SEC DEF Ash Carter has opened ALL MOS's for women, how do you feel about ALL-WOMEN units as an option?

Right. The question is one of gender, not race, ethnicity or religion. Gender issues are different because men and women are different, physiologically and socially. We separate men and women at all levels of competitive sport, why is that? I phrased my question carefully. I want to know what you all think about allowing women to CHOOSE whether or not they would prefer to serve in an all-female or mixed gender unit. Choice is as American as apple pie, especially when deciding on a career. Jenny Craig is successful because the women who use it CHOOSE to be in a male-free environment. It is more comfortable for some, and that can make all the difference. I understand and appreciate that some women feel more comfortable around men, and that's fine in most circumstances. But combat arms is a different ballgame than combat support or combat service support units. Like the difference between softball and baseball. And there's a reason for that, too.

I am a woman, spent more than half of my 30 year career working in the Special Ops world, from tactical to SOCOM, also have been married to a Special Ops guys for more than 30 years and DO NOT AGREE WITH WOMEN in the teams!! Bad idea for the safety and well being of the operators. There is a role for women, not in a SEAL platoon. Thank God I am retired!! God bless all those who serve.

Hooah! You won't have a choice, sergeant! We all took an oath to obey the lawful orders of those appointed over us, and if it's the law of the land, such orders will be lawful. But how do you FEEL about it? We separate men and women at all levels of competitive sports, why is that?

MAJ Montgomery Granger Damn Sir..lol. Why do you have to put me on the spot?(kidding of course)

Couple of items first.
1. I am still a serving member of the Armed Forces. With that being said my FEELINGS are irrelevant IMO.
2. There are plenty of policies in place that "restrict" or maybe a better way of putting it is "guidelines" for my conduct(esp online given some past events). With that being said we(as currently serving members of the Armed Forces) really need to be concerned with how we post and conduct ourselves. I am a firm believer in that.

Now with that out of the way I'll address your question from MY perspective as serving as a Mech Inf Plt SGT, having served over 20 yrs in Combat Arms(11B, and 19d), multiple deployments, multiple duty station(I was AD for 10 yrs, USAR for 4 yrs, and NG for 16 yrs-12 yrs of that AGR).

I am currently aware of 2 females that are serving in A Bradley unit.(1 AD, and 1 Guard). I'm sure there may be more, but that's all I'm aware of. They both have completed all the tasks required to shoot Gunnery. I won't get into all the nuts and bolts of it, but it is physically challenging. They did it to standards. They are both Engineer Officers

My overall thoughts are real simple:
1. I think this will effect maybe less than 1% of females that will want to try and be Combat Arms. What we have seen so far is the "best of the best" from the females that have gone to Ranger School. Meaning they have been hand picked. Is that a true gage for success? IMO no.
2. I have yet to see any Enlisted females participating. All have been Officers. I'll leave that statement as is.
3. Yes we have females in the MP's, Truck Drivers etc. again you can not compare them to 11B, 19D etc. some need to give that argument a rest. COIN ops are done. We are transitioning back to our "true" war fighting. That right there is a HUGE difference.
4. All this "science" physical characteristics etc. again give it a rest.

Will it work? Who knows. Like is said IMO less than 1%. We won't know until we actually have them show up to the units/platoons. And I haven't even addressed EO/SHARP etc because guess what it WILL happen. (Both male and female)

BLUF. We are now transitioning into something new and (exciting to some). It's a HUGE social experiment. How will it turn out? Who knows. There isn't a single Service member that knows.

SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"
TSgt Hunter Logan
CPT (Join to see)
1LT Scott Doyle
Capt Christopher Mueller
CPT L S
LTC (Join to see)

TSgt Hunter Logan I knew I'd get a good response tagging you Logan:). Yeah all female units. Nah no reason for that. No one will know until they start showing up for work.

You make a good point about how many women will try to do this. The Navy opened up EOD to women. Now their EOD is much more challenging than the Army. Their EOD Techs are able to operate as an independent unit. They also go to Dive and Airborne School in most cases. So opening it up to women was something that could mirror what the Army is doing. But when they did this they found out that very very took them up on this and their projected interest fall short. It will be the same with Infantry. I have a sister-in-law that is in the Army. She does very well in the Army and has no interest in the Infantry. I am sure some would want to be infantry but I don't see it reflecting anywhere near as many will think.

You served with females in combat support and combat service support units, not combat arms. That's a different ballgame. Difference perhaps between softball and baseball. There is a reason for the separation in sports, and that same reason applies to combat arms, I believe.