Marines turn to girls high school sports teams for recruits

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — The U.S. Marine Corps is looking for a few more good women.

And this time the campaign is a bit different. Marine recruiters are turning to girls high school sports teams to find candidates who may be able to meet the Corps’ rigorous physical standards, including for the front-line combat jobs now open to women.

Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller said he wants to increase the number of women in the Corps to 1 in 10.

“I’ve told them that 10 percent is where we want to go and they’re working on it,” Neller told The Associated Press in an interview. “Go recruit more women. Find them. They’re out there.”

For years, only about 7 percent to 8 percent of the Corps, which numbers 184,200, has been women. It’s the smallest percentage of women among all the military services. But on the heels of the Pentagon decision to allow women who qualify to serve in combat jobs, thousands of new infantry, armor and other front-line posts are now open.

Neller said he wants to see women in some of those posts. That order now rests with Maj. Gen. Paul Kennedy, head of the Marine Corps’ recruiting command.

Kennedy is aggressively recruiting women for the service. He’s sending targeted mailings, changing advertising to better represent female Marines, and traveling the country to meet with coaches and female athletes who may be well-suited for the rigors of Marine service.

In particular, Neller believes female wrestlers are good candidates.

“We looked at that and said, ‘Wow, that’s kinda what we’re looking for,’” he said. “They’re disciplined, they’re fit, they’re focused on their mission.”

According to Kennedy, the Marines, for the first time, are mailing recruiting literature to thousands of high school girls. Also, updated advertising will show active-duty female Marines doing their jobs on the battlefield.

“The biggest complaint that we’ve heard and we’re reacting to is that we were showing women in some of our material — whether it’s commercial or print or whatever — and they were always training,” Kennedy said. “And that was a mistake.”