I refer to wg13 dummy:
Would it be fair to say that these females have undone equality within the military in a few short steps? Females have been campaigning that they wanted to be treated equally for equal pay but this case seems that they have confirmed they are different and should be treated as such. Is it a height issue or a gender issue? If its the latter, surely we should just put all the females back in the office out of harms way and reduce their pay accordingly?
I did a spell at DIOT as a senior instructor and policy maker there in the late 90s. We argued long and hard about the problems of integrating female cadets into what was a pretty male dominated environment. On the one hand, we had a policy being thrust at us by the higher-echelons of the 'sorority' encouraging sexual equality for women in the training environment - 'Gender Equal' - and, on the other hand, medical advice -'Gender Fair'! Analysis of 'Gender Fair' suggested, as the Naval Orthopaedic Consultant stated on Radio 2 only yesterday, that the likely number of injuries that would be caused by 'Gender Equal' was minimal and so, in an effort to embrace the feminist view, we plumped for equality, and pleased the sorority, as the way ahead. It worked and out of the roughly 2500 officer cadets that passed through Cranwell in my time I know of only one female cadet who suffered a pelvic fracture and that was suffered during the 22km Ultimate Challenge exercise over Otterburn and not on the parade square - she refused to quit, despite being in pain and staff encouragement to do so, and crossed the finishing line with her cohort.
MOD policy was eventually changed in the mid '00s but whilst the Navy and Army adopted the changes the RAF stuck with Gender Equality for fear of a feminine uprising! So the RAF were buggered if they did and buggered if they didn't!
So,
The instructors chose not to follow the clear rules and instead forced the women to march at 30", causing them injuries which led to their being medically discharged.
Jimlad1: Get off your high horse, learn the facts and don't take a swipe at the instructors who were doing nothing more than following RAF policy, whether that was misguided or not!
Weren't you a cabin boy once?
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