The Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force is wrapping up part of its Marine Corps research to set standards for what it takes to be an infantry Marine and to determine how to integrate women into combat roles.
Part of the study took place at Camp Pendleton. The task force began evaluating criteria to determine what a good infantry Marine physically looks like last October.
“Take gender out of the equation. What are the good traits that make this type of Marine good?” asked 1st Philip Kulczewski, a public affairs officer from the task force.
Those traits include variables that could include height, strength, speed, and other factors.
“Our mission was to complete a Marine Corps standards-based assessment of the physical performance of Marines in a simulated operating environment, and those Marines would be performing specific collective ground armed combat tasks,” Kulczewski told NBC 7.
Data from the study will also be used to evaluate any possible impacts that general integration would have on each unit’s combat readiness and effectiveness, as well as to establish gender neutral standards for different combat jobs.
The group was set up like a ground combat element of a Marine Expeditionary Unit, made up of 600 Marines. Inside the group, 350 volunteered for the study, 75 of whom were women.
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“The ground combat element is one of our MEUs, Marine Expeditionary Units, and we’re made up of all the infantry elements: we’ve got artillery, we’ve got light armed vehicles, amphibious vehicles, we’ve got tanks, artillery and combat engineers,” said Kulczewski.
Some tests involved researchers from the University of Pittsburgh. They helped set up baseline by measuring combat tasks. Researchers hooked Marines up to heart rate monitors and GPS devices to see how much energy each used.
Many of the exercises involved firearms, Kulczewski explained.
“These Marines put rounds down range again and again and again and they did it safely, and they did live fire ranges where they were moving,” he said. “That is very dangerous stuff when you are on the ground there. And they did it day and day again.” No one was injured.
At Camp Pendleton, the AAV Platoon completed Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) tasks in the water, including water towing.
Sgt. Kassie McDole, one of the female Marine volunteers in the study, described the task: “One vehicle simulating as a disabled VIC. Then we’d drive out there next to each other and throw ropes, one vehicle throws ropes to the disabled vehicle.”
Right now the researchers and the data collectors are in a phase of number crunching and putting together the information, according to Kulczewski.
“Based on that data, the Marine Corps is going to take a look and see if we need to ask for any possible exceptions in policy in each one of the individual MOS,” he said. “Or if the Marine Corps is ready to open up those MOS now, then how do we take a look at our standards and improve them for the better.”
The Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force will de-activate next week, and while the process has taken many years, Kulczewski said he feels it was important to take that time to conduct this kind of scientific research.
“I think everyone at the end of the day really feels very good about what we were a part of and what we accomplished,” he told NBC 7.
The data collected will go to the Commandant of the Marine Corps next month.
