By 
Well this officially marks the end of the Necropocalypse. The last panel here actually had to change from my original plan in conjunction with editing I had to do to the actual Necropocalypse storyline. I know that many people loved it, including myself, but some weren’t as accepting of new things as others. I actually had a plan for Abe’s “rape kit,” but had to make some minor changes in the story in order to end it within 10 strips.
In any case, I think this ending is succinct and satisfying to me, so I’m happy with it.
Last update the whole female PFT thing caused quite a stir. People have sent me emails, saying my interpretation of the proposal is incorrect. I disagree, because I also have a copy of the proposal letter, and it’s all pretty clearly defined. Check out “Recommendations”, number 3.
This isn’t some kind of chauvinistic thing, I do believe that women make fine Marines and that the differences in body composition need to be acknowledged. With that said, wouldn’t it make more sense to evenly distribute the points for the pullups instead of granting a 75 point single pullup? If the pullup is a better measure of upper-body strength, as the paper suggests, and assuming the Marine Corps wants to move in that direction in regards to female Marines, I think it would be more fair to impose a 1-6 pullup test where each pullup is worth 16 points (or whatever scale you want really).
Obviously my opinion on the matter is simply one of many–the fact that I’m not even on active duty any more really moots my stance anyway. As well, before everyone gets all worked up over it, the paper does suggest that retaining the FAH is an “introductory” measure. This implies, though it doesn’t say explicitly, that this will probably go away at some point. Women already take a lot of flak in the Corps for just about everything, but things like this don’t help their image any in the boy’s club. I’ve had female Marines specifically tell me that they think its stupid they’ll be awarded 75 points for a single pullup when a man would only be awarded 5.
Still, sure, female Marines on average do 1.whatever pullups when they were tested on it–the fact is, females have never had to do pullups. Men have an average of 15 because ever since we’ve been Marines, it’s been understood that we need to train to keep our pullups up. Give the women 6 months notice, let them train to increase their upperbody strength, then introduce the pullups into the PFT–without the flexed arm hang as a crutch. Men have never had a choice in the matter, if I couldn’t do at least 3 pullups there was no easy alternative for me to get a score of up to 70.
Anyway, I hope you all have a fantastic weekend. I got tons of work to do, to include my continuing search for an apartment here in the Bay Area as I get ready for the new term to start.
Comments