US Marine Corps Considering No Longer Using “Yes Sir” For Drill Instructors Over Gender Neutrality Concerns

The United States Marine Corps may soon nix traditional salutations such as “Yes Sir” and “No Sir” over assuming one’s preferred gender and other stigmatizations.

A detailed report commissioned by the Corps from the University of Pittsburgh, running from 2020-2022, found that already half of the military services were already deviating away from ‘gendered identifiers,’ Marine Corps Times said.

The Army, Navy, and Coast Guard effectively de-emphasize gender in an integrated environment. Instead of saying ‘ma’am’ or ‘sir,’ recruits in these Services refer to their drill instructors using their ranks or roles followed by their last names. Gendered identifiers prime recruits to think about or visually search for a drill instructor’s gender first, before their rank or role.

The report states

The proposal to outright do away with these terms have been considered by a Marine Corps leadership team, Col. Howard Hall, chief of staff for Marine Corps Training and Education Command, explained at the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services this December. He and other leaders have their concerns, he says.

That’s going to take some effort. Honestly, that’s not a quick fix. What are inculcating in our young recruits that will or will not be reinforced when they graduate and enter the fleet Marine force? So again, we want to avoid any quick-fix solutions that introduce perturbations down the line.

Hall told the committee

The Marine Corps Times further explains: ‘The University of Pittsburgh report highlights a number of ways ― subtle and not-so-subtle ― that Marine Corps boot camp centers male recruits and makes male Marines the standard. Three of the five sections of service history taught at boot camp contain no explicit mention of female Marines, and “core values” guided discussions exclusively highlight the stories of male Marines and sailors when giving examples of real-world heroism and leadership.’

The Marine Corps in general have the lowest amount of women in them, but still trained in a single battalion at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, until 2019 where that changed and now women train at both Marine boot camps, but the training materials have still yet to truly reflect that, that military outlet notes.

The University found that, for example, only male pronouns were being used during a PowerPoint presentation at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California. One slide read, “A leader who is confident in his decisions instills confidence in his Marines.”

Moreover, study sessions discussing marriage in the military quite commonly depicting the man in uniform and the woman in civilian clothing.

The independent study also found that it appeared that female officers, including senior ones, were still not given the same level of respect and still mostly viewed as lesser than compared to the male instructors. A male drill instructor told interviewers apart of the study that he once witnessed a chief female drill instructor, who was in charge of commanding an entire recruit series, was completely given the cold shoulder on the parade deck, while other instructors attempted to glean advice from their male counterparts.

Therefore, because of all these different ‘issues,’ the University posed the supposition that it might be prudent to ditch saying “sir” and “ma’am” in favor of saying gender neutral terms like “drill instructor.”

Gender-neutral identifiers are an unambiguous, impartial way to circumvent these issues, Employing gender-neutral identifiers eliminates the possibility of misgendering drill instructors, which can unintentionally offend or cause discord. By teaching recruits to use gender-neutral identifiers for their drill instructors, Services underscore the importance of respecting authoritative figures regardless of gender.

The authors wrote.

In a statement to the Marine Corp Times, Col. Hall, after his aforementioned conference on December 6th discussing these study findings and possible implementations, shared his concerns on the potential move:

All of a sudden, we change something at recruit training, and recruits start coming in and using a different identifier. It’s not something we would change overnight.

Again, we’ve got a history of ‘sir, ma’am, sir, ma’am. If we change something at the root level, how do we make the corresponding change at the Fleet Marine Force? So it’s not ours to implement alone.

The United States armed forces are in a bit of precarious pickle, especially after this year.

The Army had its worse recruitment miss ever in history, with other branches just barely making theirs but had to tap into their reserves to do so, leaving them already in the hole for this year; after the Biden Administration saw to it to discharge roughly 20,000 for not getting a Covid vaccine – something that has been a major deterrent in recruiting.

Furthermore, The WinePress has reported that Army officials have said that they will be doing less screaming during training camp, but be more like a strict and demanding football coach. They Army has recently expanded their acceptable weight limits due to the fact that America’s youth is quite overweight and obese.

For Pride Month in June, the U.S. Navy released a guide on how to properly use preferred gender pronouns.

The advertising for the armed forces itself has also been placing a heavy emphasis on social justice as a recruitment pitch.

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

We’re screwed. We’re done.

This is so pathetic words cannot describe how asinine this is. Anymore it is getting so hard to distinguish satire and parody from actual events. Sadly this is no joke, it’s real. America: Land of the Slave, Home of the Sissy.

You know other nations are just LAUGHING their butts off right now, rubbing their mitts together and salivating at thrashing us to pieces.

Say your prayers for the Lord’s protection in your life because this once blessed nation is going down the crapper FAST.

[13] What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee? [14] Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. [15] All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth? [16] All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it. [17] The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

Lamentations 2:13-17

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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