(no subject)
What was supposed to be a one night stay aboard lovely Camp Baharia turned into a three day stay due to the sandstorm and the pesky habit they have of grounding air, and therefore medevacs, which are kind of important. Camp Baharia used to be a pretty shitty little camp just north of Camp Fallujah. With the closing of Camp Fallujah, Camp Baharia turned into a slightly larger, shitty camp. There's two infantry battalions and I believe a portion of a CLB there, so needless to say, they don't really interact with females very often.
In the past we all stayed in the same tent, males and females, and there was just a policy to wear PT gear under you uniform and if you're going to get naked, do it in the shower trailers. It's a good policy and I've had no problems with it. I even double checked with the females before we left for TQ to make sure that everyone was comfortable with it, and it was unanimous that they preferred to stay together in one tent.
1/4 serves as the Camp Commandant and mans a Mayor Cell that manages the tents for billeting of transient personnel, like my convoy that comes in and only needs a place to stay for a night before leaving again. I checked in with the Mayor Cell, was given the code for the cypher lock on the door of the female tent and the keys to one tent for all of the males. We all moved into the one tent for ourselves and bedded down for the day before we were supposed to leave that night. However, the sandstorm grounded air and therefore us, so we spent another night in the tent. The next day one of the Marines from the Mayor Cell came by to find out when we were expecting to leave since they thought we were leaving the night before. He expressed his concern over having females in with males, if something happens it may look like he forced us all to stay together and make him look bad etc.
All this just seems bogus to me. Granted, they're a bit in reactionary mode right now since there was an alleged sexual assault case a few months ago, but realistically sounds more like it was a consensual thing that went bad when the room mate walked in. The bottom line is that it makes more sense to me to have the entire convoy together. Everyone is fine with it. I know I would rather leave my stuff in the tent and go to the chow hall, showers or gym knowing it's only my Marines in there and that they all know better than to mess with my stuff. In fact, I think there would be a greater chance of sexual assault if my females were separated from my males, because you can bet that they're not going to let anything happen to them. There's no hanky panky in the platoon that we're enabling. It just makes more sense to me to have us all together. Hell, I'll sign a waiver accepting full responsibility if something happens.
My Company First Sergeant came out on the road with us for this trip and we were talking about it. He's been with grunts before and explained that there's just a different mindset there. Grunts can be some nasty nasty bastards, but there's a tendency to instill a little bit of the old, chivalrous mindset in them with some things. For example, one of my females walked outside to smoke wearing green silkies, which are issued running shorts that are pretty short, and a sweatshirt. One of the grunts in the tents living next to us said something about it being inappropriate. Hello, it's issued gear. Secondly, when I went to the mayor cell to check out the tent in the middle of the night, the duty is a sleeping post and I was greeted at the door by a muscular grunt wearing only silkies and pulling his skivvy shirt over his head. I neither minded nor was offended by it. Hell, I walk around in pt shorts and a skivvie shirt, it's issued pt gear and what I wear under my uniform. Probably the difference is that my female who someone commented on is a cutsie one who had bed head at the time and I look more squared away with my stuff tucked in and more like a bitch as well. My gunny was talking about how the British have male and females together and allow homosexuals to serve openly, turning the whole gender thing into a bit of a non-issue. At TBS I felt like gender was pretty much a non-issue within my platoon. I think the only thing that was designated as needing to be partnered with the same gender was hanging guard situps because there's pretty much crotch on crotch grinding.
I guess my issue with the whole thing is that I feel it's a double standard. It's like an odd mixture of females being put on a pedestal and at the same time not being as good. I'm a little frustrated that what I feel is a non-issue within the platoon is being made into an issue by virtue of someone else's antiquated opinion.
In the past we all stayed in the same tent, males and females, and there was just a policy to wear PT gear under you uniform and if you're going to get naked, do it in the shower trailers. It's a good policy and I've had no problems with it. I even double checked with the females before we left for TQ to make sure that everyone was comfortable with it, and it was unanimous that they preferred to stay together in one tent.
1/4 serves as the Camp Commandant and mans a Mayor Cell that manages the tents for billeting of transient personnel, like my convoy that comes in and only needs a place to stay for a night before leaving again. I checked in with the Mayor Cell, was given the code for the cypher lock on the door of the female tent and the keys to one tent for all of the males. We all moved into the one tent for ourselves and bedded down for the day before we were supposed to leave that night. However, the sandstorm grounded air and therefore us, so we spent another night in the tent. The next day one of the Marines from the Mayor Cell came by to find out when we were expecting to leave since they thought we were leaving the night before. He expressed his concern over having females in with males, if something happens it may look like he forced us all to stay together and make him look bad etc.
All this just seems bogus to me. Granted, they're a bit in reactionary mode right now since there was an alleged sexual assault case a few months ago, but realistically sounds more like it was a consensual thing that went bad when the room mate walked in. The bottom line is that it makes more sense to me to have the entire convoy together. Everyone is fine with it. I know I would rather leave my stuff in the tent and go to the chow hall, showers or gym knowing it's only my Marines in there and that they all know better than to mess with my stuff. In fact, I think there would be a greater chance of sexual assault if my females were separated from my males, because you can bet that they're not going to let anything happen to them. There's no hanky panky in the platoon that we're enabling. It just makes more sense to me to have us all together. Hell, I'll sign a waiver accepting full responsibility if something happens.
My Company First Sergeant came out on the road with us for this trip and we were talking about it. He's been with grunts before and explained that there's just a different mindset there. Grunts can be some nasty nasty bastards, but there's a tendency to instill a little bit of the old, chivalrous mindset in them with some things. For example, one of my females walked outside to smoke wearing green silkies, which are issued running shorts that are pretty short, and a sweatshirt. One of the grunts in the tents living next to us said something about it being inappropriate. Hello, it's issued gear. Secondly, when I went to the mayor cell to check out the tent in the middle of the night, the duty is a sleeping post and I was greeted at the door by a muscular grunt wearing only silkies and pulling his skivvy shirt over his head. I neither minded nor was offended by it. Hell, I walk around in pt shorts and a skivvie shirt, it's issued pt gear and what I wear under my uniform. Probably the difference is that my female who someone commented on is a cutsie one who had bed head at the time and I look more squared away with my stuff tucked in and more like a bitch as well. My gunny was talking about how the British have male and females together and allow homosexuals to serve openly, turning the whole gender thing into a bit of a non-issue. At TBS I felt like gender was pretty much a non-issue within my platoon. I think the only thing that was designated as needing to be partnered with the same gender was hanging guard situps because there's pretty much crotch on crotch grinding.
I guess my issue with the whole thing is that I feel it's a double standard. It's like an odd mixture of females being put on a pedestal and at the same time not being as good. I'm a little frustrated that what I feel is a non-issue within the platoon is being made into an issue by virtue of someone else's antiquated opinion.