Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has drawn the ire of Marines due to his comments dismissing a nine-month long Marine Corps study evaluating the success of women in the infantry.

Every military branch is opening formerly all-male military jobs to women by the end of the year. The Marines hoped to study the effectiveness of female Marines in the infantry and gather evidence that would allow them to request exemptions to this big policy change. Mabus crushed those hopes by stating that the Navy wouldn’t issue any exemptions at all, citing the study’s use of averages and bias against women.

Unsurprisingly, Marines weren’t happy that Mabus dismissed their conclusions so quickly. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a former Marine officer and Iraq War veteran currently serving in Congress, has been especially vocal in his disappointment in Mabus’ decision.

“Secretary Mabus is quickly proving that he’s a political hack who cares more about doing the White House’s bidding than the combat effectiveness of the Marine Corps,” Hunter said Tuesday. “Mabus is not only insulting the Marine Corps as an institution, but he’s essentially telling Marines that their experience and judgment doesn’t matter.”

His opinions were echoed by Sgt. Maj. Justin LeHew, a Navy Cross recipient who helped conduct the study.

“In this realm, you want your fastest, most fit, most physical and most lethal person you can possibly put on the battlefield to overwhelm the enemy’s ability to counter what you are throwing at them and in every test case, that person has turned out to be a man,” LeHew said in a now deleted Facebook post. “There is nothing gender bias about this, it is what it is. ”

“In this country we preach equality. But to place these mandates on the military before this country has even considered making females register, just like males, for the selective service is in all aspects out of touch with reality,” he continued.