Stating that the military should be immune from any type of societal influences or social engineering is all well and good. But, from my experience, that's far from the reality I saw. Standards are only standards until someone decides the bar needs to be moved to accommodate some other goal beyond supporting the mission. Well intentioned, worthwhile goals of society cross over into military life with unforseen consequences. A few of the examples I personally witnessed are as follows. There was a push to recruit more women in the Navy EOD career field in the late 80s. Definitely a worthwhile goal. However, some of the women were unable to carry or dress out in all the gear unassisted, a requirement all the divers had to meet. In particular, some of the air tanks proved too heavy for some of the women. Standards were changed and others were allowed to carry this equipment for those unable to do it themselves and help them dress out in the gear. There was also a push in the early 90s to recruit more women into the military firefighting career field of the Air Force. Another, worthwhile goal. Again, standards were changed when women couldn't pass the physical fitness standards. In particular, recruits were required to pull themselves over a wall in full firefighter, bunker gear. Some women recruits with lower upper body strength had trouble navigating this obstacle. As a result, many women recruits would have been forced out of training. Again, standards were changed to allow women firefighting recruits to navigate these obstacles by running around the walls instead of pulling themselves over like all other recruits were required. One last example, was the changing of test score requirements for admittance to the military EOD school. Higher scores in technical areas were the norm to be considered for bomb disposal school. In an effort to diversify the ethnicity of the bomb disposal field across the DoD, again another worthy goal, it was decided to admit candidates with lower test scores in these technical areas. Again, the standards were changed to favor individuals that historically scored lower in these technical areas of testing into EOD training. As these social movements were most definitely worthwhile goals, they came as a cost. Most often the cost was the lowering of a standard to achieve a social goal. The most worrisome part of these scenarios is how did these changes affect military readiness? Perhaps we'll never know for sure. I think we'd all agree that as long as someone meets the established, military standard, they should be allowed to serve in whatever job they'd like. However, that's often not how the system works in the real world. 80s wedding dress