Legacy Of Female Marines

There are traits that are shared by all Marines, no matter what gender.  The Trials and strenuous training of Recruit Training for the Marine Corps does not discriminate.  Before and during the First World War, three hundred and five women served in the active Marine Corps Reserve.  After World War I, this unit was deactivated at the end of hostilities.  The Women’s Reserve was started again as part of the regular Marine Corps Reserve in 1942. The mission they carried out was to provide qualified and trained women for shore duty to free up men for combat duty.

In today’s modern Marine Corps you can find women serving in ninety three percent of all the different occupational jobs found, and in sixty two percent of all the billets that are available.  The Marine Corps has currently six percent of its forces that are made up of women. About eight thousand five hundred women are currently active and serving in different jobs in the modern U.S. Marine Corps. Women serve with distinction and honor.  All Marines, men and women undergo the same training, at the Recruit Center at Parris Island, South Carolina.

There are some minor training differences but by and large it is the same training for each of the sexes when someone joins the U.S. Marines. The Marine Corps has never separated or integrated the first initial phases of training for Recruits entering their service.  This is seen as an ideal model for the first phases of boot camp, and the other four branches of U.S. Military service are examining it for possible adoption for their own Recruit training.

The Commandant of the Marines gave one famous quotation during World War II.  Commandant Thomas Holcomb said: “There is not hardly any work that happens at Marine stations that is not performed by women, or that they can not do as well as men, they are real Marines. Basic training for women is at a Marine Post, in a Marine Environment, they have the same Marine traditions. They are Marines.”  Unlike early women pioneers in the U.S. Armed Forces, female Marines do not have a nickname, or an acronym, the have always been simply: Marines.

The first service to have a woman serving as a General was the U.S. Marines.  The first Woman to lose her life in service in combat happened in Afghanistan, where a crewmember of a C-130 aircraft lost her life.