Tomorrow the training battalion I belonged to at recruit training will be deactivated. It is funny to think the training battalion is actually (but barely) younger than me, having been established in 1986. My journey with this battalion started in July 2003 and ended with my graduation in October 2003. Just shy of 20 years ago. The instructors we had for the bulk of our training were all female Marines, although we occasionally encountered male Marine instructors, like when we were at the rifle range.
For the Marine Corps to undertake this move is a big step towards positive changes in better integrating our service branch. From the time I served, I noticed how different some men perceived their service because they occupied male-only duty assignments. But their service experiences are just one facet of how the Marine Corps operates; in fact, how all our service branches operate. All our work in Iraq and Afghanistan the past two decades provides sufficient evidence the military needs female service members serving alongside our male counterparts in roles men cannot occupy due to gendered cultural differences in these societies. This reality is an important reminder to our own society we needed to revisit expectations of women in the military. The Marine Corps is, like all the times before, kind of the last kid in the family to change how it behaves.
I look forward to learning how the Marine Corps improves with this change, but for now, I wanted to share a few photos from my days at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina. The Marines below helped shape us into the adults we are today. These women taught us how Marine Corps history and traditions, to wear our uniforms with respect and carry ourselves like Marines, and on more than one occasion, corrected our shoulders, wrists, and hands, as part of drilling and handling our rifles. It is a special kind of brutal love for doing the job well. There is no other experience in my life where I’ve had someone once a stranger occupying so much of my personal space. The rigors to become a drill instructor are worst than they are to become a Marine, because these individuals are tasked with teaching people to assimilate into an American subculture and accept the burden not only of being a representative of that service branch but also the consequences, to include perhaps paying with your life, in the interest of keeping others safe.
We were still very much kids when we graduated, but we accepted the title of U.S. Marine the day we graduated. 20 years down the road, I am smart enough now to know becoming a Marine is not the most important thing I will ever do, but the role it played in my personal and professional development cannot be ignored. Adopting the duties and responsibilities of a United States Marine changed the trajectory of my life, but it was up to me to continue to move forward after I separated.
Boot camp is one of those experiences we should treat on some level like other early adult experiences, like starting one’s first job (because for some it is) or leaving for college (because there is a lot of knowledge gained during this experience like a college semester). Boot camp is an avenue towards the person you hope to be; your experiences are aided (or hindered) by the educators you have and your willingness (or disinterest) to learn/in learning. I wasn’t the best recruit, having to learn along the way my timidness was often an impediment to various physical challenges set before us, but I became a better Marine because I never stopped observing my settings and the people around me.
My observations of the Marine Corps may end some day well before my passing, but for now, I still find it interesting to see how the organization changes. The deactivation of my former training battalion gives me another way to understand my own service experiences within the greater context of my country; it also gives me another way to understand how our society is a reflection of the times we live in. I won’t be present tomorrow for this celebratory event, but I hope all in attendance feel proud of the moment they are experiencing.
For me, I am enjoying my new career journey. Working from home again has been a great pleasure and I am starting, in baby steps, to feel like I am where I am meant to be. The Marine Corps helped make this opportunity possible and after hanging up my uniform that helped me blend in with my peers back in 2007 , I am having more fun now with my wardrobe, something I never fully explored in my 20’s. (I still keep a few camouflage uniforms in my closet for memory purposes though.) Next year I’ll turn 40, so it is a good time to appreciate what 19-year-old me accomplished at boot camp and what that recruit training did to open doors for me as this places closes a door in its history.
She Wears Dogtags 