From Feb 2017:
https://texags.com/forums/63/topics/2833635/replies/48528573E-1--A Story of a Failed Integration (a non-definitive history)Disclaimer: I have zero doubt that I'm going to miss some points. I'll try to get a few of the guys on here to double check me and I'll correct. It's been 20 years.
Spring 1995: E1 has grown so large, that the decision is made to split it in 2 and reactivate D1. They do a fair job of keeping the future leaders evenly spread.
Fall 95/Spring 96: Enter the class of 99 (whoop), which, unknown to us at the time, will be the last non-integrated class for a while. Great CO, Good 1SG, who doesn't make grades (important). Typical all-male hijinks. Some growing pains from losing 1/2 the outfit, but a good time had by all.
Spring 96 Leadership selections: 1SG doesn't make grades and isn't up for CO. The guy who was assumed to be next in line, super hard-core Army contract, was tapped to start a new outfit (A2). Several good options left, but the Trigon went with a guy we'll call Joe. Joe was a kinder, gentler CT. In fact, the Trigon had asked him to write the book on how to be a good pisshead...by playing nice. Joe was also terribly overweight and out of shape. He couldn't lead the JOCKS on outfit runs. As you can imagine, Joe was not a popular choice. Several of the best zips-to-be went staff rather than stay under Joe.
Spring 96 Integration Time: The Trigon is on an integration push, and who better to lead it in one of the biggest (and best
) companies than Joe. So E1 is slated for integration. To help, a top-notch female c/o 99 is transferred in at the very end of our fish year. We'll call her W99 (she wore "wag" as a badge of honor). W99 is a great cadet. She was actually c/o 98, went non-reg her true fish year, and then joined as a Corps fish her 2nd year. She tried very hard, sometimes too hard, to be one of the guys. For our part, while we weren't excited, we accepted her and decided to make the best of it.
Fall 96/Spring 97: We are assigned 4 female fish. We hadn't recruited them; they were trigon assignments (which makes sense given the timing). 1 doesn't last FOW. The other 3 are committed to stick it out. 2 of them are perfectly average cadets, fine members of any company, but not "game-changers". 1 is a weirdo who I'm still shocked didn't punch. But she didn't. They follow W99's leadership well. However, the tone of the outfit has changed. A big part of this is having a CO we don't respect. But the typical all-male hijinks are gone, making things a lot more "all-business".
Spring 97 Leadership selections: This was where the integration failed in my opinion. The new c/o 98 CO is a good dude. The c/o 99 1SG is too, as are the other leadership positions. So why the failure? Because W99 went to Corps Staff (so did I for full disclosure). None of the W00s were strong enough to drive the integration agenda. (Note...this isn't a slight to them at all. That's a lot to ask of any Soph.)
Fall 97/Spring 98: Memory is a bit fuzzier here as I'm a staff rat, but our female census is 1 Jr staff rat, 3 PH, and 1 fish. There might have been another who punched; I don't recall. W01 is like the 2 W00s, nice enough and an average cadet, but not a needle mover. The 3rd W00 gets weirder, which doesn't do the integration movement any favors.
Fall 98/Spring 99: W99 becomes a Battalion CO, so is still away from the outfit. The 3 butt W00s are still there, as is the 1 pisshead W01, but there are no female fish that made it past 1st semester. There wasn't a move to keep them out, it just kind of happened. E1 had won the Jouine (best grades) award, and had been assigned a ton of fish who had little business being there ("well, sir, I'm worried about sonny/daughter making grades..." "no problem, we'll put them in E1"). The fish class was a bit of a mess due to this, so we had poor retention all around. It just included all of the females.
One note here: when the female fish punched out, it was a HUGE headache for outfit leadership. Much more so than when the guys punched. While I never saw this attitude expressed from my buddies, there had to be a "is this worth it" thought process, especially with recruiting.
Fall 99/Spring 00: The class of 99, including W99, are dead and gone. Things finally come to a head with the weird W00 and she transfers to a different outfit. Left are the 2 zip W00s and 1 butt W01. No female pissheads or fish.
2 years later: All male once again.
There is no real moral to this story other than I agree with the needing a critical mass of females to make it work. Doing it on a shoestring is tough, especially when the leader decides to go staff.
I'll also argue from a personal point-of-view that the idea "you have to be integrated to function in military/society" is complete and utter horse crap. The Corps isn't the military. It isn't the business world. It is a leadership lab in a setting where young folks are learning and growing up. You want every outfit integrated? Fine. But don't get caught thinking it is an imperative. It isn't.
