Gender Roles at Basic Military Training

As the Air Force recovers from the sexual misconduct scandal at Basic Military Training at JBSA-Lackland, Tex., officials are weighing whether to have only female military training instructors lead female flights, said Maj. Gen. Len Patrick, 2nd Air Force commander. Right now, the Marine Corps is the only service to enforce such a practice, he told reporters during an Oct. 11 teleconference. “We’re looking at everything, but at this point it’s not one we are aggressively pursuing. But, it’s an option,” said Patrick, who oversees BMT. “We want to train like we fight,” he continued. “We don’t want to create something we’ll have to overcome in the future. Young men are going to have to learn how to be supervised by women and vice versa.” In the meantime, Air Education and Training Command has mandated that at least one of the four assigned MTIs will be female when there are either two all-female flights or a brother and sister flight, said Patrick. “When I start molding the young airmen, early on I want them to be exposed to all genders. It starts in BMT,” he said. (See also Social Media Crackdown at BMT.)