re: Active Marines - Have Women in the Infantry Had a Negative Impact on the USMC?

Several years ago, I saw a FB post from a woman I went to HS with many years ago. She grew up to be a marine wife and mother...hubby had just gotten his first star (now retired as a two-star); son was a two-striper. In response to the question, "what's the optimum number of women in a combat unit, she retorted why it would be any number other than 'zero.'"

She went on to put it another way: "Imagine your father/son/brother/husband/boyfriend is a soldier or marine who has been wounded and is now pinned down in a firefight. His sergeant can spare one soldier/marine to go rescue him. That's the bad news. The good news is you get to pick the soldier/marine. Are you sending a man or a woman?" That about sums it up better than any other argument I've ever heard on the subject.