It is no secret that Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and the Marine Corps have clashed multiple times since the Navy ruled that all occupations under its department will be open to women–even Marine infantry positions. Mabus’ recent decision to integrate Marine Corps boot camp and remove the word ‘man’ from all job titles has served to only worsen relations between the navy secretary and the service.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Congressman and Marine, has gone on the offensive. In an interview with POLITICO and an editorial published on Fox News, Hunter describes why Mabus’ policies are “a greater threat to the Marine Corps than ISIS.”

“These are long lasting,” Hunter told POLITICO. “These changes that they’re making are not thought out, they’re not researched, they’ve not been debated. The American public has no idea what’s going on … It’s going to get people killed.”

Hunter enlisted in the Marine Corps the day after the September 11 attacks. He served in Iraq as a field artillery officer in Fallujah in 2004 and completed a second tour during Operation Inherent Resolve in 2005. He briefly left active duty, but returned and completed yet another deployment in Afghanistan in 2007. Now Hunter is a reservist and California congressman with a seat on the House Committee on Armed Services.

It is this experience that Hunter references when he opposes how Mabus is handling gender integration in the military.

“As a Marine Corps officer who served in Afghanistan and Iraq,  including in Fallujah, I have a deep sense of respect and appreciation for anyone who is willing to step forward and wear a military uniform—man or woman,” Hunter wrote in a Fox News oped. “In fact, roadside bombs have no gender preference, neither do bullets. So all military personnel must be adequately trained for their mission and be prepared to fight back, always. But in the infantry and other specialties, this is different than training to fight on foot as part of small cohesive units that experience combat with knives and bayonets, or bare hands.”