Army wonders how cadets ended up in high heels

| April 24, 2015

Temple ROTC1

Bobo sends us a link to the Washington Post in which they report that Army seems confused about how cadets ended up in high heels;

A spokesman for U.S. Army Cadet Command, Lt. Col. Paul Haverstick, said ROTC units across the country were directed to participate in Sexual Assault Awareness Month events on their campuses “to help stamp out sexual assault on the campuses where they have a presence.” But Maj. Gen. Peggy C. Combs, the cadets’ commanding general, did not direct how the units would do so, and had other events as options, Haverstick said.

“After receiving some comments about uniforms, we are currently reviewing how local universities implemented their participation in these events designed to raise awareness on the issue of sexual assault,” Haverstick said in an e-mail.

Who would have thought that professors of military science would take guidance from their commander so literally, huh?

I intentionally avoided the Arizona aspect of the story because it wasn’t clear – a single complainer posting an anonymous message to Reddit is not a reason to go off half-cocked. The fact that there was actual photographic proof from Temple made that part of the story easier.

But now the folks in Arizona are saying that they weren’t encouraged to wear their uniforms and that no one did that. This video supports that – everyone in the video wearing their ACUs is not wearing red high heels, but rather their boots;

Category: Big Army

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Sapper3307

I would like to see the corrective action/punishment for not wearing women’s shoes. Just imagine some of these future leaders telling that chain of command they cannot follow that order because it violates AR-670-1 or they are not drag queens omg.

SailorSoldier

There won’t be any overt punishment for not participating. That’s not how the military does business. It would be some backdoor, underhanded crap.
Lowered evaluation scores, phone calls to future commands, penciled in entries in locally held personnel jackets, etc.
Anyone who thinks there wouldn’t be career-affecting fallout for not falling in line with the DoD’s PC driven directives has either a. not served recently, b. isn’t senior enough to be privy to the instructions on these events, or c. has their head in the sand.
Retribution DOES happen. Blacklisting DOES happen.
Career killing DOES happen.
I’ve seen it. I’ve experienced it. I’ve known GOOD service members who have fallen victim to it.
Fall in line with the new PC military or get out is the new business model of.the US military.

Carlton G. Long

amen

11B-Mailclerk

Joe NoShoes is an adequate cadet, who can usually be trusted to perform most duties with moderate supervision.

The way it works is that smething like that winds up on a review, and there is no recommendation as likely to succeed in command or combat arms.

Cadet NoShoes is likely to wind up deputy assistant Publicity Officer and deputy assistant Vector Control officer for an Individual Ready Reserve cadre, operating out of Antarctica.

Tom Kratman

Drop me a line.

MCPO NYC USN Ret.

I am pissed that they had more than one pair of shoes to choose from. In my Navy we had no choice. It was steel toed boondockers and that was that.

Everyone hated wearing them, they smelled really bad and you always looked forward to a new pair!

DefendUSA

Yeah, another AYFKM moment from the Armed Forces. Again, how does ‘forcing’ this pink shoe wearing show that a dude or dudette can understand any effing thing as what the person who has been assaulted does? It does absolutely nothing. This is just more tolerance horseshit. On this one, no one can walk in those shoes unless they’ve truly been there. For shame. There are better things that can be done than just showing up dressed in pink.

MCPO NYC USN Ret.

Because you can’t run fast in high heels when being chased by a rapist!

It is all making sense to me now, everyone needs to know the perils of the high heels and rape nexus.

Green Thumb

Word has it that this was the General Peggy C. Comb’s directive.

Thunderstixx

It would be easier to believe the “rape culture” bullshit thing if @LisaMadigan didn’t rape everyone in my trailer court and half the men that work for @Instapundit !!!
(See Twitter for explanation)

Herbert J Messkit

This could be like the urban myth of the brigade commander and the lunar eclipse.
The brigade commander remarks at a staff meeting that it would be nice to inform the soldiers that there will be a lunar eclipse at 0200 saturday morning and encourage them to go out and see it. By the time it filters down the chain, the bdecommander is shocked to find a company having a mandatory formation in full battle rattle and concurrent training

Smaj

Not to mention the message these pictures of men in the US armed forces prancing around in high heeled shoes sends to our adversaries, i.e. the leaders of said armed forces are so addled by political correctness that they are beatable or too soft to do the hard things needed to win.

A Proud Infidel®™

I’m sure those pics have made their rounds on Chinese, Russian, Cuban, and North Korean media by now!

11B-Mailclerk

How about we instead ask for volunteers to march in full combat kit, face paint, bayonets fixed, and one with a sign that says:

Imagine us finding out about a rape, and taking leave to find the culprit?

Loach

it’s just a coincidence that a FRAGO came out making the uniform of the day ACUs after this started to get publicity. The CONOPS that was leaked said ACUs and high heels.

But regardless of what was happening at Arizona State, there are pictures out there from Temple and a unit in Germany.

RunPatRun

Doesn’t seem like it was mandatory, although who knows how the guidance may have been twisted as it was passed on down from high. The program here helped with volunteers and partially sponsored the annual race/walk. Those who participated were not wearing heels. They’re a pretty squared away group, in previous years they’ve run it with rucks, boots etc. https://www.facebook.com/gmuarotc/photos/a.715305375171468.1073741867.249372545098089/814852441883427/?type=1&theater

Cassandra

I intentionally avoided the Arizona aspect of the story because it wasn’t clear – a single complainer posting an anonymous message to Reddit is not a reason to go off half-cocked. The fact that there was actual photographic proof from Temple made that part of the story easier.

Amen. You’re the only blogger I’ve seen get this right.

According to the Army Times, only 15 of 120 students participated in the Temple U march. The PMS – there’s a tasteless pun in there, somewhere, but I’m far too high minded to go there – at Temple is male, and was one of “several” marching in cammies and heels.

At ASU, I’ve seen no evidence yet that *anyone* marched in uniform + heels, much less a forced march in drag by 300+ cadets. Here’s the Army Times article link:

http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/2015/04/23/sex-assault-prevention-cadets-army/26235135/

It will be interesting to see what comes of the investigation.

FatCircles0311

This is exactly what higher wants. Good little yes sirs doing the dumbest shit imaginable.

Just an Old Dog

There were several comments on Temple’s ROTC facebook page questioning and condemning the actions of the ROTC staff. I made a few myself, pointing out that while educating cadets that as leaders they would have to deal with such situations having them do a corps function is stretching it. The violation of uniform regulations and potential of humilatiling the cadets is an issue as well.
What is next, having cadets wear dog collars to support Animal Rescue? Wearing a pair of buttless chaps to support Transgender Students?
There were several comments made by military members, one was a retired Col who was in TRADOC. Many very professional posts, criticizing the ROTC staff for their actions.
The posts were removed and critics were blocked from further posting, Meanwhile all the people who wrote glowing praise for the program had their posts remain.

2/17 Air Cav

There is mandatory and then there is mandatory. The first one comes in writing and is attributable to a specific individual. The second one comes by word of mouth, with a wink. Both are effective but #2 allows for a bullshit response of confusion, lack of clarity and, of course, denial if things don’t work out.

H1

ASU briefing slide.
Uniform:ACU’s, Red Heels.
May have been amended after watching Temples fiasco.
https://m.facebook.com/usawtfm/photos/pb.242181938605.-2207520000.1430086744./10153291954823606/?type=1&source=42