First woman graduates from Army sniper course

Stomper · Nov 12, 2021

1775usmc said:
Like broke back mountain?

Only a Raspberry Beret would ask that question!

Member 53328 · Nov 12, 2021

Stomper said:
Only a Raspberry Beret would ask that question!

I wasn't cool enough to receive one of those.

Stomper · Nov 12, 2021

1775usmc said:
I wasn't cool enough to receive one of those.

Is anyone?

OldBroad44 · Nov 12, 2021

Old Dog said:
Wait, what? The Coast Guard has a sniper team? Are all the drunken boaters during Seafair weekend that much of a problem?

Anyway, on topic -- doesn't surprise me. I've seen a number of females over the past few years, both in the military and in law enforcement, with great shooting skills. As far as being a sniper -- so much of it is about patience, and it just seems that a lot of women have more patience than most of us guys....

Coast Guard these days has to deal with drug and human traffiking, potential terrorists, and potential pirates. Snipers would often be valuable, I would think.

Patience depends on the situation. Having your life and those of others on the line undoubtedly focuses the mind marvelously. We're usually evaluating "patience" in school or artificial contexts in which it really means at least the appearance of submission to arbitrary authority. I think males are more likely to engage in petty challenges to arbitrary authority when clearly in a subordinate position, while females are less likely to start fights they can't win. So the boy might bubblegum about being required to do a book report and piss the teach off. But it wasn't going to make the teacher change the assignment. Meanwhile, I complained not. I just wrote a book report on Tale of Two Cities in sixth grade, and since we moved a lot, copied the exact report over four times, saving myself the work of doing the arbitrary sort of reports teachers liked, getting four A's on the one report, the last being as a freshman in college. I hoped to use the report even more, but teachers don't usually let you choose the book. My rebellion agsinst arbitrary authirity was invisible, and at keast saved ne tgree book reports. The one teacher who really pissed me off, HS psych, I challenged regularly and humiliated her for not knowing the material. She tried to punish me by assigning me to give a special report on the topic. Big mistake. I like teaching. I gave a great report, and the kids were fascinated and very attentive, instead of misbehaving as they did with her. Major loss for her. I would have been happy to give all the lectures. This incompetent teach and I made a deal. I'd report to her class for roll call each day, then leave and go hang out in the bio lab. I'd attend class only on the days we had tests. And both of us would be happier. This was a HS in GA. Many teachers were teaching stuff they weren't really qualified to teach. The physics teacher's only qualification was he had one term of college physics in which he had made a D. And his math wasnt up to physics. He told us this frankly the first day and used a video course program. I didn't give him or any of the rest of the teachers a bad time. They were doing the best they could. And they didn't express contempt for the subject they were being paid to teach.

Hunting takes a lot of patience. When I walk into a man's living room or den and see every square foot of wall occupied with trophies, I turn to him and bow in acknowlegment. I know a little about what those trophies represent in skills and character, including patience. I grin slightly and say nothing. He grins back.

If women have any particular advantage as shooters it may be because they may, on average, have more fine control over delicate motions of hands and fingers. My dad told me women were better natural shooters than men because they were better at fine motor control, of which moving trigger in a precise way was one. I thought greater fine motor control was a myth designed to keep women confined to sewing and other indoor boring (to me) stuff. But after I got a phud and became head of a lab of my own I soon discovered that some male technicians could not do one particular operation in our lab because they didn't have consistent enough fine motor control. I started testing technician prospects for that, and noticing it in the lab courses I taught. About one male out of ten couldn't do the operation. All women and the rest of the men did fine. Whether this was because women averaged better in fine control and the best at fine control would all be women I don't know. I was only testing ability to do a certain manipulation that gave a yes or no answer, not rankings.