Breaking a Barrier, Women Become US Marines After Surviving the ‘Crucible’
The U.S. Marine recruits, both women and men, patrolled through a mock village that suddenly was struck by simulated machine gun fire and explosions. When the dust cleared, women emerged carrying men across their…
The U.S. Marine recruits, both women and men, patrolled through a mock village that suddenly was struck by simulated machine gun fire and explosions.
When the dust cleared, women emerged carrying men across their shoulders, and vice versa, practicing how to extract casualties from the battlefield. Others lifted dummies on a litter as if they were wounded comrades, passing them over a wall, before moving on to sparring in a cage with other recruits and an obstacle course.
It is all part of “the crucible,” a 54-hour test of strength and spirit that recruits must pass before becoming U.S. Marines.
Now, for the first time, women from the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego have gone through the crucible and earned their Eagle, Globe and Anchor emblems at Camp Pendleton, the sprawling, hilly Marine base about 40 miles (65 km) north of San Diego.
Previously, female recruits and drill instructors were limited to the only other Marine boot camp, at Parris Island, South Carolina, which graduates 3,400 female Marines a year, about 10% of the total number of new Marines created on both coasts.
The first 53 female recruits on the West Coast became Marines on Thursday, breaking one of the last gender barriers in the U.S. armed forces, and in the branch of the service that has been most resistant to integrating women.
“There’s definitely a certain pressure to succeed. There’s a lot of expectations for us,” said Annika Tarnanen, 19, from Minneapolis, one of 60 women who began recruit training back in January in San Diego. Seven dropped out due to injuries.
The Marine Corps has consistently lagged the other Military branches in integrating women and was 8.6% female in 2018, about half the figure of 16.5% when considering the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines as a whole, according to a 2020 General Accounting Office report.
When former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter ordered all combat roles open to women in December 2015, the Marine Corps was alone among the services in requesting exceptions in areas such as infantry, machine gunner, fire support and reconnaissance, according to a Congressional Research Service report. The exceptions were denied.