Last week we brought you the story of Lt. Sage Santangelo, one of fifteen women to attempt the Marine Infantry Officer Course…and fail miserably.  Santangelo’s claim to fame, however, was not that she was a raging failure; after all, there’s a reason no female has lasted longer than a day or two.  The young lieutenant became famous for publicly deriding the Marine Corps for—of all things—having separate fitness standards for men and women in their basic officer school, which she attended just previously.  Had the Marine Corps prepared her for how difficult the infantry course was, says Santangelo, she could have passed.  She called for the Marine Corps to change how they train women, and the Marine Corps has decided to go ahead and change things in response to her article.  Yay for the underdog who accomplished big things, right?

Never mind the fact that she was a blathering idiot who refused to acknowledge the biological differences that would make it impossible for her 5’3″ frame to perform as well as the much larger men.  Never mind the fact that any man who ever finds himself next to her under fire is in a lot more danger of dying from any injuries he receives (can you see a 5’3″ female in full battle rattle carrying out her wounded buddy and his blown off leg while returning fire?).  Facts are irrelevant here; all that matters is that some second lieutenant who thinks she’s hot stuff also thinks that it’s someone else’s fault that she failed.  Naturally, she needed to whine about it and “raise awareness,” which is liberal code for “throw a big fit.”  Judging from the comments on her editorial, her fellow Marines took umbrage at what they saw as lack of commitment, since no one told her she couldn’t train and prepare on her own time.  They took far greater offense, however, at her stepping into the public eye to blame their beloved Corps for her own failure.

There’s only one problem: The Marine Corps leadership (including Commandant James Amos) knew all about Sage Santangelo’s article long before it was published, and not only did they allow a brand new officer to publicly denigrate the Corps, they helped her do it—and then rewarded her for it.  Let’s take a look at the timeline.

Santangelo failed out of the Infantry Officer Course in January.  She met with Amos soon after, as most of the women who failed have.  Santangelo explains that “Marine leaders have been watching female participants like me to help them decide how to integrate women” into combat positions.  While she tries to put forward the idea that her meeting with the Commandant of the Marine Corps was standard because of the situation, she gives herself away later.  She was offered a chance to write an editorial about her experience by the Washington Times, and after accepting she “absolutely recognized it needs to be read by someone” before publication.  After all, she was a second lieutenant, the absolute bottom rung of the officer hierarchy (or the entire Marine Corps, depending on who you ask).  For something like this, she would need approval…and who better to ask than her buddy the Commandant?  Because you see, Santangelo didn’t just talk with him once.

Based on our conversations and whatnot, I felt that [Amos] was the best person to read this.

Conversations and whatnot.  Plural, and extras.  She implies that Amos got the first copy of her article, and then “multiple officials” (Amos’ staff, certainly) supposedly approved it going to print, with the commandant giving the final green light.  In short, they let her publicly call them out so they could look good responding to it.

The plot gets far thicker, however.  Santangelo already had a coveted flight training slot, and as we reported previously, didn’t need the infantry training; she volunteered because she wanted to pad her resume and participate as a guinea pig in the D0D’s constant quest to turn the military into a social experiment.  Miraculously, she was offered a deployment to Afghanistan with an infantry unit to “get some experience” after her spectacular failure, by none other than Commandant James Amos himself.

“They discussed various school options, and Gen. Amos offered that she might want to deploy to Afghanistan to gain real-world experience while awaiting training,” a spokesman for Amos, Lt. Col. David Nevers, said.

Why not, right?  It’s not like she failed the infantry officer course or anything.  She’s obviously as qualified as all the men.  Naturally, she will have a very short deployment—only two months—because she has to be back for flight training in August.  This is literally a token deployment just so wee Sage can feel like one of the big boys, paid out in return for being part of one fat publicity stunt to make the Marine Corps look responsive to women’s concerns.

What it all comes down to is this:  A female, who—by biological design—cannot compete with her male peers in a setting where even 25% of the men fail, was not only assisted in creating a political issue out of her own inherent inability by her own leadership, but was rewarded for her failure with a participation trophy in the form of a 2-month deployment, to a unit where she is only qualified enough for “administrative or base security work, or a spot as an aide to a senior officer.”  Paper-pushing and brown-nosing.  Sounds like just the kind of thing Sage Santangelo is suited for.  Not because she’s female, but because she’s a sniveling, arrogant, entitled brat who thinks she needs to revamp 238 years’ worth of culture that produced some of the most magnificent fighting men the world has ever seen, just to gain a feather in her cap.

How far the Marine Corps has fallen, when conduct such as Amos’ and Santangelo’s is allowed and even assisted.  Santangelo “wouldn’t rule out writing other editorials in the future, but she’d like to get some more experience first.”  Thankfully that experience won’t involve her leading men in combat.  We want them to actually make it home alive.