Women enter infantry in closely watched test
CAMP GEIGER, N.C. — Mist clings to the ground, and the sun won’t make an appearance for another three hours. The 263 Marines of Delta Company, Infantry Training Battalion, shoulder their bulky packs and set off.
The air is still cool, but 85-pound packs are heavy. Soon the Marines are sweating through their uniforms, and noncommissioned officers are shouting encouragement for stragglers to keep up.
The Marine Corps has been training infantrymen here since1953. This year is different. Among Delta Company’s 263 Marines are 13 women who have volunteered to participate in a closely watched experiment on the feasibility of integrating women into the infantry. The infantry is among a handful of military jobs that remain men-only preserves.
The women are shouldering the same packs and wearing the same uniforms as the men.
“We treat everyone the same,” Marine in- structor Staff Sgt. Billy Shinault said after the hike. “We would be doing them a disservice to lower the standards.”
Shortly before he left office earlier this year, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the military to lift the ban on women serving in ground combat specialties, such as the infantry and special operations. He left it up to the services to figure out how to put the order into effect. The services have until January 2016 to do so. Exceptions would require approval of the defense secretary.
Women have been serving in plenty of jobs that have exposed them to combat over the past decade in Iraq and Afghanistan. But ground combat jobs have remained off-limits. These jobs require physical strength, endurance and spending a long time in primitive field conditions.
The infantry is the leading edge of the ground combat specialties. Members carry what they need on their backs and kill the enemy at close quarters.
At the end of the 6.2- mile hike, the men and women line up to run through an obstacle course that requires scrambling over a wall, vaulting logs and climbing a rope.
Shinault explains to the Marines that the march is only a means to an end. After the hike is complete, they must have enough energy to take the fight to the enemy.
The Marine Corps hope to have about 300 women go through enlisted infantry training by the end of a year.
Shinault acknowledged the women have more trouble with the physical requirements but said the women match the men evenly in marksmanship, a key part of infantry training.
It is likely at least some women will complete the course here. The attrition rate for men has been about 1 percent.
On the 6.2-mile hike, two men and two women dropped out. The hikes here at the infantry school get longer, culminating with a 12.4-mile walk. Officers have promised that standards will not be changed to accommodate women.