In response to Patrick Benham-Crosswell: Why did they ever think that women could join the infantry? Inside wrote:
It’s not about the short sprint or gym bunny antics, it’s about the long crushing cross-country moves in jungle filth, pouring rain or ankle-twisting desert rocks while carrying your own body weight, with the shoulder straps digging deep into your shoulders and the chafing soreness of sodden trousers that rubs you raw with only a soaked sleeping bag to look forward to. It sounds awful and it bloody well is, especially when someone is determined to do you harm at the same time. But in that black, bleak endeavour it is humour and comradeship that binds men together in adversity, and you only understand when you have been there. Never once in over 30 years did I hear any fellow foxhound turn to me and say we could have done better if we had a lady or two in attendance. I repeat my earlier comment, war is the ultimate game of national survival – it matters. When the England rugby squad lead the way in attempting to beat the All Blacks with a more inclusive and diverse team with perhaps 50 per cent female players, come back to me. Until then such moves for the infantry don’t impress sane thinking individuals and they don’t impress potential enemies.
