From Craig Sawyer
As a Navy SEAL Sniper, my ruck was routinely 120 pounds. My second line was another 50-60 pounds. My main weapon, if carrying the Tac 50 was another 30 pounds. I'm 6 ft, 220 pounds with a 33 inch waist. There were many times I could barely stand up with my own equipment on my back. I had to jump that gear from airplanes in the dark, lock it out of submarines and swim it into hostile countries, hump it through jungles, deserts and mountains for further than I'm allowed to disclose. I can tell you from sacrificing my health in that capacity for my country, that's a brutally physical job, no matter how you slice it. It takes a brute to get those tools into a foreign country, not to mention actually WINNING the fight against their country's fiercest Special Forces Units. Less than 1% of the fittest and baddest males are capable of making the grade.
What if your 275 pound teammate goes down in a firefight? I can barely drag him out of there using all the strength and insane determination I have. The fact is, nobody less physically capable could get him to the helo to get him off target and back home. Does he deserve to have teammates he can save, but who could not save him?
There are jobs women can do better then men. I've seen it in the intelligence community and several other places throughout my career. Many woman are impressively sharp, talented and have tremendous contributions to make to our nation. God bless them for it! I've been impressed many, many times. My own wife, for one unclassified example, can type at full raging tilt while shaking her foot for the dog to play with and having an attentive, detailed conversation with me about my day, simultaneously!! I consider that a ridiculous miracle. I could simply never do that and I know it. God has made us the way we are, because he has a plan. That's been my observation and it is my belief.
I must say, though, that until women are directly and routinely competing with monsters like Mike Tyson for the world heavyweight boxing championship, UFC championships, competing very effectively with the NFL Superbowl champs, and competing directly with male heavyweight powerlifting champions, putting them in front line Spec Ops units that require they beat the most capable foreign Special Forces Units to death, even if hand-to-hand combat is required (and it has ALWAYS boiled down to that historically) within a primal and necessarily physical profession, for our national security is…misguided. That's the nicest term I can place upon such a supremely foolish development. This is a classic example of decisions being made by those who have ZERO concept of what it really takes to win a fight with no rules, in the dark of night, halfway around the globe, when our nation's security is at risk and successful force is required to save the day, at all cost. Failure is not an option.
Political Correctness is going to create a disaster here. Hide and watch. It's not about any lack of respect for women, or their worth. It's about the rational and responsible recognition of the factual genetic differences that make the sexes gloriously different. As someone who has a particular appreciation and respect for women and the contributions they make to bring us all into this world, nurture us into the people we grow up to be and keep us in check when we try stupid stuff, I can honestly say trying to force women into such an extremely physically demanding role as Navy SEALs will end in tragedy. Lord, forgive us for such Liberal/Progressive PC foolishness.
National Security is not a game, nor a social experiment to make people who are created radically and marvelously different, feel "equal" for the sake of the lost. Some of us understand our place. Maybe we should step back up and recover our country, because things have obviously gotten downright stupid.
Here's to those who keep it real and seek honest answers to how to best make our various contributions to our national security and our nation's best interest!
