great for your niece, PTR, glad she is breaking down barriers and boundaries - and I hope she is safe during deployment and returns healthy!! you should be, and im sure you are, proud!
To the point of women serving in combat: yes there should be baseline physical fitness tests that ALL soldiers should have to pass to be "combat ready" - and this is NOT referring to just boot camp....I know several soldiers (Army and Marines) who would NOT be able to "drag a 205 pound soldier out of harms way", so if that restriction would be placed on females, then all males in combat units should be able to accomplish the same task
NDBUFFCUSEFAN is raising legitimate concerns about females serving in combat roles, but there are "easy" answers to those questions...and it has nothing to do with old fashioned macho bravado of "women cant do that" - we all know there are some women who are damn qualified to serve, and some men who are NOT
In general are most males stronger than females? yes...but just because that is the general trend, that should not omit ALL females from attempting to serve in combat
curious to any military members....in order to be in a combat situation, were there are "physical tests" you had to pass first? (aside from boot camp) Such as, making sure you could drag a 205 pound fallen soldier?