When a service member reenlists, they are basically signing a contract all over again. Unlike the first time they took the oath, before boot camp, this time they know what they are signing up for. Some people keep it simple and might just have a cake to celebrate. Others like to take it to the next level.

Ashley  Carter, a sergeant in the Army Reserves, took her most recent oath at a Pittsburgh Steelers game as part of a mass reenlisment ceremony. It was a home game for the Steelers, playing against the Kansas City Chiefs.

My biggest struggle during my time in the military was physical fitness. Specifically, it was maintaining weight standards, but it’s all tied together.

My first posts on this blog all seemed to focus around women who did things it often seems like no mere mortal could do. Yet, there they were. I love writing about them because they have done the things that I believed women were capable of doing, even if I had no actual proof, since I couldn’t actually do it.

I know I was not alone in my struggles, so today’s post is going to be about physical fitness.

One of the first things to think about is that command PT is less about getting into shape and more about team building. I’m sure there are a lot of commands out there that want to go hard and really get a workout, but when there are so many different fitness levels, you get three groups of people.
1. There are those who feel like they’re dying because it is so hard. While chances are they won’t, many feel like they will literally die.

2. There are those who feel frustrated because they’re not getting a workout at all. They feel like they are just wasting time where they could really be “getting some” in the gym. Continue reading “PT – It’s good for you, it’s good for me” →

At the end of September, a lot of military women’s advocacy groups were mad about comments made by Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, including the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN).
While their anger is understandable and justified, I’d like to play devil’s advocate for  a moment and talk about where Mattis is coming from and where we need to go to help the “jury” make a decision.

A cadet at the Virginia Military Institute asked Mattis about whether or not he thinks females in combat arms makes us more combat effective.

Only a few parts of his comments were pulled in the mass media, which made him come across as very sexist.

At the beginning of his answer, Mattis said “Because it goes from some people’s perspective of what kind of society do we want. You know, in the event of trouble … you’re sleeping at night, in your family home, you’re the dad, mom, whatever, and you hear glass break downstairs. Who grabs the baseball bat and gets between the kids’ door and whoever broke in? And who reached for the phone to call 911. In other words, it goes to the almost primitive needs of a society to look out for its most vulnerable.”

Before even getting into the rest of his comments, we have to break this down. In a lot of society, I’d even dare say in most of society, in a nuclear family, the husband is going to grab the bat and the wife is going to call 911. But, as society changes, so does that family dynamic. One dynamic alone is single mothers. They do what they have to do to protect their loved ones, the most vulnerable, their children. Continue reading “Women make progress in combat, must keep pushing” →