Women warriors: A Marine Corps bootcamp struggles to integrate
The Marine Corps has been a laggard on gender integration in combat units. Its attachment to traditions at its bootcamp in South Carolina may be at odds with its commitment to integration.
February 5, 2021
Two ways to read the story
By Patrik Jonsson Staff writer
Port Royal, S.C.
For more than a century, the U.S. Marine Corps has trained new recruits on Parris Island, an inhospitable spit of land on the South Carolina coastline. Nearly all of those recruits were men, but since World War II female Marines have also trained there.
Now the fate of the bootcamp that forged generations of Marines may depend on the Corps’ ability to integrate women into its combat platoons. The clock is ticking on a Congressional requirement for the Marines to do what other military services have already done: train women alongside men to go to war.
Faced with this challenge, Marine Corps leaders have mulled scrapping both Parris Island and its San Diego camps in order to start over in a new, fully integrated basic training center. It might be simpler and cheaper.
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2021/0205/Women-warriors-A-Marine-Corps-bootcamp-struggles-to-integrate
