The First Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, has a proud history.
Formed at the end of World War Two, this unit has served with distinction in Korea, Vietnam and more recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with numerous other deployments.
Sadly, 137 members of its members have been killed on operations.
‘The Big Blue One’ has just commemorated the 50th anniversary of heavy fighting at the Battle of Coral-Balmoral in Vietnam, the largest battle Australian soldiers faced during that war.
And now this unit is breaking new historical ground.
The Australian Army has confirmed via a question from Senator Fraser Anning in Senate Estimates that all female infantry soldiers are being posted to 1 RAR.
This move is going to destroy the cohesion, morale and capability of one of Australia’s finest army units.
Already 25% of females who have qualified as an infantry soldier since the role was opened up in 2016 have been medically downgraded.
Many more will follow. They simply will not be able to keep up with the men. Along the way, we can expect the financial burden on the taxpayer for Department of Veterans’ Affairs compensation payouts to sky rocket.
In the short history of this insane experiment, the Army has confirmed that 90% of females who have enlisted as an infantry soldier have failed to pass the Army Recruit Course and Initial Employment Training as an infantry soldier.
The much-vaunted Army Pre-Conditioning Program, designed to give females an extra seven weeks of fitness training to prepare them for Army life, has been a complete failure. Every single female who was recruited via this program to become an infantry soldier has failed to pass basic infantry training. Only half of them were capable of completing basic recruit training at Kapooka.
Combat roles have only been open to females for two and half years. And already the program is a disaster.
Sadly, now, ground zero of this politically-correct lunacy is being foisted upon 1 RAR. A unit with such a proud history cannot hope to have such a proud future in these circumstances.
For anyone with eyes to see, 1 RAR will be functionally destroyed. It will not be able to fight. It will not be able to deploy. And it will be riven by personnel crises. In order to make it a ‘safe space’ for women, men are going to have to be sacked.
It will become the epicentre of #metoo within the Australian Army, constantly facing allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse and male chauvinism.
The unit’s motto of Duty First may as well be replaced with Beauty First. But the end result will not be pretty.
And now that unit logos are being replaced all over the Army, 1 RAR’s new symbol might as well be this:
June 5, 2018
Seems to be a lack of reality of what battle really is: relentlessly hard, dangerous, terrifying blood thirsty work.
May 31, 2018
I wonder id the generals, forced into a corner, have acceded to political pressure and agreed to put women into 1 RAR expecting them to fail the physical stresses. Given the PC stuff, it might be the only option left to them. As a retired Signals Officer and former CO I found women equal to men in Signals work, some of it highly classified and mentally taxing. Given the same opportunities and training the achievements of men and women were identical. But the sheer physical strength and endurance required of infantry appear to me beyond that of an average female population. Two years trial?
June 5, 2018
Peter there is restraints on females in the Defence Force, in particular the fitness assessments. It is a wonder to me that these restraints are/were ok in Army at least for years, and still exist. How times have changed. When we all look back and say we told you so; women are not built for the infantry duties required by each and everyone in an Infantry Regiment. First stats are out. 120ish enlisted for infantry duties, 24 of them get through and 25% of them have now been medically down graded. Three infantry platoons could have been raised. Training and time wasted to keep the PC people happy. Next I will read, its too hard so we better make it easier to get through.
May 30, 2018
I am a long ex sapper of 37 plus years,including years as an instr at the then JTC and two tours of Vietnam. Having a son in the RAE, who has also done a few tours, including the Middle East, I was interested in the weight of equipment he, and all combat soldiers, carry when on operations; it is generally between 32 and 36 kilos.
My questions to the Minister and those who make such decisions would be, “Has there been any research done on the physiological impact on women who carry such weight over a protracted period?” and, “What is the anticipated cost to a government of the medical compensation which, without doubt, will be forth coming?”
May 29, 2018
Tempers at boiling point as female protesters break into a men-only lido in Hampstead and leap into the pool as they claim to ‘self-identify as male’… for the day
* One woman put on a bushy beard while another went swimming in a mankini
* The women in Hampstead, North London, criticised gender self-identification
* Tempers were as hot as the weather yesterday as they arrived en masse and jumped in to the water as part of a protest against proposed gender laws.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5780623/Female-protesters-break-men-lido-leap-pool.html
May 29, 2018
Back in late May, a British man who became a member of the increasingly left-wing UK Labour Party after being, in his word, “inspired” by leader Jeremy Corbyn, decided to stand for office in his local Basingstoke constituency Labour Party. Hardly news, right? It happens in all political parties every day of the week.
David Lewis, 45, a rather cheery and very masculine looking bloke complete with bald head, beard and moustache, caused rather more than minor local ripples when he announced that he was actually standing for election as the “Women’s Officer”, a post which Labor rules say can only be held by a woman. Ordinarily, Mr Lewis’ seemingly quixotic bid would have been dismissed as that of a crank or, at the very least, of a person with a very peculiar sense of humour.
What propelled his election bid into the national headlines was the fact that his constituency organisation actually accepted his candidature. Understandably, the position of “Women’s Officer” in the British Labour Party involves encouraging women to join the party and generally speaking for women.
The British Labour Party, firmly in the grip of political correctness, has a policy of self-determination – if people define themselves as women, the party is bound to recognise those persons as women without the slightest question, verification or scrutiny of that definition. This is all in the noble causes of diversity and inclusiveness and is said to be supportive of transwomen who are people who were born male but who later decide that they want to be recognised as women with or without any surgery. Serious progressives who promote and endorse these causes say that self-identification is right and fair because any demands made of trans people to prove their gender identity are discriminatory and intrusive.
Mr Lewis explained to understandably curious British media, “I self-identify as a woman on Wednesdays, between 6.50am when my alarm goes off and around midnight when I go to bed.”
Yes, seriously, he said that. And what makes him a woman on Wednesdays?
MORE
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=19760
May 27, 2018
“Excuse me CPL I need to go home to Australia”, why, are you injured? “No just pregnant”…………
May 27, 2018
Just deploy a whole company of them to a Islamic country. Let them prove us wrong.
Once Australian civilians start seeing bodies of young ladies return it may finally bring this gender crap back in line.
May 27, 2018
Well said Batttle smurf, sad but true.
May 27, 2018
“In order to make it a ‘safe space’ for women, men are going to have to be sacked.”
The frontline in war is the most unsafe “space” imaginable, even if only captured.
The people making these ludicrous decisions should be charged with serious neglect and attempted murder – they are doing NO favours to women in the armed forces.
May 27, 2018
I did over 20yrs as a reg Grunt in 3 BNs of the RAR, not inc 1RAR. I feel sorry for the women, being conned and goaded into being a grunt. They like us all would not have any ‘true’ idea of the physicality and limits required when we signed the dotted line. I feel sorry for them that they are being used as political PC pawns, and will be cast aside broken. I have seen women in front line roles in units in Israel, but they are a lot smarter than an our Army and political nut farm in how they use and employ them, in regards to support, vehicles and tasking.. If 1RAR was to use them only as bushmaster veh crews or similar, that may work, but otherwise the current concept is destined to fail..
But this was never about the women.. it’s about certain politicians and general officers getting thier names flagged as pioneers for gender equality with no regard for its victims…
May 27, 2018
Next we will see gravity outlawed because it’s not politically correct. Australia has been sucked into the PC vortex and the politicians are all for it just to garner a few more votes so they can keep their combined snouts in the trough of stupidity. Greed and power and I for one don’t want women on the front line because they are different to men in a fighting role and physically weaker and girls don’t have explosive power under pressure. For what its worth I feel ill whenever I see that bloke dressed as a woman on the ABC talking about sport. The world has gone mad.
May 27, 2018
I would like to know the what the request for transfer rate by the men is is, or would that be considered inappropriate behavior and lead to discharge.
May 27, 2018
Big miss Bernard. The Big Blue One Deployed to Somalia from late 1992 until May 1993. It was the first major deployment of Australian “fighting” troops since Vietnam more than 20 years earlier. The Op Solace Veterans recently commemorated the end of that deployment in Townsville. As for women wearing the Skippy … I don’t see the point.
May 27, 2018
The only option I can see is that all males in 1 RAR decide they are women. Then the quota of females will be filled. In fact everymale in the ADF should decide they are women. The insane people pushing this insanity will happily accept more insanity. They sure don’t understand sanity
May 26, 2018
I am confused. Women get a service medal after 2 years because they are quicker to train, but female recruits are given an extra 7 weeks training to try and get them through basics?
May 26, 2018
Holy Cow, 1RAR. I presume they are still one of the ODF battalions? Spent 2.5 years at Lavarack Barracks (HQ Company 3rd Brigade) then later 4 years at 5th Aviation Regt.ODF is the force that is on standby-boy how is this lunacy going to effect combat readiness and effectiveness?
May 26, 2018
I am a proud ex member of The First Battalion and before I start I would like to point out that Duty First is the motto of The Royal Australian Regiment not just 1RAR. I stayrd away from Coral 50 because I knew I would have put my foot in my mouth re Females in the Bn. I was a Pl Sgt at Kapooka when the WRAAC School was moved down there. D Coy was all female recruits and most of the Pl staff with a couple of male instructors. It became apparent after a short while that the female recruits could not be expected to do what their mail peers could. I reckon they might be fine in BHQ or Admin Coy in some positions but in no way would they be of any use in the Rifle Coys and most Spt Coy Pls. I am glad I’m out.
May 26, 2018
Did 2 years at LCBS. During that time I put a number of non inf mixed gender platoons through. Not one female was able to last through to the final field exercise.
May 26, 2018
The Unit’s motto of ‘Duty First’ will not evolve into ‘Beauty First’. Worse Luck.
Unfortunately, in women, the signs of testosterone elevated outside the normal range for a healthy woman (15-70 ng/dL) are: acne, deep voice, excess face and body hair, increased muscle mass, irregular menses, polycystic ovaries, mood changes, thinning hair, reduction in breast size.
Women boosted into high T artificially are not necessarily healthy as women, but even so their values still do not come up to the lower reference range of a normal man: 280 – 1,100 ng/dL.
You can give T injections to women and turn them into wookies with fried adrenals and polycystic ovaries and thinning hair, but it will not be possible to get them even into the normal, male reference range for the extended periods required by frontline combat.
Unfortunately our PC zonked society thinks of basic physiology as offensive and a problem to be solved. Therefore, social engineering to the rescue. But it will not make the female (XX chromosomally) physiology able to succeed in the stresses and fatigue of frontline combat. This requires the higher end of the male reference range and above.
What will succeed are men (XY chromosomally) who decide that they are women, identify as women and can use Cultural Marxist subversion of the government/military to force everybody else to pretend they are women. Even with a boob job, these guys will be in the required high end of the T ref range. They won’t have to worry about polycystic ovaries.
Female infantry being posted to 1RAR is not a milestone for women. It will, however, turn out to be a victory for transhumanism.
May 31, 2018
Lynda,
Thanks for this insightful and informative comment. If only existing male soldiers would “come out” and identify as women — problem solved! And any cosmetic surgery would be done at taxpayers’ expense.
May 26, 2018
cannot understand this push , but there is much that cannot be understood with ADF. Shame shame shame.
May 26, 2018
Tragic thing is, this will only stop until people get hurt and even more tragic is that the instigators of this social engineering tend to go unpunished.
May 27, 2018
El it will only stop when the brutalised corpses of photogenic young women come home in closed casket funerals after being captured by ISIS/et al.
May 26, 2018
Agree with everything you put regarding DVA (Ticking timebomb IMO but MRCA or DRCA whatever they call it now is pretty pathetic compared to the older acts so will lessen the costs) & combat effectiveness.
However this is about the first sensible ray of light I have seen in this sordid saga, if females are to be employed in Infantry than I have long held the opinion they be segregated into their own unit and SOI Platoons as the Israeli model. That way the superior strength of the male unit will not be dragged down to female levels, studies I have seen put the top third females in the bottom third compared males. That says it all.
Wonder what swayed the minister, from what I was hearing she was going to go full bore with this gender rubbish. Did the bulk of the senior staff grades threaten to resign or something?
May 26, 2018
“All female Infantry Soldiers being posted to 1 RAR”……….? Do you mean they aren’t taking “shemales”, transgenders, half’N’halves or other weirdos ??? Or, do you mean that 1 RAR will be filled with Female Soldiers only ???
I’ve completely given up only any sensible idea coming from the Senior Commissars in Defence. I just laugh or other wise I’d have to cry.
May 26, 2018
There will be still be blokes and others at 1 RAR. The unit is just taking all the ladies as well…
May 26, 2018
If the females are all like Hannah Mouncy, great idea, a whole battalion made up only of transgenders, that should terrify the Taliban or Isis.
May 26, 2018
Females have there place in the services however frontline in the infantry is no place for women. I served in an infantry battalion and it is no place for females.
May 26, 2018
Yeah sounds about right, six of us blokes up at 1RAR are being involuntarily discharged because of comments we made in a private group chat about women in the infantry, this place is turning to shit, so many people are hating it up here and they are all counting down until they can discharge(if the army doesn’t boot them first).
May 26, 2018
Yes, and then the swivel chair commandos will sit around writing each other memos as to why retention rates are so low, and personnel turnover so high!
May 26, 2018
Very sad ?. Are you men not able to get ANYONE decent to listen to your concerns??
May 27, 2018
Robyn, the crap starts at the top and is filtering all the way down. No. There is no one a serving soldier can turn to.
May 27, 2018
That’s shit house mate! Go hit up legal and see if anything can be done, don’t just believe what rank tell you. If you need help ask someone there for my number.
Hunt
May 26, 2018
Will they get a batman to carry their packs