Wednesday, October 18, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Continued from page 11
earns the respect of those
salty Marines, about half of
whom will be combat veter-
ans, standing in formation to
greet her. I hope she can look
her platoon in the eyes and
earn their respect because of
who she is, not what she is.
That won’t be easy — it
isn’t for men either, and it
shouldn’t be. It isn’t her pla-
toon sergeant’s job to make
her job more comfortable
because she is a woman —
and that’s the deeper fear that
so many of my fellow infan-
try veterans are mulling. Not
that females are incapable of
leading infantry Marines, but
that females will instantly
be treated as something
other than equals because of
their gender. They fear that
standards they have long
been held to will crater and
the Corps will get weaker
instead of stronger. And if it
turns out any other way than
completely equal, she will
not succeed because she will
not have earned the respect
of her Marines.
If it turns out she doesn’t
belong, I hope they get rid
of her as fast as they took
her in. The young Marines
who will deploy into combat
under her command deserve
that kind of honesty, because
the Marine Corps is not some
candyland where they pass
out lollipops to non-hackers,
revel in excuses for failure,
or have an “empathy tent”
where softer souls and weak
bodies can go play with
crayons.
The Corps exists solely
— and trains every day of
the week — to “locate, close
with, and destroy the enemy,
and to repel the enemy
assault by fire and close
combat.”
That’s it, and that’s all.
For this veteran-turned-
observer, the only important
part of the equation, at the
end of the day, is whether or
not this officer — any offi-
cer — is a good leader of
her Marines. That means she
leads by example, never asks
others to do something she
isn’t willing to do herself,
doesn’t break in the field
when people are counting on
her, is fair and just with her
discipline, and succeeds as a
force multiplier when rounds
are coming down range.
If she can do all of that
— and there is no reason
to believe she can’t — then
she will earn the respect of
the very hard and inflexible
world of combat infantrymen
she is now stepping into. We
should all want that.
I can admit my own skep-
ticism. I’ve labored over it
for a long time. Call it sex-
ism, some kind of lingering
chauvinism, whatever the PC
flavor of the day might be. I
don’t care what you call it,
because I am being honest,
based on my own formative
experiences, and honesty
makes a far more interesting
conversation.
And I have a stake in all
of this. My own daughter
will become a Marine Corps
officer in the near future, and
the only thing that I would
ever ask for her is that she
be granted the opportunity
to prove herself at the high-
est level, to demonstrate her
intellect, her iron commit-
ment, and her physical capa-
bilities in a level arena —
not one designed to see her
succeed.
Given that opportunity, I
know she will succeed, and
hope she learns to lead with
judgment, justice, integrity,
and honor in the decidedly
inelastic world of the Corps,
where many hard and accom-
plished males have failed.
I hope for that because,
in the final analysis, that’s
precisely the kind of coun-
try my Marine Corps has
been fighting from the
Barbary Coast, to Belleau
Wood, to Guadalcanal and
Fallujah to build, honor,
and to protect for future
generations.
HOWELLS
REALTY GROUP
Phil Arends
541-420-9997
phil@blackbutte.com
PEAK PROPERTIES PARTNERSHIP Dick Howells
541-408-6818
Black Butte Ranch, Sisters Area,
rahowells@blackbutte.com
and Central Oregon
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Superior
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Execution
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ECO BIKING: Program
will be available
next summer
Continued from page 25
child and parent, Walden will
be ready for you to join her
next summer. And in between
visiting golden eagle nesting
territories both my wife, Sue,
and I will be with some of
the eco bikers to share what
we know about the world of
nature and how it all fits into
all our lives.
to recycle, and how they can
take part in projects together
and enjoy fun summer out-
doors. For more
information call
Walden at 541-
719-8021, or go
to her website
next summer
early and get in
on the tours her
bikers will be
taking: www.
bbekids.org.
As of now,
the first kid’s
Eco Bike tour
for 2018 will be
on Wednesday,
June 20, meeting
9 a.m. at Black
Butte School.
Better get it on
your calendar
PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON
before the tour is
Eco bikers Rope Chew (L) and Athen Garrett
filled.
If this sounds wondering why crawdads were abundant in early
good to both summer, but gone in late summer.
The Peaks at Pine Meadow Village
Four units under construction.
1,200-1,400+ sq. ft., single-car
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$369,000-$379,000.
Graphic courtesy:
www.pateydesigns.com
GRUNT: Daughter
to become Marine
Corps officer
29
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