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Tripp Ainsworth's avatar

I can’t speak for the police force but this issue was a major point of friction when I was in the Marines. For context I was Combat Camera, but in the years around 2010, pushing back in Afghanistan, the guys would get attached to infantry battalions and go to Helmand for 7-13 months and ear dirt and get Purple Hearts… and since they were constantly deployed and the MOS was closed, stay lance corporals for forever and a half. I picked up corporal around the five year mark and that wasn’t at all uncommon. Meanwhile the females would either be at a base unit and not deploy, OR they’d go to afghan and stay at the division level and only leave the air base when a general needed a photo op, and since they stayed close to the staff, they magically all got meritorious promotions. At First MarDiv’s Comcam shop, there were about a dozen male lance corporals who’d been on two HARD combat deployments who were in sections led by female NCOs who got promoted because they stayed snug in the rear with the staff, and this phenomenon wasn’t restricted that that unit. When I went to the MEU for for my third deployment, I was still a lance corporal (closed MOS) and my sergeant was a female who hadn’t stepped over seas and had less time in service than I had. Don’t get me wrong, I love her to death and she’s a dear friend, but the situation was bullshit. That system was so bad that by the time I was a sergeant coming off my fourth pump, there were female gunnery sergeants who joined two years after I did and either had only done a MEU or gone to Al Assad as a general’s photographer and gotten meritorious promotions as end of tour awards, while guys that were out pulling triggers got a pat on the back and a “get back to work.”

Horray for boat spaces.

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KP Maloy's avatar

Well thought out and explained.

Thank you also for your service💫

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