- #I have never failed in the company of women how to#
- #I have never failed in the company of women license#
My failed attempt at Quantico, and the fact that no woman has yet made it through the Infantry Officer Course, shouldn’t be interpreted as evidence that women can’t handle combat environments. Barrett, the senior enlisted adviser to the commandant, affirmed: “Our plan is deliberate, measured and responsible. then they should have the right to serve,” then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said when he rescinded the direct-combat exclusion rule last year. “If members of our military can meet the qualifications for a job - and let me be clear, I’m not talking about reducing the qualifications for the job. 1, 2016, to request any exemptions from the Pentagon directive to open all combat roles to women.
#I have never failed in the company of women how to#
The question matters because Marine leaders have been watching female participants like me to help them decide how to integrate women into units and positions whose primary mission is to engage in direct ground combat. As I sat in my room, famished and waiting for pizza that seemed like it would never arrive, I reflected: Why did I fail? It was no consolation that 28 other lieutenants, including the other three women, failed along with me or that the Infantry Officer Course commonly drops 20 to 25 percent of each class.
That night I forced every step to be normal as I dragged myself - weighed down by gear, disappointment and exhaustion - back to the barracks. My mind wanted more, but my muscles quivered in failure after multiple attempts. It wasn’t a matter of will but of pure physical strength. I shook frost from my uniform, threw my pack on my back, slung my rifle and jogged on through the woods.īut there came a point when I could not persuade my body to perform. A packet of MRE cheese spread gave me new life. I had completed all the tasks so far within the time allotted, and I was determined to make it to the end without showing any weakness. A blister bled on my foot and sweat poured down my face, yet I felt relatively good.
The temperature hovered just above freezing. Several hours into the test, I jogged past a lieutenant who was overcome with cramps and vomiting on the side of the road. But we knew that the first day is always the Combat Endurance Test, and that it pushes people to the limits of their physical and mental capabilities. So we lieutenants had little idea of what we were getting into. Past participants are asked not to talk about it, in order to preserve the uncertainty for future classes. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding the arduous 13-week course used to screen and train potential infantry officers. I expected that this, though, would be the toughest experience I’d ever had. As an ice hockey goalie for more than a decade, I put myself in the path of pucks flying at 80 mph. I’ve climbed 10 of the 14,000-foot peaks in my home state of Colorado.
#I have never failed in the company of women license#
I flew my first solo flight when I was 15 and got my private pilot’s license three years ago at 21. I’m typical of a Marine in that I’ve always sought out challenges. I was excited to have a shot at the Marines’ premier training course. All the women so far had failed - all but one of them on the first day. I was one of four women in the group, bringing the number to 14 female officers who had attempted the course since it was opened to women in the fall of 2012. With body armor, Kevlar, a rifle and a huge pack on my 5’3’’ frame, I must have looked like a child next to the buff guys assembling for Day 1 of the Marine Corps’ Infantry Officer Course. A fog of breath and sweat permeated the cold January air as I joined 104 other nervous lieutenants hauling gear to the classroom where we would receive our first instructions. I awoke to Eminem blasting hours before dawn at Quantico Marine Base. Sage Santangelo is a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps.
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