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The Marine Corps school that produces infantry combat officers will enroll its first-ever female students this year, Marine Corps Times has learned.
As part of the service’s extensive research campaign to determine what additional jobs could be opened to women, an undetermined number of volunteers will attend the Infantry Officers Course in Quantico, Va., said Gen. Joseph Dunford, the Corps’ assistant commandant. There, Marine officers are groomed to serve in direct combat roles and lead troops into battle.
“We are in the process right now of soliciting volunteers,” Dunford said on Wednesday.
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I’m ecstatic to see this happening! I’m very proud that the Marine Corps is the first to do this. What I’m concerned about is how women will be treated in infantry units. Sorry to say, but the infantry doesn’t have a great record of treating female Marines with respect (and that’s putting it politely). I’m hoping I’ll be pleasantly surprised at how this turns out.
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“We do, in fact, perform a variety of missions that are not related to war at all. We should all be familiar with the Navy and Marine Corps’ ability to deliver humanitarian aid faster and better than any aid organization on the planet. We’ve also been detailed to carry sensitive diplomatic mail during both World Wars and even to guard domestic mail shipments. Since very early on in our Nation’s history, Marines have had a reputation of getting stuff done. Period. We should be just as proud of that legacy as we are of our battle streamers.”
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“Only .06 percent of the United States population serve as Marines. Of that, only 6.2 percent are female Marines.”
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The first Marine general officer of any sex from the MP field and the first general officer to be a mother, Krusa-Dossin said female Marines have a lot more opportunities now.
But she wanted to make one thing clear: Female Marines do not have to act like men to succeed.
“We bring a level of compassion, we bring emotion to the table,” she said. “We say not everything is black and white and can look at further projections of decisions.”
They also bring toughness, she said.
“Women have proven their courage time and time again in Iraq and Afghanistan,” she said. “Courage and bravery is not defined by gender.”
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“All of these events were a failure of leadership. Every Marine involved knew that what they were doing is wrong, but they did nothing to stop it. This is a problem that a safety standown, more specific regulations, and education about morality and ethics will not fix. We have fostered a culture that takes perverse pleasure in enforcing irrelevant standards while simultaneously ignoring or enabling true misconduct. We’ve fostered a generation of Marines who will look at the picture of the scout snipers and see facial hair, unbloused boots, and hands in pockets before they notice Nazi propaganda. They will quickly condemn failures in appearance but will enable and defend moral failings. They will ignore and allow a Lance Corporal to be hazed and ostracized. They will join in with the desecration of bodies. These are our priorities. But at least the grass around the battalion CP will remain undisturbed by feet clad in identical socks.
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A Marine colonel from New York will be representing the state during a dinner at the White House Wednesday night to mark the end of the war in Iraq by recognizing the men and women in uniform who served in Iraq.
Among the 78 Iraq War veterans attending will be Col. Stephanie C. Smith, who hails from Goshen, New York, and served in Iraq in 2004 as the operation law advisor for the commanding general of the 1MEF, otherwise known as the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
She said she was “surprised and happy” to learn that she was chosen to go to the event, which is being billed as A Nation’s Gratitude dinner that will be attended by President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, and service members from diverse ranks and their families.
