikes in order to graduate.
The condition that Marines at IOC participate in nine hikes remains unchanged.
Under the previous rules six of those hikes were evaluated, and Marines had to pass five of those six evaluated hikes.
The Corps has come under criticism regarding the notoriously grueling 13-week infantry course that so far has only seen one woman successfully graduate.
But most washouts from the IOC are men — only 35 women have attempted the course, and only five of those have attended the IOC after the job field was opened to women.
The recent changes, the Corps argues, have nothing to do with gender integration in the combat arms job fields or a watering down of any standards.
“Technically what we have done is we have modified graduation requirements, but we actually tie our requirements now more to the T&R [Marine infantry training and readiness manual] standards.” ….snip~
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/new...ent-for-hikes/
History does not long Entrust the care of Freedom, to the Weak or Timid!!!!! Dwight D. Eisenhower ~
"Hikes"... For some reason I just think that is hilarious.
In all my time in the Army, I never went on a "hike". I went on road marches and foot movements, but the very idea of a hike just conjures up something totally different in my mind.
Jarheads go on "hikes".
It is always good when one branch of service can enjoy a good natured laugh at the expense of another.
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.” - Barry Goldwater
As a retired officer this causes me much concern.
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MMC (08-11-2018)