First women to earn EIB are Korean
Well the glass ceiling for women earning the Expert Infantry Badge has been busted – by Korean soldiers – according to the Army Times;
Staff Sgt. Kim Min Kyoung and Staff Sgt. Kwon Min Zy, both infantry squad leaders in the Republic of Korea Army’s 21st Infantry Division, said they are honored to have had the chance to compete.
The women successfully tested for the EIB “not because of their expert skills, but because there were 21 soldiers from the 21st Infantry Division that competed with them, pushing and pulling each other, helping each other out,” Kwon, 21, said through Sgt. Jung Hoi Won, a Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army (KATUSA) soldier who translated the interview for Army Times.
Good for them! I know this is going to be held up as some sort of excuse for women to be in the US infantry, but it’s not really. yes it’s grueling and it requires a lot of training and attention to detail, but it’s not being infantry – it’s being infantry for a few days. Yes, I read the article, too, and I know that these ladies are assigned to infantry units. But, they’re not assigned to US infantry units and there’s a difference.
But, congratulations, ladies. Seriously.
Thanks to HS Junior for the link.
Category: Military issues
Fahkin grenade range screwed me every time. I shit you not, every time it would bounce right or left like it was on a damn trampoline. How the fug do you fail at tossing a grenade? The Queen of Battle hated me, simple as that.
The year I earned my EIB i was a blade runner before I threw my first grenade. My two no goes were challenge and password and grenade identification, I kid you not. I just brain farted when I got to the station. I still ended up being one of four people in my Battalion to earn it that year.
Even worse was when the grenade throw was part of the PT test and conducted on the side of a hill.
Claymore. Got all the way through the circuit test and put the clacker in the bag then started back. The NCO asked me if it was on safe. I said yes, he pulled it out of the bag, it wasn’t.
The one on the left is hot! No way that would cause problems in a small unit of testosterone-intoxicated 19-year old males stuck in the ass-end of nowhere for extended periods…
The Other Whitey…”The one on the left is hot!”
Okay, I like you brother, I really do and care about you as I do all of my TAH family. So I will say this. Adjust for windage, elevation and focus and take another look through that scope downrange. Just trying to look out for you brother. I know, I know…to each their own and beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. Just, maybe “behold” that sighting a bit longer. 😀 😀 😀
Sparks. I think she’s hot too, just not hot enough to tolerate the rotten cabbage aroma. We are talking about the same LEFT aren’t we? I know that some of us have two, the one we think it is and the one we learn it is. “No, idiot! Your other left!”
For clarification, I was talking about the one to *my* left as I’m looking at the picture. The one on *their* left…Jeezus, not even with the lights off, a .99 BAC, and Bill Clinton’s dick!
Yes. The other left isn’t right, if you know what I mean.
2/17 Air Cav and The Other Whitey…Yes the one of the left. The “my” military left. 😀
I find it interesting and TELLING that the first thing out of your mouth was not any kind of congratulatory message for these women, who succeeded in completing a difficult, strenuous course.
That says a LOT about you. And it isn’t pretty.
You are of course correct and I’ll deny none of it, Ex. I freely admit that I’m an asshole, and the kind of guy who happily purchased “Sucker Punch” on DVD. Plus, I learned a long time ago, after being a nice guy throughout high school, that nice guys go into the Friend Zone while assholes get laid. And like many of my ilk, The Lord decided that my firstborn offspring would be a beautiful baby girl, whom I will defend savagely from guys like me, and worry myself into an ulcer with the knowledge that she might be around some kid like me–or worse.
That first sentence was primarily intended for humorous purposes, though. Guy humor, admittedly, but humor nonetheless. And I expect both of the ladies in question could (taking full advantage of my “don’t hit girls” upbringing 😉 ) kick my ass.
They obviously busted their asses to pass. I just happened to be in an extra-snarky mood at the time. No offense intended, just non-PC humor.
Na, na, na, na, na…You got in trouble…na,na,na,na,na…
Personally, I don’t care that these two ROK soldiers have gone where no woman has gone before. Why? I just don’t, that’s all. I see a woman, in uniform or not, I check her out. If she’s a hottie, she’s a hottie and if she’s a nottie, she’s a nottie. Does that make me a bad person?
Non-PC humor? ‘Humor’ like that is the reason women are the targets of sexual harassment on the job, never mind rape.
Did that occur to you?
Did you even stop to think about your own child being the subject of that kind of thing? Do you have even the faintest idea of the statistics for sexual predators?
You’re a firefighter, right?
Well, my first reaction, as a single female living alone, to what you posted as a joke was that if there’s a fire at my house and you’re in the engine company that answers the call, don’t get on the truck. You can’t be trusted.
And put your kid in my place while you’re thinking about that.
Not so funny now, is it?
You have my sincerest apologies, Ex. I (figuratively, since we’re separated by the internet) prostrate myself before you and beg your forgiveness.
Photos or it didn’t happen.
I was also trying to make a point about how that may not be the ideal coed environment. My delivery obviously sucked. Again, I humbly beseech your forgiveness.
Well, TOW, if it’s any consolation, I related the exchanges to my wife and she said, “You are both bad people.” Also, I get to sleep on the couch tonight.
TOW, your apology is aceepted because I know you mean it. I went into a rant there. It was harsh, but I won’t take it back for a good reason. I’m the most abrasive person I know of. I can be so harsh I could scrape the hide off an elephant with words alone, and I know it. And not one of you knows how many times I’ve started to post something and then deleted it, because it was inappropriate. Or I’ve asked Jonn to delete it, for the same reason. When someone is in a position of trust, whether it’s the military, and a senior officer or NCO with subordinates, or a public servant like a police officer, firefighter or even the bus driver or the damned trash collector, that individual is completely responsible for everything he OR SHE says and does. I lived in Chicago for 30 years. During that time, there were repeated complaints against police officers alone in squad cars, following women driving alone at night, and forcing them under threat of arrest to follow the cop’s car to an empty parking lot, where those women were raped and sometimes beaten. This also happened with firefighers and EMTs. Until surveillance cameras were placed all over that city, it was one person’s word against another’s. Then those people couldn’t lie their way out of it any more. The best example of this was the off-duty cop who beat up a female bartender one-third his size because she refused to give him any more booze. He not only did not get away with it, becaues the bar’s surveillance video clearly shows him as the aggressor, he also was fired and was required to pay her a substantial sum as compensation. And this is not about being politically correct. I am fed up with that lame excuse for hypocrisy. It only generates more bad behavior, which is rampant right now. Women are just as responsible for their behavior as men. No female senior in the military or a civilian coroporation has any business abusing her position for the purpose… Read more »
I was blade running from start. I got to the first aid station and brain farted. The worst part? My grader that failed me was a medic that I had been in the same platoon with in PLDC.
If any of those women are reading this:
당신의 훌륭한 업적에 축하합니다! 난 당신이 위대한 조선 민족의 자유와 통일을 위해 잘 훈련을 사용 바랍니다.
Translated by Google from: Congratulations on your wonderful accomplishment! I hope you use your training well for freedom and unity for the great Korean nation.
A great accomplishment, and congratulations to them and all who successfully completed the test. No easy task.
For the record the first woman to successfully complete the EIB testing was CPT Michelle Robert of F Co, 2/60 Infantry. She received a certificate of completion, as she not being infantry, is not permitted to be awarded the badge.
I have to ask if anyone knows when the Army G-1 started to permit foreign soldiers to earn the award? The Infantry school EIB website has a long history of this request being turned down, and AR 600-8-22 still states that a person must be in the US Army to receive the award.
Probably around the same time they lifted the combat role bar. I’ll be curious to see if this occurs for US Army females in the near future as well, and if they will volunteer / request it.
I have to admit that I had not thought of that scenario.
It’s highly possible that the Army G-1 did issue an exception to policy or change the regulation to permit foreign troops to be awarded the EIB. (Note, Infantry KATUSA’s with 2ID have been eligible for a long time, as they serve with the US Army, have the same MOS code, and occupy a TOE Line number, all requirement listed in AR 600-8-22, page 104).
What I find odd, however, is that a record of any exception or change is not posted either as an update to the reg (they are updated electronically now) or as an official announcement on the Army HRC Awards homepage.
Awarding the EIB to foreign troops has always been a contentious issue and there is a long history of the Army turning down requests to change the policy. So, its a pretty big change in direction, and one long overdue IMHO.
Good for them! It’s a tough course and they made it through. I am VERY happy to know about this.
Ex-PH2…I agree and Here-Here. Congratulations to them both!
Expert InfantryMAN Badge.
Need I say more?????
Infantry humor is rough, and smack-talk like that is part of the life. (even for the skinny geek 11B who dared admit he could read….)
If the XX chromosome types want in, then they get to be all-in like the XYs. That includes enduring smack talk about looks, plumbing type/function/size, ‘prowess’ outside the MOS (so to speak), and anything else that is, well, smack talk intended to reveal weakness of “I can put up with crap”.
Because 11B is on the receiving end of everything crappy, and if you can’t hack smack, you can’t hack combat.
Does someone lack self control enough to keep the fly zipped when the other says ‘no’? Well, I used to work for a CO who has suggested crucifixion as means of discouraging such things. The more I think about that method, the more I think it applicable to certain crimes.
Nails are cheap, and timber plentiful.
UCMJ needs an update, in my opinion.
No crucifixion. Impalement.
(father of three daughters here. Who can all take care of themselves.. and their husbands all know it)
Late to this (I was out of town) but I can’t say I’m surprised. ROKs have had women in their Special Forces for a few decades at least (the famous 707th Special Missions Group.)