CHAPTER 4

The Korean War Years

Organized Reserve Gets Underway —Mission and Administration—The First Seven WR Platoons

Add Six More Platoons—Mobilization of Organized Reserve Units, Kore a

Volunteer Reservists Answer The Call—Women Marines Return to Posts and Stations

Korean War Brings Changes to Recruit Training —A Few Changes at Officer Candidate Schoo l

The Korean Years, Reprise

Organized Reserve Gets Underway

Of equal importance to the integration of wome n

into the regular service was the development of a

strong women's Reserve . During the early phases of

planning, in 1946-47, Colonel Pate, Director, Division of Reserve, was a strong advocate of Organize d

Reserve units for women . He frequently found himself defending this relatively unpopular idea—an ide a

unique to the Marine Corps.' Senior Marines at Headquarters recognized the need for a women's Reserve ,

but Marines, by and large, shuddered at the though t

of this female intrusion . Little by little, the concep t

gained wider acceptance especially when it was considered as an alternative to women Regulars. It effectively solved the problem of maintaining the affiliatio n

of the WRs and of training a group who would eventually take their place .

Until February 1949, the Division of Reserve still

thought in terms of 30 women's companies with a total strength of 60 officers and 1,500 enlisted women,

but in reviewing the Marine Corps budget for fiscal

year 1950, the Bureau of the Budget reduced the estimate and eliminated the provisions for drill pay fo r

organized women 's companies. The Division of Plans

and Policies reexamined the location of existing organized units with the purpose of determining thos e

in which women's detachments could readily be justified. Based upon the premise that any locality in which

500 or more enlisted personnel were administered

would justify a women's Reserve detachment, the stud y

recommended the activation of 30 women's platoons ?

By March, the plans were finally approved for 15 platoons of two officers and 50 enlisted women each.

Major Hamblet and Lieutenant Hale studied the cas e

files of former WRs and made projected plans base d

on the size of existing male Reserve units, the geographic concentration of WR veterans, and upon available training facilities. In the end, they settled on the

seven most promising locations in which to begin:

Kansas City; Boston ; Los Angeles; New York ; Philadelphia; San Francisco; and Seattle?

A mix of Regular and Reserve officers on continuous

active duty would administer the program. Women

were needed to serve as Inspector-Instructor for eac h

planned unit and for duty in the various Reserve District offices to give overall supervision to wome n's matters. Accordingly, a board was convened in March an d

the following selections were made for Inspector -

Instructors: Captain Shirley J . Fuetsch, Los Angeles;

Captain Helen A . Wilson, Philadelphia ; First Lieutenant Frances M . Exum, Seattle ; First Lieutenant

Mary C. MacDonald, New York ; and First Lieutenant

Kathryn E . Snyder, San Francisco . For duty in Reserve

District offices, the following officers: Captain Con -

stance Risegari-Gai, Boston ; Captain Barbara Somers,

New York; First Lieutenant Dolores L . Dubinsky,

Philadelphia ; First Lieutenant Lucille M . Olsen, Washington, D.C. ; First Lieutenant Annie V . Bean,

New Orleans ; First Lieutenant Mary E . Roddy, Chicago; First Lieutenant Elva B. Chaffer, Los Angeles; First

Lieutenant Beatrice R. Strong, San Francisco ; First

Lieutenant Mildred N . Cooke, Seattle ; and First Lieutenant Mary W . Frazer, Atlanta . 4

Mission and Administratio n

Reserve Memorandum 15-49 of 14 March 1949 published the specifics of administration and training o f

the women's portion of the Organized Reserve . 5 The

mission of these units was to provide individual women trained to meet mobilization needs of the Marin e

Corps . They were not classified by specialty as the mal e

Reserve units were or as post-Korea women Reserv e

platoons would be . Designated women 's Reserve platoons (WR platoons), they were attached directly t o

the major parent male unit as an organic elemen t

(e .g ., WR Platoon, 11th Infantry Battalion) and no t

to any subunit. Inasmuch as the women were neithe r

assigned to, nor trained for, combat duties, they wer e

grouped into five subdivisions under Reserve Class V I

in order to permit immediate distinction between me n

and women in case of mobilization . e

The male Inspector-Instructor staff was augmented by one woman officer, designated an assistant I&I,

and one or two enlisted women who administered th e

WR platoon . The platoon was under the direct command of the commanding officer, a platoon leader,

and a platoon officer . In many ways the platoon wa s

39
40 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

autonomous since the platoon leader was responsibl e

for recruiting, administration, training, rank distribution, and the mobilization state of readiness of he r

platoon . Furthermore, she was directed to render administrative assistance to the male unit to compensate for the increased workload caused by the existenc e

of the WR platoon . Very often, however, the women

actually took over much of the parent unit's administration.

The WR platoons held weekly two-hour training

periods during which their time was divided betwee n

formal classes, basic military indoctrination courses for

the nonveterans, and specialist training classes in subjects like administration, disbursing, or training aid s

depending upon the background of the members, an d

giving clerical assistance to the male unit . It was expected that the basic course, closely resembling recrui t

training, and consisting of classes in drill, military customs and courtesies, history of the Marine Corps, nava l

law, interior guard duty, first aid, defense against

chemical attack, uniform regulations, and current

events would take about two years to complete.

Officers were procured only from among former W R

officers and successful graduates of the WOTC a t

Quantico. Enlisted members were recruited from

among WRs, women veterans of the Armed Forces,

and nonveterans who met the qualifications . For veterans, the age limits specified that all previous active

military service plus all inactive service in the Reserv e

must, when deducted from their actual age, equal 3 2

or less. Aspiring Reservists with no prior service ha d

somewhat less stringent requirements than women being recruited for active duty: age, 18-31; and education, high school graduate, or high school student an d

pass the equivalency test. Regular recruits, on the othe r

hand, had to be 20 years old and high schoo l

graduates.

To complete the organization, the Division o f

Reserve requested that WAVE pharmacist mates be included in the naval personnel allowance for those units

which had a WR platoon. The decision was approved

in the interest of public opinion, as well as health and

accident security?

The First Seven WR Platoons

er. In a very short time the platoon was up to its autho -

rized strength.8

First Lieutenant Pauline "Polly" F. Riley, Irish and

from Maine, was sent to Boston to activate the second

WR platoon . Lieutenant Riley, formerly enlisted, was

a member of the last WR officer candidate class i n

1945 . The class was made up entirely of enlisted WRs ,

and when World War II was declared over about a week

before commissioning, the students were given thre e

options: return to enlisted status, take a discharge i f

they had the required points, or accept the commission and remain on active duty for one year. Most o f

the candidates took the discharge or returned to en -

listed status, but Lieutenant Riley was commissioned

in August 1945 and served at Headquarters until 194 7

on the Postwar Personnel Reorganization Board. She

was released to inactive duty when the board was terminated and later was among the first 20 Regular

women officers.9

With her New England background, it was logica l

to send Lieutenant Riley to Boston, where the WR Pla -

toon, 2d Infantry Battalion, USMCR, was establishe d

on 22 April 1949 under the command of Lieutenan t

Colonel James Dugan and with Lieutenant Carolyn

Tenteris as the platoon officer." )

Former WRs Staff Sergeant Frances A. Curwen, Staff

Sergeant Katherine Keefe, Corporal Hazel A . Lindahl,

and Corporal Dorothy M . Munroe were early members of the Boston unit . Among the nonveterans was

Private Eleanor L . Judge, who originally enlisted i n

the Reserve because she happened to be free on Wednesday evenings, the women's scheduled drill night .

But that was only the beginning ; in 1977 with 27 years

active service as a Regular, she reenlisted for three more

years. "

Sergeant Major Judge remembered that the women were "put through a pace" There were classes t o

attend as well as battalion administrative work to be

done. The non-veterans were not issued regulatio n

shoes and they drilled in their own civilian shoes which

proved impractical and uncomfortable . The classes i n

naval law, taught by Sergeant Mary L . Attaya, a lawyer, were complete with mock trials in which the women played active roles, and there were Hollywood-mad e

movies featuring the Marine Corps . 12 For all of this,

The first WR platoon was activated on 14 April 1949 a private was paid $2 .50 per drill and a captain receive d

at Kansas City, Missouri . A Regular officer, First Lieu- $7.67 .1 3

tenant Ben Alice Day, was appointed Assistant I&I of Captain Risegari-Gai, formerly the commandin g

the 5th 105mm Howitzer Battalion, USMCR, and officer of VTU 1-1(WR), Boston, was not a member

Major Helen T. Chambers was assigned platoon lead- since she had been selected for a continuous active
THE KOREAN WAR YEARS 4 1

Capt Rosalie B. Johnson, assistant inspector-instructor of the 5th Infantry Battalion ,

Washington, D. C., discusses the formation of the local Organized Women's Reserve Platoon with Rachel Freeman, Charlotte De Garmo, and Sgt Theresa "Sue" M . Sousa .

duty billet in the office of the First Reserve District,

which in those days was located in the Fargo Buildin g

in Boston. When Captain Risegari-Gai reported for

duty, Colonel George O . Van Orden, District Director, and a Virginia gentleman, was quoted in the

Boston newspaper as saying that his first sergean t

needed a week off to recuperate because he was,

". . . the finest cussin gent yo'all ever did hear. Had

to pretty up his language, though, with all these lady

Marines around. He's a beaten man." The colonel,

himself, had never seen a woman Marine until he arrived in Boston, saw Captain Risegari-Gai, and

described himself as "thunderstruck ." 1 4

The next five platoons were organized by Reserv e

officers on continuous active duty, and it was necessary for them to go to Washington for a briefing be -

fore taking up their new duties. Captain Helen A.

Wilson was then sent to Philadelphia where recruiting was simplified when the entire VTU under the

command of Captain Dorothy M . Knox transferred t o

the Organized Reserve . The unit became the WR platoon, 6th Infantry Battalion, USMCR, with Captain

Knox as platoon leader and First Lieutenant Emily

Horner as platoon officer.

From Philadephia, Captain Wilson kept Colonel

Towle informed of the platoo n 's progress and activities.

By Christmas of 1949, recruiting was so successful tha t

the unit was permitted to exceed its authorized

strength by 10 percent. When the male commandin g

officers of other battalions heard of this, they were ver y

much interested in receiving a similar authorization .

The women in Philadelphia formed a rifle team, an d

a bowling team, and even fielded a team for a swi m

meet.
42 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

In response to one of Captain Wilson's informa l

reports, Colonel Towle, always conscious of the servic e

woman's image, wrote:

I think you were wise to put a stop to post drill activitie s

such as drinking in bars while in uniform . There is nothing

intrinsically wrong, of course, but the very fact that a woman is in uniform makes her liable to criticism even thoug h

she is behaving herself in every respect . As you say, Women Marines have established a fine reputation and it woul d

be most unfortunate to have any criticism leveled at them ,

especially when we ourselves can do much to prevent it . I

think you have shown excellent judgement in your decision . 1 5

First Lieutenant Kathryn E . Snyder, who had served at the Department of the Pacific during World Wa r

II, was assigned as Assistant I&I, 12th Infantry Battalion, Treasure Island, and together with the Reserve

officers Lieutenants Katherine W. Love and Marjori e

J. Woolman, started San Francisco's WR platoon ,

whose roster included Sergeant Alameda Blessing;

Corporal Rosita A. Martinez, who eventually integrated and retired as a master gunnery sergeant ; and

Corporal Ouida Craddock, who also went Regular, and

later became the Sergeant Major of the Women

Marines. 1 6

Captain Shirley J. Fuetsch and First Lieutenan t

Frances M. Exum drove west together and parted a t

Denver—Fuetsch to go to the 13th Infantry Battalion ,

USMCR, in Los Angeles and Exum to go to the 11th

Infantry Battalion, USMCR, at Seattle . In Los Angeles,

two Reserve First Lieutenants, Esther N . Gaffney and

Christine S. Strain, took the reins of the WR platoon

while the Seattle unit was headed by Captain Nancy

M. Roberts and First Lieutenant Fern D . Anderson . "

First Lieutenant Mary C. MacDonald, who before

the war had been personal secretary to Laurence Olivie r

and Vivien Leigh, was sent to New York to activat e

the WR platoon, 1st Infantry Battalion, USMCR, a t

Fort Schuyler. Captain Mildred Gannon and First Lieu -

tenant Elizabeth Noble filled the two Reserve office r

billets. Like Philadelphia, the Fort Schuyler platoon

also increased its strength to 55, but eventually th e

authorization was rescinded, and the women had t o

"keep on their toes" to stay in. Those with poor attendence records were transferred involuntarily to th e

Inactive Reserve, and the platoon maintained a waiting list of potential recruits. 1 8

Add Six More Platoons

After the original seven platoons were well established, plans were announced for an additional four .

On 15 October 1949, WR platoons were activated as

elements of the 4th Infantry Battalion, Minneapolis;

the 5th Infantry Battalion, Washington, D.C. ; and the

9th Infantry Battalion at Chicago. On 1 November,

the fourth WR Platoon was activated at St . Louis as

part of the 3d Infantry Battalion .

Chicago's WRs were led by First Lieutenan t

Genevieve M . Dooner who had compiled quite a

record as a volunteer recruiting officer in the postwa r

years. She was assisted by platoon officer Lieutenan t

Isabel F. Vosler and I&I Lieutenant Dorothy

Holmberg.

First Lieutenant Elaine T. Carville, although of

French background and from Louisiana, was ordered

to Minneapolis because "she looked like a Swede ." A

Reserve officer on extended active duty, she activated the WR Platoon, 4th Infantry Battalion, USMCR,

which came under the leadership of First Lieutenant

Ardath Bierlein and Second Lieutenant Phyllis Davis . Well known for her enthusiasm and esprit de

corps, Lieutenant Carville soon had a unit made up

of 10 former WRs, 37 nonveterans, 2 ex-WAVES, and

1 ex-SPAR . Minneapolis-St . Paul had been chosen fo r

a WR platoon from among a number of cities whic h

had asked for one . The large number of wartime WRs

from Minnesota plus the personal interest in th e

project displayed by Lieutenant Colonel Emmet O .

Swanson, commanding officer of the 4th Battalion ,

combined to bring the unit to the "Twin Cities. "

When plans for the platoon were first announced ,

250 inquiries flooded the Reserve office at WoldChamberlain Naval Air Station . Lieutenant Carville

personally interviewed 150 applicants . The first group

of 45 selectees was sworn in on 2 November 1949 by

Brigadier General Elmer H . Salzman in a ceremony

at the airfield. Wartime WRs included Master Sergean t

Cecilia Nadeau, Staff Sergeant Lucille Almon, Staff

Sergeant Leona Dickey, Staff Sergeant Betty Guenther ,

Sergeant Gladyce Pederson, Sergeant Anna Homza ,

Private First Class Betty Lemnke, Private First Class

Grace Moak, Private First Class Ruth Mortenson, an d

Private First Class Kathleen Schoenecker. Among the

nonveterans was Private Julia L . Bennke, who later

went on to a full active duty career and retired in 1970

as a master sergeant.

Despite the commanding officer's enthusiasm for

a WR platoon some members of his staff were concerned at the changes it would bring . Reportedly, Sergeant Major Thomas Polvogt said that on occasion h e

would issue rifles to the women Marines so they would

know what they were dealing in when they handled
THE KOREAN WAR YEARS 4 3

records for M-ls issued to guards, but he was not going to be responsible for powder puffs "or them other

things they are going to issue ." Lieutenant Carville assured him that the women would be issued full Marine Corps uniforms "from the skin out" and Sergeant

Major Polvogt would not have to worry about " them

other things" 1 9

Captain Jeanette Pearson, Assistant I&I of the 5t h

Infantry Battalion, USMCR, Washington, D.C., activated that WR platoon with Major Mary L . Condon

as platoon leader and First Lieutenant Ethel D . Fritts

as platoon officer. Theresa "Sue" M. Sousa, later president of the Women Marines Association, was an earl y

member of that very active unit which met at 230 C

Street, N.W.20

After the first WOTC, Captain Nita Bob Warner,

selected for a three-year active duty contract, left

Quantico for a Headquarters Marine Corps briefin g

before setting out for St . Louis to form the WR Platoon, 3d Infantry Battalion, USMCR . Officially activated on 1 November 1949, the unit received a grea t

deal of publicity. On the night that enlistments

opened, more than 100 applicants—one of whom was

former WR Peggy Musselman, later assigned as the

platoon leader—came to the Navy-Marine Corps

Reserve Training Center at the foot of Ferry Street .

According to retired Lieutenant Colonel Warner, this

unit was supposed to be self-contained . That mean t

they were to recruit or train women to handle all matters of administration, supply, recruiting, disbursing ,

or whatever else it took to run an efficient organization .

Like the rest of the women Marine Reservists, those

in St. Louis were shod in civilian shoes of various shade s

of brown and tan—an intolerable situation to Captain Warner. She enlisted the help of Staff Sergeant

Mabel Otten, stationed at Headquarters Marine Corps,

who sent a full case of cordovan brown shoe dye t o

the WR platoon . All 50 Reservists spent one drill peri -

od outside the armory ". . . wielding a bottle of cordovan brown shoe dye and shoe polish, dying thei r

shoes dark brown and then learning how to give the m

a Marine Corps spit shine." When St. Louis saw its first

women Marines, a proud group, on 20 May 1950 i n

an Armed Forces Day parade, they were stepping ou t

in regulation cordovan brown shoes.

As it turned out, the shoe color problem was mor e

easily solved than that of providing the Reservists wit h

summer uniforms. There were none! In the summer

of 1950, Headquarters allowed the platoon two weeks

Inspector-Instructor 1 stLt Doris V. Kleberger (standing second from right) attends an Open House for the

Women Reserve Platoon, 17th Infantry Battalion,

U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, in Detroit, 1950 .

of active duty for training at the armory, which the y

performed wearing the utility uniform—bib overall s

and white T-shirts—which Lieutenant Colonel Warner laughingly recalls, " . . . made really quite a handsome outfit." 2 1

February 1950 saw the formation of the last two W R

platoons. Second Lieutenant Doris Kleberger left

Quantico to become the Assistant I&I, 17th Infantr y

Battalion, USMCR, Detroit, with Captain Cecelia Van -

den Bossche as the platoon leader? 2

Captain Mary J. Hale went from Parris Island to Dal -

las where she served as Assistant I&I, 23d 155m m

Howitzer Battalion, USMCR. She remembers that th e

Marines, Regular and Reserve, were very proud of th e

preparations they had made to welcome the WR platoon. On the night of the open house, planned to kic k

off the recruiting effort, Dallas was the scene of a "terrible ice storm," but the Texans were undaunted an d

the unit was off to a good start . Captain Hazel C. Tyler was platoon leader and First Lieutenant Grace E .

Kathan was platoon officer. Captain Hale, scrupulous

in her explanation to recruits of a Reserve unit's mobili -

zation potential, was asked by the I&I if she really ha d

to emphasize the point so strongly. Fortunately she

continued to make an issue of it because within si x

months mobilization became a fact 23
44 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

Mobilization of Organized

Reserve Units—Korea

Within 15 months of the initiation of women int o

the Organized Reserve, the value of the program was

realized with the mobilization of all 13 WR platoons. Women, as a result of the Korean crisis, and for th e

first time in American history, were called involuntaril y

to military service along with men . Mobilization of

Reserves, including women veterans, was announced

in June 1950.

Since a number of women Reservists had belonge d

to organized platoons for only a few months, the term

"veteran" was defined as women who had:

a)served 90 days or more on active duty with the Marin e

Corps, Marine Corps Reserve : o r

b)attended 36 drills as members of an organized platoon ; or

c)attended 30 drills and 10 days active duty for training .

Those women who did not meet the criteria were classified as nonveterans, transferred to the Volunteer Marine Corps Reserve, Class III, and directed to await

orders to recruit training at Parris Island 2 4

Unfortunately, the 3d Recruit Training Battalio n

had closed down for the summer. Recruiting was some -

thing of a disappointment and thus far, no women

recruit platoon had reached its authorized strength o f

50 . That fact coupled with the manner in whic h

WOTC was organized—as a temporary unit established anew each summer—led to the decision to terminate training at Parris Island and to assign the staff

to Quantico temporarily to conduct officer training .

Platoon 2A, graduating in May, was the last scheduled class until 18 September. Three officers and seven

enlisted women from the permanent staff of 3d Recrui t

Training Battalion were temporarily reassigned to a

subunit activated at Quantico on 2 June . The first

group to leave Parris Island included Captain Jeanett e

I . Sustad, Second Lieutenants Joan Morrissey and Bett y

Preston, Technical Sergeant "A" Fern Schirmer, Staff

Sergeant Bertha Schultz, and Sergeants Rosa V. Harrington and Ruth Ryan . Sergeants Grace M. Karl and

Agnes C. Thomas and Private First Class Allis V . Wall

soon followed 2s They were barely established in Virginia when the news of mobilization broke and the

urgent need for recruit training was realized, but it

was too late to change plans as WOTC would b e

without a staff. So, when the WR platoons left fo r

military duty, the nonveterans stayed behind expecting orders to Parris Island in early September.

The women Reserve officers were not mobilized in

Capt Cecelia Vanden Bossche, Commanding Officer, WR Platoon, 17th Infantry Battalion, Detroit, reads mobilization orders resulting from the Korean crisis in August 1950 .
THE KOREAN WAR YEARS 4 5

MSgt Petrina C. Nigro leads the platoon of the first post-World War II women Marines

assigned to Headquarters, Department of the Pacific, San Francisco, California in 1950 .

order to maintain a sufficient number of statesid e

billets to allow the rotation of male officers . Befor e

the plan was published, several officers gave notice to

their employers and prepared to leave for duty. The

decision to exclude WM officers caused a moral e

problem at several levels of the women's Reserve pro -

gram . According to retired Lieutenant Colonel Carville, Assistant I&I at Minneapolis at the time of

° mobilization, "It was a terrible, terrible, terrible mistake!" The I&I hated to tell Reserve officers, who, in

turn were embarrassed in front of their troops. The

enlisted women were at first apprehensive at th e

thought of leaving without their own, familiar officers.

Later, some were even angrily asking, "Why us, and

not them? "2 6

The mobilization of the women caused by the conflict in Korea brought two significant changes to th e

women Marine program : it enabled women Marine s

to return to several duty stations, from which they ha d

been absent during the postwar years, and it enable d

them to break out of the strictly administrative mol d

into which they were cast after World War II. An analysis of tables of organization indicated that 1,18 3

women Marines could be assigned immediately,

releasing an equal number of men according to th e

following distribution : 2 7

Hq, Department of Pacific and

Depot of Supplies, San Francisco 17 2

Marine Barracks and Marine Corp s

Supply Depot, Camp Pendleton 18 9

Marine Barracks and Marine Corp s

Supply Depot, Camp Lejeune 19 0

Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro 9 5

Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island 13 3

Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point 19 5

Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego 6 8

Marine Corps Schools, Quantico 14 1

Total 1,18 3

The WR platoons with 25 officers and 594 enliste d

women were up to 88 .6 percent of their authorize d

strength2 e To make up the difference and to fill vacan -

cies in critical specialties, an immediate call was mad e

for veteran volunteers in the following occupational

fields:

01 Personnel Administratio n

15 Printing and Reproductio n

22 Fire Control Instrument Repai r

25 Operational Communication s

30 Supply Administration, Accounting and Stock Contro l

31 Supply Procurement, Warehousing, Shipping, and Receiving
46 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

34 Disbursing

35 Motor Transport

40 Machine Accounting

41 Post Exchange

43 Public Information

46 Photography

49 Training and Training Aids

52 Special Services

67 Air Control

70 Aviation Operations and Intelligence 29

Volunteer Reservists Answer The Call

An intensive short-term recruiting drive attracte d

former WRs like Corporal Anne Revak who volunteered at the start of the war, but could not be recalle d

from her home in Fairbanks, Alaska . She drove to Seattle in order to report within the continental Unite d

States, was accepted, and sent to Camp Pendleton 3 0

Sergeant Ethyl Wilcox was recalled in August 195 0

and ordered to recruiting duty, a billet she filled al l

through World War II. She was on the job, in civilia n

clothes, for several months before she had time to go

to Chicago for a physical examination and uniforms .

On duty in Minnesota, she spent her time processin g

Reservists and later recruiting women . 3 '

Sergeant Mary S . Mock completed officer candidate

training in 1949, and returned home to finish college .

Too young to be commissioned, she accepted a teaching position but on 12 September, two days before

school was scheduled to begin, she received a collect

telegram ordering her to report to Quantico on 14 September. She attended Basic School, which was shortened from eight to four weeks because of th e

emergency, as an officer candidate, the only enliste d

WM on the base. As such, she could not eat in th e

officers' mess with her classmates, and the commanding general thought it inappropriate for her to eat b y

herself in the general mess hall, so, in time, she wa s

given an allowance to eat in civilian restaurants in th e

town of Quantico3 2

There were a number of women serving in distric t

offices on continuous active duty contracts which

stipulated that they could not be transferred against

their wishes. One of these was First Lieutenant Mary

E. Roddy, who had been the last WR to leave Cherry

Point in 1946 . When the transfer program was announced in 1948, she found that she did not mee t

the age criteria for integration, but that she was eligible for continuous active duty . She was selected an d

assigned to the 9th Reserve District Headquarters i n

the Federal Court Building on Lake Shore Drive in

Chicago . She was the woman Marine liaison office r

and handled all WM matters, Reserve and Regular .

During this time, the Korean situation "was heating

up" and the district director asked if she could fin d

women Reservists to help with the administrative

work. She successfully recruited some 15-20 former

WRs for continuous active duty. At the time that the y

were recruited, Lieutenant Roddy explained that the

contracts did not offer too much—a minimum of on e

year's duty and a clause that protected them from a n

involuntary transfer. But, she added that they had al l

left the Corps with good records, and if an emergency arose, she expected that they would fulfill the spiri t

of their contract as a Marine . Not long after, a mobilization roster, not entirely unexpected, arrived and th e

lieutenant called a meeting in the only available private spot, the ladies room . The women knew wha t

was coming and although not legally obligated, the y

accepted the fate of mobilization "with good grace "

and all, including Lieutenant Roddy, were soon sen t

to Washington, D .C.3 3

At the time of mobilization, only 12 women were

deferred or rejected which resulted in a mobilization

of 98 percent of the women in the Organize d

Reserve . 34 Two hundred eighty-seven veterans were

ordered to extended active duty and 298 nonveterans

were ordered to Parris Island . All had been traine d

and assigned by January 1951 . Together with th e

volunteer Reservists, a total of approximately 1,00 0

women were assigned to extended active duty . They

worked in clerical fields, recruiting, public information, communications, photography, cartographic

drafting, disbursing, and motor transport . 3 5

Women Marines Return to

Posts and Stations

In June 1950 the only woman Marine company wa s

Company E at Headquarters Battalion, Henderso n

Hall . The battalion at Parris Island was strictly a recruit

command and no regular WMs worked outside of it . Women Marines were assigned to the Department o f

the Pacific at San Francisco, but they had no government quarters. All other WMs were working with th e

Reserve districts, Reserve platoons, or as recruiters .

The first priority then was to prepare billeting spac e

at the posts and stations for the incoming women Marines. Major Pauline B. Beckley, Commanding Officer,

Company E, was transferred to Parris Island to assum e

command of the recruit training battalion, with a temporary assignment en route . She, Technical Sergean t

Schirmer, and Corporal Leona M . Fox reported to

Camp Lejeune on 24 July 1950 to open and ready a

barracks for occupancy by the women Reservists be-
THE KOREAN WAR YEARS 4 7

ing ordered to active duty . The building had been vacated by men and, of course, did not pass the women' s

inspection. Lieutenant Colonel Beckley, looking back ,

wrote in 1977, "Don't think any three WMs worke d

harder—manually—than we did . " With the exception of a battle with the G-4 for supplies, the wome n

received fine cooperation from the Marines at Camp

Lejeune, especially the commanding general, Majo r

General Franklin A . Hart, and his staff.38 Major Beck -

ley was no stranger to Camp Lejeune, having served

there as the postal officer of the schools and the executive officer of the WR battalion during World Wa r

II .

With Camp Lejeune prepared on the east coast, and

San Francisco ready to process WMs on the west coast ,

it was at last possible to ship the Reserves . Many of

the WR platoons left home on the same troop train s

as the men. When the 5th Infantry Battalion of

Washington, D .C . entrained for Camp Lejeune, o n

31 July 1950, the Marine Band gave them a sendoff

befitting the country's first mobilized Marine Corps

Reserve unit . Along with wives and children at

Union Station to say goodbye were two husbands, W .

G. Kegel and Edmund A . Gibson, there to bid farewell to Corporal Virginia S . Kegel and Technical Sergeant Josephine R. Gibson. 3 7

The WR platoon in Boston was mobilized on 7 Au -

gust, one week before actual departure, and the women reported to the armory where they lived whil e

performing the administrative tasks essential to th e

mobilization of an infantry battalion . When the day

came to leave, 15 August 1950, marching to the music of the 2d Infantry Battalion band, 700 male Marines and 32 women Marines boarded the train for

North Carolina. Billeting was carefully arranged so tha t

the men occupied the forward cars, followed by th e

In August 1950, Base Commander MajGen Oliver P. Smith greets (from left to right)

TSgt Catherine G. Murray, Capt Jeanette I. Sustad, and Sgt Beatrice M. Kent, the first

women Marines to be stationed at Camp Pendleton since the end of World War II.
48 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

dining car, then the male officers' car, and finally th e

women's car, guarded by MPs 3 8

The first three Reserve platoons to arrive at Cam p

Lejeune were those from Washington, Philadelphia ,

and Boston . Three Regular staff NCOs, Staff Sergeants

Esther Waclawski, Ruth Ryan, and Virginia L. Moore ,

students at Supply School, were already living in th e

barracks. In 1977, First Sergeant Waclawski could still

hear the "click . . . click . . . click" of the high heels

of the Reservists trooping off the buses and into th e

barracks. Customarily, women Marines wore oxford s

for such formations and so the Regulars were undecided as to whether they should laugh at the Reservist s

in their more attractive shoes or envy them3 9

As soon as they arrived, and before they had time

to settle, the women were processed and put to work

to alleviate the personnel shortage caused by troo p

drafts for Korea. After the Camp Lejeune quota of 19 0

women was reached, Reservists were sent for duty t o

other east coast duty stations—Cherry Point, Parris Island, and Quantico. To avoid the establishment of additional administrative units, the women were attache d

to existing male units, and unlike World War II, the y

ate in existing male mess halls 4 0

Those first few months were hectic . Many of the socalled "veterans" had never seen a Marine Corps bas e

before. In addition to working long hours, an improvised boot camp was held evenings by the handful of

experienced NCOs. Typically, a WM worked five days ,

had one-half day of military subjects training, and at -

tended close order drill classes after evening chow, an d

according to Sergeant Major Judge, excuses from train -

ing were unheard of. The barracks routine, which included outside morning muster and chow formation s

(to make the formation and march up to the mess hal l

was mandatory ; to enter and to eat was optional) wa s

a culture shock to many of the women 4 1

The WM Company, Marine Barracks, Camp Lejeune, the first postwar women's company was formall y

activated on 13 October 1950, with Captain Mary J.

Fisher commanding, and with Technical Sergean t

Schirmer, first sergeant" The women were housed i n

Barracks 60 and 63 with the main area service club

between. At the height of the Korean War, the WM

company numbered approximately 400 women: 270

on duty with the base ; 75 attached to the depot quartermaster; and 155 attending supply school and disbursing school4 3

At the same time that Camp Lejeune was bein g

readied for the arrival of the WMs, women Reservists

from cities west of the Mississippi were reporting t o

San Francisco for processing and classification . Captain Sustad, Technical Sergeant Catherine G . Murray,

and Sergeant Beatice M . Kent reported to Camp Pendleton on 8 August to -make advance preparations fo r

the billeting of women Marines who would arrive as

soon as the Department of the Pacific 's and Depot of

Supplies' quotas were filled .

The Pendleton WMs were assigned the same bar -

racks in the "24" area occupied by their predecessors

during World War II . Just before the Reservists arrived a fire destroyed all the mattresses, chests of drawers, and other supplies set aside to furnish their

quarters44 A lesser crisis arose with the news that

Headquarters required a guard from 1800 to 060 0

posted around the WM barracks. To save personnel ,

the Marines at Camp Pendleton fenced in the WM

area, and the gate was locked each night when libert y

expired . In First Sergeant Waclawski 's view, it looke d

like a prisoner-of-war compound, and she was please d

to see the fence come down after a visit by Colone l

Hamblet in the mid-Fifties 4 5

In addition to her regularly assigned duty as the cus -

todian of registered publications, Captain Sustad wa s

the "Supervisor of Women Marines," all of whom were

attached to Headquarters Company, Headquarters

Battalion, Marine Barracks, Camp Pendleton. The

WM company, under the command of Captain Sus -

tad, was eventually activated as an element of Servic e

Battalion on 1 June 1951 .

One month after the WMs landed at Camp Pendleton, the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego

saw its first postwar woman Marine, First Lieutenan t

Kathyrn E. Snyder, who had been on I&I duty in San

Francisco until the WR platoon there was mobilized .

In November, she was joined by Second Lieutenan t

Dorothy Dawson . Both women were assigned primary

duties in the depot G-1 office, and additional duties,

respectively, as WM platoon commander and platoon

officer. The enlisted women arrived in December 195 0

and were attached to Headquarters Company, Head -

quarters and Service Battalion. Private First Class

Dawn Zimmerman was first to report . By 8 December she had been joined by 15 others: Master Sergean t

Cecilia Nadeau, Staff Sergeant Annette Burkhead ,

Sergeant Dorothy Walker, Privates First Class Ing a

Boberg, Margaret Cooper, Patricia Pfeiffer, and France s

Quinlan, and Privates Norma Adams, Jo Carrera, Phyl -

lis Curtiss, Nita L. Fagan, Joy Hardy, and Rebecca
THE KOREAN WAR YEARS 4 9

Rarrick . The balance of the WM platoons came directly

from recruit training4 6

Major Emma Hope Clowers (nee Hendrickson)

reported to San Diego in December of 1951 and i n

1977 gave the following account of the activation o f

the WM company and of the problems encountere d

by the women officers assigned as supervisors rathe r

than as commanding officers :

When I reported to MCRD in Dec 1951, the women were

housed in two two-story barracks near the main gate and

were carried on the rolls of HqCo, H&S Bn . Both barracks

had open squadbays, with double-deck bunks for most of

the women . (I believe the NCOs and SNCOs had single dec k

bunks, but that there were no separate areas set aside fo r

them.) As I recall, even SNCOs were scattered at random

through both barracks, alongside PFCs, in some cases. There

was only one woman officer and myself, and there were n o

quarters on the base for either of us. Therefore, supervisio n

of the women Marines after working hours and durin g

weekends and holidays was almost entirely in the hands of

the NCOs, even though I was on call much of the time a t

the home I had in Ocean Beach . It seemed as though a nigh t

rarely passed when I wasn't called at least once by the Post

Duty Officer or by our Barracks NCO and I made many a

trip to the base during the night. My position was strictl y

that of a barracks officer (such as WAVE officers at that tim e

frequently held as additional duty). I had no authority ove r

the women in administrative or disciplinary matters, or i n

fact any area, and the women were aware of that fact. At

one time the women's CO was the Post Communication s

Officer, who had command of the company as additional

duty. It was an impossible situation as I soon found out whe n

I reassigned the women within the two barracks to brea k

up the little cliques that had developed and to have the Staf f

NCOs in a separate area. I recall that some of the women

staged what was probably one of the first of the " sit-ins"

when I rearranged the barracks and reassigned them . It is

amusing now but wasn't then . My "C.P." was a tiny converted

stock room in the barracks with scarcely enough room fo r

a desk . I was receiving urgent calls from Colonel Towle a t

HQMC about the formation of a women's company, bu t

could never clear the hurdle set up by the base—a magi c

number which we had to meet before they would give u s

a company. Each time our strength was about to reach tha t

number, we would have an unexpected discharge or transfer. But eventually we were given company status, and b y

the time I was transferred back to HQMC in May 53 I fel t

we had accomplished much in organization of the company, improvements in the barracks, reduction in disciplinar y

problems, and improvement in morale of the women4 7

The WM Company, Headquarters and Service Battalion, Marine Corps Recruit Depot was activated o n

1 July 1952, Captain Clowers, commanding ; Second

Lieutenant Joyce M . Hamman, executive officer; and

Master Sergeant Vera E . Piippo, first sergeant.

El Toro was originally programmed to receive 90

WMs, but later the commanding general actuall y

identified 235 positions which could be filled by women. Plans were made at once to receive and quarte r

the women Marines—even before the usual advance

group arrived. The large, eight-wing barracks behin d

the station administration building which had bee n

occupied by the WRs during the war was vacated by

the male Marines, then repainted and renovated .

Captain Warner left St. Louis shortly after her platoon was mobilized and during the first week of October became the first woman Marine to report to the

Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro since 1946 . Until

the company was activated, she was assigned as th e

station assistant personnel officer and administrativ e

assistant for WMs.

Seven NCOs from Headquarters Marine Corps

(Master Sergeant Bette A . Kohen; Staff Sergeants Margaret H. Crowell, Doris M. Plowman, and Martha J.

Clark ; Sergeants Chadeane A . Rhindress and Rita M. Walsh; and Corporal Maxine H. Carlson) who arrived

in early November 1950 were the vanguard of the unit

which would be known as the Woman Marine Detachment 1 (WMD 1). Waiting for more women to report

in, the seven lived in the station hostess house.

Public Works had scrubbed and polished the bar -

racks, and the NCOs settled in and made up the bunks

for the incoming women, newly graduated recruits

from Parris Island. Just one week before the barracks

was to be occupied, a Santa Ana windstorm blew i n

from the desert and dumped an inch of red san d

thoughout all the squadbays in the women's building. Lieutenant Colonel Warner remembers that it was

"an awful mess" There was sand everywhere and i n

everything—sheets, blankets, pillow cases. She and the

NCOs literally shoveled out the barracks, got two wings

ready, and closed off the others. A squared away living area awaited each new group of privates. Settle d

in, they, in turn cleaned a wing for the next contingent.

WMD 1 grew to a strength of approximately 250;

almost all were recent graduates. The officers and th e

NCOs felt a great sense of responsibility and were like

"mother hens" to the 18-year-old WMs — a ne w

phenomenon in the Marine Corps . An NCO adviso r

was assigned to each squadbay and was always ready

to listen and to help the young Marines make whateve r

adjustment was necessary. WMD 1 was a closely kni t

unit which Lieutenant Colonel Warner remembers as

a "fine group of women ."ae
50 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

The first post- World War II women Marines arrived at Quantico, Virginia, in 1951 an d

were assigned to the Administrative Section of the Landing Force Development Center.

Hard pressed for personnel, the Marines at El Toro

made the women feel welcome and needed . The various squadron and station offices vied for WMs who

were assigned to all except combat units . Interest ran

so high that the Flight Jacket, the station newspaper ,

regularly published the number of women Marines expected along with their occupational specialty . On 20

October 1950 one article read :

Out of El Toros first draft will be 11 basic personnel an d

administration women, seven basic communication girls an d

four basic supply people . There will be two basic shipping

and receiving WRs, five basic post exchange stewards, tw o

basic air controlwomen, and one basic flight equipmen t

woman 49

The return of the WMs made a similar impact o n

East Coast posts and stations, Matters of housing ,

uniforming, administration, and assignment had t o

be resolved quickly . At two of the bases, Quantic o

and Parris Island, training sites for WM officers an d

recruits, the adjustment was minimal .

The 3d Recruit Training Battalion underwent a

minor organizational change on 20 November 1950 ,

and WMs not involved in training but rather assigned to the depot offices were made members of Post

Troops Section under the section commander, Secon d

Lieutenant Mary S . Mock . On 16 November 1951, th e

Post Personnel Company under the command of Captain Emily Schultz was officially activated as an element of the 3d Recruit Training Battalion .

The influx of women Marines to the Marine Corp s

Schools at Quantico was made less traumatic by virtue of the presence of a senior woman officer involved in officer training, a barracks already occupied b y

WMs, and a male unit, Headquarters Battalion, accustomed to having women on its rolls . Lieutenant

Carville, having seen the Minneapolis WR platoon off

to duty in San Francisco, was transferred to Quantico, where in addition to her assignment as administrative officer for the Marine Corps Landing Force

Tactics and Techniques Board, she became the bar -

racks officer for the permanently assigned WMs, the

first of whom included Technical Sergeant Mary C .

Quinn; Staff Sergeants Dorothea E . Hard, Mary K .

Arcure, and Martha E. Kirchman ; Sergeant Muriel V.

Artz; Corporals Alma Noffke, R. F. Black, and Jane

L. Reynolds; and Private M . L. Williamson . 50 In spite

of the nontraditional command and administrativ e

relationship where the women Marines were attached

to one unit, worked in another, and were under the
THE KOREAN WAR YEARS 5 1

supervision of a woman officer with no real authority, the first arrived WMs at Quantico were a cohesive

group, and evidently, a well disciplined one . For a

period of a year, there was not a single case of nonjudicial punishment involving a WM . Maintaining the

record became a matter of great pride . But bad luc k

was their undoing when a private first class' auto brok e

down in the town of Triangle and after walking th e

three miles to the barracks in her high heels, she

reported in from liberty 10 minutes late . On this and

other occasions when a WM appeared before the battalion commander for office hours, it was Lieutenan t

Carville's habit to stand behind him and squeeze his

shoulder when it appeared that he was weakening an d

unduly moved by a tearful story . 5 1

For about 18 months, the WMs at Quantico wer e

customarily attached to Headquarters or Service Battalion. A WM company was eventually formed under

the command of Captain Bernice M. Pittman on 1

May 1953 as an element of Service Battalion .

Captain Helen A . Wilson, on 7 September 1950 ,

was the first of the WMs to return to the Marine Corp s

Air Station, Cherry Point, North Carolina. She easil y

moved into the Navy nurses quarters, but housing th e

newly arrived enlisted women was more of a problem .

When Staff Sergeant Katherine Keefe, a Boston Reservist, was tranferred to Cherry Point after spending onl y

a very short time at Camp Lejeune, she was temporarily quartered in the maternity ward of the naval hospital .52 The station WMs were attached to Headquarters

Squadron until WMD 2 was officially activated on 1

March 1951 with Captain Wilson commanding, Second Lieutenant Natalie Noble, executive officer, an d

Master Sergeant Alice J . Connolly, sergeant major. In

November 1951, ground was broken for the Jet Hangar, a new WM service club, and when it opened the

The Commanding Officer of Woman Marine Detachment 2, Cherry Point, North Carolina, Maj Helen A . Wilson (center), pictured in 1953 with (from left to right) MSg t

Elizabeth Tarte, SSgt Muriel Artz, MSgt Alice Connolly, and MSgt Jessie Van Dyke .
52 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

Capt Helen Wilson, the senior woman officer at Cherry Point, and Col Katherine A . Towle, Director of

Women Marines, check clothing display in 1952 ,

next spring, complete with juke box and patio, it wa s

a popular spot for snacks, beer, soft drinks, and mil k

shakes.53 *

Headquarters, Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic

(FMFLant), located at Norfolk, Virginia, asked for an d

received a total of 10 WMs ; all were administrative

clerks, and all were privates first class. It was Colone l

Towle's policy to assign a woman officer to any bas e

where enlisted women served and so Lieutenant Kleberger was assigned to Norfolk as the assistant forc e

adjutant and additionally as the "Supervisor of Women Marines" 54

The original 10, Privates First Class Henrietta L .

*"Being the first Woman Marine on a major Marine Corps Ai r

Station (MCAS - Cherry Point) in five years (1945 -1950) posed its

problems. Upon my arrival, I was directed to report to the Commanding General . During this meeting, he pointed out that the

five-year interim that had elapsed since women (other than Nav y

nurses) had been aboard made it evident that male Marines wer e

unaccustomed to having female Marines as an integral part of thei r

daily lives. Therefore, I was stunned when he said he'd hold me

personally responsible if 'anything happened' to any of the women! He further suggested that no women should leave the base except in pairs (like Nuns, as I later expressed it) . I wanted t o

remonstrate, but all I could say was 'Aye, Aye, Sir!'— knowing ful l

well that I couldn't go on liberty with the women . They arrived

shortly after my meeting with the General, in increments of 10 0

to 200 . Nothing untoward happened . The men seemed happy t o

have them aboard, and I think they really were!" Col Helen A . Wilson comments on draft manuscript, dtd 1Jan80 .

Belcher, Dorothy P. Eastman, Naomi M. Hallaway,

Beatrice I. Harper, Theresa S . Kovar, Martha M. Ludwig, Margaret M . Martin, Mary A . Seman, Earlene Slaton, and Mary H. Clements were attached to

Headquarters Company, Headquarters and Servic e

Battalion, FMFLant and quartered with the WAVE S

at the Norfolk Naval Base . Eventually on 1 April 1952 ,

a WM Company was activated with Second Lieutenant

Mary E. Sullivan commanding.

During the Korean War years, women Marine s

returned to Hawaii, in 1951 to FMFPac at Pearl Harbor and in 1953 to the Marine Corps Air Station a t

Kaneohe Bay. On 31 July 1951 Lieutenant Colonel

Hamblet became the first WM to be assigned to Head -

quarters, FMFPac . It was three months before Secon d

Lieutenant Essie M . Lucas, graduate of the first WR

recruit class in 1943 and the first officer candidate class

in 1949, left San Francisco with 17 enlisted WMs o n

5 October 1951 . On board the military transport were

Technical Sergeant Mary E. Roche ; Sergeant Julia M .

Pierce; Corporals Doris Allgood, Shirley Anderson ,

Lillian Brown, Olive G . Chapman, Anita F. Dale ,

Joyce R. Dupuy, Evangeline I. Lyon, Audrey E . Kleberger, Mary E . Scudder, Naomi J . Sexton, Ruth V .

Tate, and Joan V . Walsh; and Privates First Class Nita

M. Oliver, Vivia Smith, and Adoree R . Troche . 5 5

Upon arrival, the women were attached to Head -

quarters Company, Headquarters and Service Battalion, FMFPac, and were assigned a small, but ver y

attractive two-storied wooden barracks overlooking th e

parade deck. Mrs. Victory, wife of Brigadier General

Randall M. Victory, had supervised the decoration an d

when dignitaries visited the command, receptions

were often held in the WM lounge . 56 Within six

months the WMs had their own command, Company A, Headquarters and Service Battalion, FMFPac ,

under Second Lieutenant Margaret M . Schaffer. Unlike the male companies in the same battalion, th e

commanding officer of the woman Marine compan y

was not empowered to sign record books or to issue

company regulations. Only through the interventio n

of Colonel Towle several years later did the compan y

commander gain the control usually associated wit h

that position.57 Early members of the command included: Master Sergeant Mary E . Roche, Technical Sergeants Mary E . Grande and Ann M. Kopp, Staff

Sergeant Margaret E. Boerner, and Sergeants Barbar a

Jean Dulinsky (who later was to be the first WM to

serve in Vietnam) and Emma G . Ramsey (who retired

as a captain in May 1971) .
THE KOREAN WAR YEARS 5 3

In January 1956, Headquarters, FMFPac, moved

from the Naval Base at Pearl Harbor to the old naval

hospital at Aiea, which was designated Camp H . M.

Smith . The women's company, commanded by Captain Kleberger, moved into former Navy nurses' quarters. The newly renovated barracks afforded suites fo r

the senior SNCOs, private rooms for some, and rooms

of two-to-four persons for sergeants and below. "The

building abounded in lounges, exercise rooms, stud y

rooms, and other fantastic facilities," recalled Lieu -

tenant Colonel Klebergers e

WMD 3, a group of 56 WMs led by First Lieutenant Phyllis J. Young, stationed at Kaneohe Bay, on

the opposite side of the island from Pearl Harbor, was

the last woman Marine command to be activated in

the 1950s. In an interview published in the San Die -

go Chevron, First Sergeant Doris P. Milholen re -

counted her trip to the island:

There were four of us from the detachment that were t o

leave by seaplane [the MARs] to arrive in Kaneohe ahea d

of the rest of the women Marines. But for about four days

before takeoff the plane had engine trouble and the fligh t

was delayed . The main detachment almost made it to th e

islands by ship before we finally got off the ground s e

The women were quartered in one of the Marin e

Corps' newest and most modern barracks, sometime s

referred to as "The Waldorf." The living areas wer e

painted in pastel colors, and the amenities include d

a complete kitchen and adjoining dining room . The

staff noncommissioned officers, living in single rooms,

had private showers and their own lounge 6 0

WMD 3 was a short-lived unit . It closed on 1 September 1956 due to personnel replacement problems,

but was reactivated during the Vietnam War .

Korean War Brings Changes

To Recruit Training

The year 1950 marked significant changes to th e

woman Marine program and consequently to the 3 d

Recruit Training Battalion at Parris Island. Until Ma y

1950, classes with a quota of 50 recruits each were convened consecutively. Beginning with the class of 1 8

September each class was composed of three platoon s

with a total strength of 150 women, and for the first

time since World War II classes overlapped each other .

The Division of Plans and Policies indicated a nee d

for 2,257 women Marines at posts and stations during fiscal year 1950 in addition to the 492 regular en -

listed women on active duty . Based upon an estimat e

of 1,000 Reservists-organized and volunteer—on extended active duty, 1,257 women had to be provided

for regular recruits . Added to this figure were the 30 0

nonveterans of the WR platoons who required basic

training. The plans necessitated an increase in the table of organization of the recruit battalion and th e

assignment of another barracks, Building 901.6 1

Most of the staff members returned from Quantic o

where they had been assigned to WOTC and were sup -

plemented by the I&Is of mobilized platoons. Captain Hale, away only six months, returned to Parri s

Island on 29 August as the interim commanding

officer with First Lieutenant Dorothy A . Holmberg,

the executive officer. Major Beckley, her work at Cam p

Lejeune completed, assumed command of the 3 d

Recruit Training Battalion on 18 September 1950 and

Captain Hale became the executive officer.

With the increased need for Marines, the recruiting requirements were eased, allowing for the first time

the enlistment of 18 year olds and also women wh o

were not high school graduates but who could pass

a high school equivalency examination . Colonel Towle

was much opposed to the lowered educational standards, but was pressured by the other services and th e

Department of Defense. During this period the Veterans Administration, working on behalf of veterans

desiring a college education, asked the colleges an d

universities to accept the equivalent examinations as

evidence of successful completion of high school. The

academic community was quick to point out the

anomaly of asking an educational institution to recognize the examination when the military services di d

not 6 2

It was a different woman recruit who reported to

Parris Island in September 1950 : many were younge r

and less skilled ; others, with a smattering of Reserv e

experience, arrived wearing PFC stripes. In the class

that convened on 18 September, 33 of the 144 wer e

nonveterans from WR platoons63 Reluctantly, they

moved the stripes from their uniforms. First Sergean t

Schultz spoke of her duty as platoon sergeant and of

her last recruit platoon—an honor platoon—whic h

consisted mainly of Seattle Reservists. She said, "They

must have had very good training. They were an out -

standing platoon and my job was really alleviated a s

far as basic training was concerned" 84

A Few Changes at

Officer Candidate School

The changes at the Woman Officer Candidates

Course marked a significant shift in policy regarding
54 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

In the summer of 1951, Officer-in-Charge 1stLt Doris V . Kleberger (seated at far right)

meets in barracks lounge with the first women Marines assigned to FMFLant, Norfolk .

the entire woman Marine program . Until the Korean

situation arose, only a few women were offered commissions in the Regular service and allowed to remai n

on active duty. In contrast, the entire graduating class

of 1951 was ordered to duty for 24 months.es Although

this was intended as a temporary, emergency measure, it continued thereafter, changing only to length -

en the required service . The emphasis had changed

from a strictly Reserve force on inactive duty to a

nucleus of trained women Marines with at least a minimum of active duty experience .

The candidates who arrived in the summer of 1951

were uncertain of their status through much of the

training, and those who were not college graduate s

feared that the Marine Corps would retain them o n

active duty as enlisted personnel rather than releasing them to finish their college education. Candidat e

Margaret A. Brewer, the last Director of Women Marines, and destined to be appointed the first woma n

general in 1978 was in this category, and she remembers the daily, changing rumors. The final result was

that the women who accepted commissions were retained, those who refused commissions were discharged, and undergraduates returned home in a

Reserve status. Colonel Brewer recalled that with on e

semester remaining she returned to school, finished

in January, and expected to attend the officer's basic

class convening in the fall. Instead, she was ordered

to active duty in May and assigned to El Toro as a com -

munications watch officer, one of only a few woman

Marine officers never to have attended the Basi c

School.6 6

During the same period the Woman Officer Indoctrination Course underwent only a modest revision—shortening its training for the new lieutenants

from eight to four weeks. For the graduates of the

Woman Officer Candidate Course of 1952, however,

the basic indoctrination class was lengthened to si x

weeks.

The Korean Years—Reprise

During the Korean years, the relatively few experienced women Marines were spread thinly and

transferred often—Lieutenant Kleberger, for example,

had four assignments, Quantico, Detroit, Norfolk, an d

Washington, D.C. in just two years. The officers and
THE KOREAN WAR YEARS 5 5

NCOs worked together scrubbing and polishing bar -

racks, setting up the new companies, training Reservists and Regulars, guiding young lieutenants an d

privates, and holding together a group consisting o f

a disproportionate number of inexperienced Marines.

In March 1950, at the beginning of the Korean war ,

there were only 28 Regular officers and 496 Regula r

enlisted WMs and 18 Reserve officers and 41 Reserve

enlisted women on continuous active duty. Their common purpose and special pride in being a woman Marine served to override any personal differences which ,

if aired, would have undermined the group. They

worked as one to bring the WMs back into the main -

stream of the Marine Corps. Until one by one, th e

members of this pioneer group began to retire in 1963 ,

they served as role models for the WMs who followed .
56 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

Congratulations are extended to 2dLt Nancy Flint (right) by Col Katherine A . Towle ,

Director of Women Marines (left), and LtCol Julia E . Hamblet, Commanding Officer, Women Officer Training Detachment, upon Lt Flint's graduation from the 4th Woma n

Officer Indoctrination Course, Marine Corps Schools, Quantico, on 1 November 1952 .
CHAPTER 5

Utilization and Numbers, 1951-196 3

Utilization of Women Marines, Evolution of a Policy —Report of Procedures Analysis Office, 195 1

Women Officers' MOSs, 1948-1953 -1950-1953 Summary -1954-196 4

Numbers—Utilization, 1954-1964—Rank Does Not Have Its Privileges, Officers

Rank Does Not Have Its Privileges, Staff Noncommissioned Officer s

Noncommissioned Officer Leadership School—A Woman in the Fleet Marine Forc e

1954-1964 Summary

Utilization of Women Marines—Evolution of a Policy

The war in Korea marked the first of three turnin g

points, each one opening new career fields to wome n

Marines . The second turning point was the Woma n

Marine Program Study Group (Pepper Board) meeting in 1964 . The third was the Ad-Hoc Committe e

on Increased Effectiveness in the Utilization of Women in the Marine Corps (Snell Committee) of 1973 .

After World War II nearly all women Marine s

worked in the areas of administration and supply . WR

veterans who had served in technical fields in Worl d

War II, especially in aviation specialties, were disappointed when they found themselves reclassified as

typists and stenographers upon integration in 1948

and 1949. It is probable that many skilled WRs,

trained during the war, when faced with the prospec t

of a change in occupational field, did not apply fo r

Regular status.

Pre-Korea recruits, in spite of the detailed classification procedures followed at Parris Island, were in -

variably earmarked for administrative work . Ninety-five

percent of them were assigned directly to a job; the

remainder, however, were given formal training at the

Personnel Administration School at Parris Island or th e

Yeoman Course at San Diego .' In the spring of 1950,

just before the war, two recruits, Privates Nancy L . Bennett and Cynthia L . Thies, slated to be photographers,

became the first WMs to complete boot camp and to

be assigned to an occupational field other than ad -

ministration . Both Marines had had experience in photography.2

The shortsightedness of these restrictive measure s

limiting the occupational opportunities and trainin g

of women to clerical duties was evident as soon as th e

North Koreans invaded South Korea in June 1950 .

Then, expediency dictated a more diverse classification of women . Manpower was in critically short sup -

ply. Each Marine Corps base was polled on the numbe r

of billets that could be filled by women, and on th e

billeting space available for distaff Marines. Unfortunately, the available women Marines had not been

trained to fill many of the needs identified by this

survey.

Report of Procedures Analysis Office, 195 1

On 12 December 1950, four months after th e

mobilization, an internal memorandum in the Division of Plans and Policies on the subject of requirements for women Marines revealed that there

were 76 military billets at Headquarters Marine Corp s

which by their nature could be filled by WMs but to

which women were not assigned . Lack of training was

cited as the cause . Furthermore, women were assigne d

to billets in accordance with ability, regardless of ran k

deficiency. At the time of the memorandum, 70 women privates first class were assigned to billets designate d

for higher ranks: 27 filling corporals billets ; 32 filling

sergeants billets; 9 in staff sergeant billets; 1 in a technical sergeant slot; and 1 in a master sergeant billet.

It was noted, as well, that of a total of 438 militar y

jobs at Headquarters, 230 were coded as requiring

male Marines and of these "must be male" billets, 1 2

were filled by WMs. The recommendations made in

view of the situation was that the table of organization be reviewed with an eye towards decreasing requirements for male Marines and that WMs, Regula r

and Reserve, with adequate work qualifications and

rank be ordered to Headquarters. A like number of

WMs from Headquarters, the least qualified clerically, would be transferred to posts and stations.3

Colonel Towle found the memorandum useful i n

pointing out what she saw as, "The difficulty of at -

tempting to utilize untrained personnel in skilled military billets" and "the need of remedial measures"4 She

reiterated her position that specialist training beyond

recruit indoctrination was essential to meet the needs

of both the Marine Corps and the individual Marine .

Her conclusion was:

A policy which relies upon an ever-diminishing suppl y

of World War II women reservists to continue to provide th e

skills presently needed by the Marine Corps as well as thos e

which would be required in all-out mobilization, rather tha n

establish systematic long range training beyond recruit indoctrination for younger women enlistees of the regular Marine Corps is considered unrealistic and shortsighted, as wel l

as uneconomical .5

Subsequently, in May 1951, Plans and Policies Di -

vision asked that a study be made to determine th e

57
58 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

Attending the Conference of Women Marine Commanding Officers and Wome n

Representatives of Marine Corps Reserve and Recruitment Districts in June 1955, wer e

(from left, seated): Maj Dorothy M. Knox; LtCol Pauline B. Beckley ; Col Julia E. Hamblet; LtCol Elsie E. Hill; LtCol Barbara J. Bishop ; and Maj Helen M. Tatum. Also (from

left, standing): lstLt Rita A . Ciotti; Capt Mary S . Mock ; 1 stLt Ruth" O'Holleran ; Capt

Dolores A. Thorning; Maj Emily Horner; 1stLt Anne S. Ritter; Capt Valeria F. Hilgart;

Capt Jeanne Fleming; Maj Nita B. Warner; Maj Shirley" Fuetsch ; 1 stLt Nancy L . Doser;

Capt Margaret E. Dougherty; Capt Elena D. Brigotti; and Capt Rosalie Crites.

military occupational specialties (MOS) in which women could be utilized and the proportion of the tota l

number which could be profitably employed . The ensuing study conducted by the Procedures Analysis

Office, evaluated MOSs on the basis of utilization of

women in the past, legal restrictions, physical requirements, job environment, availability of training facilities, and the existence of promotional outlets. They

noted that while women Marines were assigned MOSs

in 25 different occupational fields, actually about 9 5

percent of the WMs were concentrated in only si x

fields. The lessons learned in the emergency brought

on by the war in Korea were apparent in the conclusions drawn by the committee that :

a. Women can be used in 27 of the 43 occupational fields.

b. For maximum effectiveness, women should be employe d

(as a general rule) in a limited number of major activities.

c. Under the present tables of organization, a maximum of

approximately 6,500 women can be employed .

d. Full utilization of women Marines requires an evaluatio n

of the combined influence of all "restricted assignment "

groups upon rotation policies.

e. Immediate steps should be taken to utilize women in al l

appropriate MOSs so that under full mobilization, expansion can be readily accomplished .

f. Service schools must be opened to women to train the m

for the appropriate MOS .

g. Billets that can be filled by women must be identifie d

on tables of organization .

The 27 occupational fields considered appropriat e

were :

01 Personnel and Administration

02 Intelligence

04 Logistic s

14 Mapping and Surveying

15 Printin g

22 Fire Control Instrument Repair
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS, 1951-1963 5 9

25 Operational Communications

26 Communication Material

27 Electronics

30 Suppl y

31 Warehousing, Shipping, and Receivin g

33 Foo d

34 Disbursing

35 Motor Transpor t

40 Machine Accounting

41 Post Exchange

43 Public Informatio n

46 Photography

49 Training and Training Aid s

52 Special Service s

55 Band

66 Aviation Electronics

67 Air Contro l

68 Aerology

69 Aviation Synthetic Training Device s

70 Aviation Operations and Intelligenc e

71 Flight Equipment °

Colonel Towle endorsed the study calling it ,

" thorough, thoughtful, and essentially a realistic

presentation of facts pertinent to the utilization of

women within the Marine Corps ." She did, however,

take exception to the stated position that while women could perform the duties of the 27 recommende d

occupational fields, they could not be placed in al l

of the billets falling under each major heading sinc e

the "most effective utilization occurs when women supervise only women and when situations in whic h

women supervise men or mixed groups ar e

minimized ." She submitted that :

. . . the most effective utilization of women does not neces -

sarily depend upon women supervising women, unless credence is also given to the corollary of this statement tha t

men should supervise only men . The situation at Headquarters Marine Corps is an excellent example of the invalidit y

of this contention . During World War II there were man y

instances at many posts and stations where women supervised both men and women with notable success . In this

connection, it should be remembered that women officers'

commissions are identical in wording to those of their mal e

counterparts charging them not only with the duties and

responsibilities of their grade and positions, but also assuring them of comparable military authority .° *

*In fact, during the Korean War, women Marines made a few

tentative steps toward taking over supervision of several all mal e

groups. In 1952, Staff Sergeant Hazel A . Lindahl, a Reservist fro m

Boston, held the top enlisted post at Camp Lejeune as Camp Sergeant Major of more than 40,000 Marines . During the same period, Master Sergeant Margaret A . Goings was the First Sergeant ,

Headquarters and Service Battalion, Marine Corps Base, Camp

Lejeune . (DivWMs Scrapbook, box 4, IY/Ms HQMC Records)

The final report of the Procedures Analysis Offic e

was submitted in November 1951 and generated a let -

ter the following January to all interested divisions an d

sections for comment . For the most part there was

general agreement with the theory that wider utilization of women Marines would increase their potential effectiveness upon all-out mobilization. The

Division of Aviation suggested a greater percentage

of WMs could be properly assigned aviation special -

ties and recommended the addition of Occupational

Field 64, Aircraft Maintenance and Repair, to the list

of appropriate MOSs, but was overruled . The agency

managing the 35 field, motor transport, commente d

that women were qualified to drive the cars, trucks ,

and jeeps, but the requirement that the driver load

and unload the vehicle restricted their use . In the area

of communications, it was recommended that a new

field, administrative communications, be created and

that women be used as switchboard operators . Women as instructors at the Communications-Electroni c

School was specifically ruled out due to their lack o f

combat experience and because they would have t o

supervise men? *

All comments and recommendations were incorporated and the list of appropriate MOSs for enlisted

women Marines was promulgated in April 1952, about

a year before the end of the Korean conflict 1 0

The same memorandum identified the followin g

16 occupational fields as unsuitable for women

Marines.

03 Infantry

07 Antiaircraft Artillery

08 Field Artillery

11 Utilitie s

13 Construction and Equipmen t

18 Tank and Amphibian Tracto r

21 Weapons Repair

23 Ammunition and Explosive Ordnance Disposa l

32 Supply Service s

36 Stewar d

56 Guided Missil e

57 Chemical Warfare and Radiological Defens e

58 Security and Guar d

64 Aircraft Maintenance and Repair

65 Aviation Ordnance

73 Pilo t

*In 1961, 10 years later, Lance Corporal Priscilla Carlson becam e

the first woman Marine to instruct at Communications-Electroni c

School at San Diego . She was a graduate of 36 weeks training at

the Basic Electronic Course, Radar Fundamentals Course, and Aviation Radar Repair Course, and she instructed the Radar Fundamentals Course . (San Diego Chevron, 28Jul61).
60 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

In spite of the above exclusions, during the Korea n

War at least a few women served in the utilities ,

weapons repair, supply services, and security guar d

field." It is probable that they were Reservists already

knowledgeable in these occupations.

At the time of the study, only six WMs were in th e

motor transport field. One of these, Sergeant Theresa "Sue" Sousa, mobilized with the Washington, D.C.

Reserve platoon and on duty at Camp Pendleton, be -

came a driver through determination, persistence, and

because she proved she could handle a truck an d

jeep. 12 Then, in the fall of 1952, women were assigne d

to motor transport school for the intensive five-wee k

course. The first WMs to receive such training since

1945 were Privates First Class Hazel E . Robbins,

Christin Villanueva, Jessie Chance, Elizabeth Drew,

and Ann Oberfell . By 1954, the number of wome n

in motor transport jumped to 111 .13 Colonel Valeria

E Hilgart, who was Commanding Officer, Compan y

A, Pearl Harbor that year, remembered that she ha d

22 women Marine drivers and a woman Marine dispatcher, Sergeant Barbara Jean Dulinsky.19 This caree r

field has been volatile for WMs as the number dwindled to seven in 1964 and rose to 186 in 1977 .1 5

Now retired Gunnery Sergeant Helen A . Brusack

and one other former WM worked in radio repairma n

assignments in 1950 but formal training in this fiel d

was not reopened to women until March 1953 whe n

four WMs (Technical Sergeants Rosita A . Martinez and

Katherine F. Tanalski and Sergeants Norine Anderson

and Mary Williams) received orders to the 16-wee k

course at the crystal grinding shop at the Baltimor e

Signal Depot in Fort Holabird, Baltimore . The highly technical course covered the manufacture of precisely cut crystals which controlled the frequency i n

radios.1' Like the motor transport field, this also prove d

to be a volatile field as the number of WMs assigned

to it dropped to two in 1961 and then grew to 166

in 1977 .'

Women Officers' MOSs, 1948-1953

After World War II, all officer MOSs were groupe d

into categories. 1 ' For example, Category I include d

MOSs suitable for Regular unrestricted officers ;

Category II MOSs were suitable for Regular limite d

duty officers of company grade; and with the passage

of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act of

1948, Category V MOSs were deemed suitable fo r

Regular women officers. Only the following nine MOSs

in four occupational fields, plus the designation fo r

basic officers (unassigned second lieutenants) and one

ground colonel were considered to be appropriate fo r

women :

0101 Basic Personnel and Administration Office r

0105 Administrative Office r

0110 Personnel Classification and Assignment Office r

0130 Adjutan t

0190 Personnel Research Officer

3001 Basic Supply Administrative Office r

4001 Basic Machine Accounting Office r

4010 Machine Accounting Office r

4301 Basic Public Information Officer

9901 Basic Officer

9906 Colonel, Groun d

For most of the fields, women officers were limited

to the basic position and therefore not allowed to mov e

up the ladder in that specialty as they were promoted. The war in Korea caused some of the restrictions

to be lifted in 1950, but women officers continue d

to serve in a relatively minute number of fields .

This untenable situation was noted by the Classifications Section on 1 November 1952 when it was foun d

that the large majority of the older, more experience d

women officers were assigned MOS 0105 (Administrative Officer); few women held an additional MOS ;

and no woman at the time had two additional MOSs .

In all, over 60 percent of all women officers in the Marine Corps were assigned a basic MOS or MOS 0105.

The discovery led to a study involving a review of th e

cases of all women officers on active duty and letters

to all sections interested in MOS assignments. In view

of the antipathy displayed in 1947 and 1948 toward

the use of women in the Marine Corps, the comment s

emanating from this study were gratifying to the women officers. The Assistant Chief of Staff G-1 wrote :

During the congressional discussion prior to the passag e

of the " Women's Armed Services Integration Act of 1948 "

it was emphasized that the primary reason for establishing

women in Regular services was to provide a nucleus of trained women for rapid expansion in event of an emergency .

If the Marine Corps assigns women officers only to the MOSs

listed . . . there will not be a group of well trained, experienced women officers who could provide the necessar y

leadership in the many fields where large numbers of women will be utilized in the event of a national emergency.'s

From the Classification Branch came the comment ,

"In fact in the final analysis it became apparent tha t

a woman officer should be assigned any MOS for whic h

she had become qualified by actual performance o f

duty in a satisfactory manner"20 And following th e

list of recommended MOSs submitted by the Personnel Control Branch was the statement, "It is further
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS, 1951-1963 6 1

suggested that women officers not be precluded from

assignment of other MOSs for which an individual may

be qualified ." 2 1

In the second phase of the study each woman officer's qualifications were considered as well as the

description of each MOS . Decisions were based on legal restrictions, physical restrictions, rotation constraints, technical schools open to women, billets hel d

by WRs in World War II, and "American mores" As

a result, the variety of MOSs assigned to wome n

officers increased somewhat, mainly in the area of additional MOSs, that is, in secondary jobs for which the y

were considered qualified. On 1 March 1953, the allocation of primary MOSs to women officers was as

follows:

01 Administration 8 7

02 Intelligence 1

25 Communications 7

30 Supply 2 5

31 Transportation 1

34 Disbursing 10

41 Post Exchange 4

43 Public Information 7

49 Training 2

52 Special Services 7

9906 Ground Colonel 1

Women Marine Officers on active duty22 15 2

The Division of Aviation had identified the seven

fields of aircraft maintenance, aviation electronics, air

control, aerology, aviation synthetic training devices,

aviation operations and intelligence, and flight equipment as suitable for assignment to women Marin e

officers, but only three, aerology, training devices, and

flight equipment appeared on the final approved list.

As it turned out, women officers were not assigne d

to aviation specialities of any nature until about 1960 .

Subsequent to the study, in March 1953, the Director, Division of Personnel, Brigadier General Reginal d

H. Ridgely, Jr., recommended that category restriction s

on the assignment of MOSs to women officers be permanently removed and that a policy be establishe d

ColJulia E. Hamblet (left), Director of Women Marines, and her assistant, 1 stLt Doris

V. Kleberger, confer with Maj Wesley C. Noren, monitor of woman officer assignments,
62 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

which would be consistent with the intent of th e

Women's Armed Services Integration Act of 1948 .2 3

1950-1953 Summary

The Korean War brought permanent changes to the

women Marine program, the most obvious being th e

return of WMs to major posts and stations. When th e

armistice was signed on 27 July 1953, women were

serving at Headquarters Marine Corps ; at the Marin e

Corps Air Stations at Cherry Point, El Toro, an d

Kaneohe ; at the Recruit Depots at San Diego and Parris Island ; at Marine Corps Bases at Camp Lejeune an d

Camp Pendleton, Quantico, Norfolk, and Pearl Harbor; at both the Depot of Supplies and the Department of the Pacific in San Francisco ; at the variou s

Reserve districts ; and in Stuttgart, Germany . *

1954-1964

As the pressures of war subsided, so did the urgency to revitalize the women Marine program . The Personnel Department stated that "The Marine Corps'

long range plan for the utilization of women Marine s

is to utilize them in sufficient numbers and appropriate military occupational specialties to provid e

a nucleus of trained women for rapid expansion in th e

event of full mobilization."24 The wording was sufficiently vague to allow commanders to vacillate, to bal k

at the idea of women placed in key positions, and t o

deny formal schools to WMs.

Numbers

Numerically, women were limited by law to a ceiling of two percent of the authorized strength of th e

Corps, and the women officers were limited to 10 per -

cent of the number of enlisted women . The Marine

Corps set a goal of one percent rather than the allow -

able two, but never reached even that figure durin g

the period 1954-1964 . The one percent was not just

an arbitrary, antiwoman measure but was arrived a t

in recognition of the Corps ' mission and organization.

Traditionally, the Marine Corps is a compact fightin g

*ln September 1952, for the first time, women Marines were assigned to duty in Europe . Arriving to serve on the staff of the Commander in Chief of U. S . Forces in Europe was Second Lieutenan t

Sara Frances McLamore, followed a week later by Captain Jeanett e

1 . Sustad . Captain Sustad was assigned to message control and Second Lieutenant McLamore became the commanding officer of th e

joint detachment of enlisted women . They were soon joined by 1 1

enlisted women Marines . (Colonel Jeanette I. Sustad interview with

Hist&MusDiv, HQMC, dtd 20Jun77 [Oral Hist Collection ,

Hist&MusDiv, HQMC]) .

unit with much of its logistics and some of its sup -

porting personnel furnished by the Navy. Women Marines were prohibited, by law, from " . . . duty in aircraft

while such aircraft are engaged in combat missions and

duty on vessels of the Navy except hospital ships an d

naval transports. "25 They were prohibited, by tradition,

from Fleet Marine Force units, security forces at shor e

activities, and any unit whose mission it was to develop tactics or combat equipment .

To accomplish its mission, the Marine Corps is

divided generally into 60 percent operating forces an d

40 percent supporting units . Of the latter, during wartime and based on Korean War figures, eight percen t

could be patients, prisoners, and transients, leaving

only 32 percent of the billets available to women . Even

within the supporting establishment, certain factors

restricted the utilization of women: legal prohibitions,

Marine Corps rotation policy, and the necessity for inservice training for men in preparation for assignmen t

to combat jobs or to the fleet . To further complicat e

the matter, women are only one in a list of restricte d

assignment groups which include sole-surviving sons ,

and twice-wounded Marines .28 Added to the above

constraints was the fact that all services planned a cu t

in women's strength in 1954. During the years between Korea and Vietnam the strength of the women Marines went from a peak of 2,787 in September

1953 to a low of 1,448 on 30 June 1964 .

Utilization, 1954-1964

While women were assigned at various times to a s

many as 27 occupational fields, for the most part they

remained concentrated in the same six or seven specialities, with 45-55 percent in personnel administration ,

followed by supply, communications (telephone operators), disbursing, data processing, post exchange, and

public information . It took nearly 100 women officers

to fill the strictly women's billets (WM companies,

WM recruit and officer training, recruiting, office r

selection duty, I&Is of WR platoons) . Since the women officer strength averaged 125 for the years

1954-1964, the incidence of their assignment outsid e

the woman Marine program was minimal.

Colonel Hamblet, Director of Women Marine s

1953-1959, devoted much time on her annual inspection trips trying to convince the personnel people to assign senior women Marines to jobs other than

those within the women's program. She found a reluctance to place women in positions where they had no t

served before, at least in the memory of the curren t

base population. Most activities, on the other hand,
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS, 1951-1963 6 3

welcomed the presence of young, attractive women

Marines in window dressing type jobs, as receptionists,

for example, as long as they did not count against their

allotted strength . Having succeeded in placing WM s

in suitable billets, the director then met just as strong

resistance in getting them released for a tour as a

recruiter, drill instructor, or company commander27

A number of factors combined to bring on this am -

bivalence in the utilization of women Marines, only

a portion of which could be attributed to sex discrimination. The average woman Marine was in the marriageable and child bearing age group and the force d

separation brought on by prevailing regulations in thi s

regard caused a proportionately high attrition rate fo r

WMs compared to male Marines. A married woma n

could ask to be discharged after serving only one yea r

of her enlistment.* There was, therefore, some instability and an unsatisfactory rate of personnel turnove r

that could not be stemmed without a drastic chang e

in policy.

A second factor working to the detriment of th e

women was the insufficiency of their training coupled with the male Marines' expectation that women are

naturally good typists, stenographers, and clerks . As

late as 1955, only five percent of the WMs receive d

formal training of any kind.28 The majority of the en -

listed women reported to their first duty assignmen t

after a mere eight weeks of recruit training wherea s

the male private spent 12 weeks in boot camp followe d

by advanced training, and usually a tour in the Fleet

Marine Force, thereby arriving at a post with some service behind him. The woman private suffered in comparison from both a military and a professional poin t

of view, unless her supervisor understood the situation and took extra time not only to correct her work

but to help her with the basics of military life like uniform regulations and saluting . Lieutenant Colone l

Gail M. Reals, recalling her first job out of boot camp ,

relates that she reported to one office in the Education Center at Quantico in 1955 and was transferred

to another almost immediately because she did no t

have a firm grasp of naval correspondence procedures ,

although she was an above average typist **29

*See Chapter 7 for a detailed discussion of marriage and motherhood regulations.

**In 1985, while serving as the chief of staff of the Marine Corp s

Development and Education Command, Colonel Reals became th e

first woman to be selected by a promotion board, in competitio n

with her male Marine peers, to the rank of brigadier general .

LtCol Lily H. Gridley, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, firs t

woman to serve as a legal assistance officer, is photographed at Marine Corps Headquarters in 1955 .

There is a feeling among women veterans of th e

time, almost impossible to prove, that women had t o

perform better than men to be considered acceptable .

Then, once a women was found unsatisfactory, th e

office would not want another woman, no matter how

many men had done poorly in the same billet. '

Women officers were in an even less favorable posi -

tion since their training after officer candidate schoo l

was limited to the six-week Woman Officer Indoctrination Course compared to the male lieutenants' nine -

month Basic School. Furthermore, technical trainin g

was extremely rare and, for women, professional military schools were unheard of.

During these years, 1954-1964, very few new fields

became available to women Marines . Generally, they

were assigned to the same 27 occupational fields that

were opened to them as a result of the Korean War.

Most of the time, they served in no more than 21 of

these at one given moment, and they maintained the

usual 50 percent in administration, followed by sup -

ply, operational communications, and disbursing .

Rank Does Not Have Its

Privileges— Officers

In this post-Korean era, senior women officers an d

senior staff noncommissioned officers faced simila r

problems, since by this time there was a sizable number of each and only a limited number of women's
64 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

program billets requiring so much rank . Women lieu -

tenant colonels exchanged a few jobs as if on a circuit: Commanding Officer, Woman Recruit Training

Battalion ; Commanding Officer, Woman Marin e

Training Detachment ; and an occasional assistant G- 1

billet at a base that had been asked if it would accep t

a woman. It was the rule rather than the exceptio n

to serve in the same billet a second time . Typical of

the pattern was the career of Lieutenant Colonel Elsie E. Hill, who commanded the officer candidat e

school 1949-1951 and again 1965-1966 . She commanded the recruit battalion 1954-1956, exchanged positions with Lieutenant Colonel Barbara J. Bishop as

Head, Women's Branch, Division of Reserve, Head -

quarters Marine Corps and in 1959 returned to the

recruit battalion at Parris Island . In contrast to the

Regular women officers, the two Reserve lieutenant

colonels on active duty, Hazel E . Benn in educationa l

services, and Lily H. Gridley, a lawyer, served a ful l

20 years in specialized jobs.

Perhaps the most remarkable senior woman officer

assignment during this period was that of Lieutenan t

Colonel Emma H . Clowers as Head, Personal Affairs

Branch, Personnel Department, Headquarters Marin e

Corps3° She was originally ordered in as the assistant

branch head on 28 April 1959 but became branch

head when a male colonel's orders to that departmen t

were rescinded . No record can be found of a woma n

Marine branch head on that level either before or fo r

many years after her tour. She served in that capacity

for seven years, during which she received strong an d

loyal support from the director of the Personne l

LtCol Emma H. Clowers discusses the assignment of

women Marines with a fellow officer in the G-1 Division at Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps in 1955.

Department and from the 15-20 male officers servin g

as heads of the various sections and as assistant branc h

head. Lieutenant Colonel Clowers found only one

difficulty in her position which was directly relate d

to her being a woman, and that was her lack of ran k

during some of the interbranch negotiations . The law

at the time barred women officers, other than th e

director, from promotion to colonel, resulting in a

woman officer (Clowers) performing duties for many

years in a billet which before and after her assignment

were performed by male colonels. Upon completion

of that tour, Lieutenant Colonel Clowers was awarded her second Navy Commendation Medal, havin g

received the first during World War II . The citatio n

that accompanied her award noted that the duties were

normally assigned to an officer of greater rank and tha t

the hostilities in Vietnam demanded a rapid expansion of the branch . The scope of her responsibilitie s

are underscored in that citation which read in part :

Extremely competent and resourceful, Colonel Clower s

performed duties, which are normally assigned to an office r

of greater rank, in a highly professional manner during a

time when hostilities in Vietnam demanded rapid expansio n

of the Personal Affairs Branch to meet the added responsibilities. Through infinite foresight and judicious plannin g

she accomplished organizational reforms which enhance d

the effectiveness of the Personal Affairs Branch . In additio n

to establishing and maintaining excellent liaison and cooperation with agencies in both the military and civilian communities through which Marines and their dependents

receive counselling, financial help, and other needed assistance, she substantially improved and expedited method s

of informing concerned and anxious families of the condition of wounded or seriously ill Marines . She brought th e

needs of Marines and their families to the attention of thos e

who draft and present proposed legislation to the Congress,

thereby improving the scope and applicability of laws directed toward the necessities of military servicemen . With immeasurable personal concern and a keen sense of

responsibility for the welfare and interests of Marines, sh e

formulated a program for personal notification of the nex t

of kin of casualties in Vietnam; developed and coordinate d

a system by which Marine Retired and Reserve Genera l

Officers visit evacuees in twenty-three naval hospitals; contributed materially to the formation of the Family Assistanc e

Program, and directed expansion of job counselling facilities to assist retiring and retired personnel in finding suitable employment. Throughout her seven years in this capacity

she skillfully directed her attention to the most minute de -

tails of each facet of her responsibilities in a manner which

exemplifies more than could possibly be expected from an y

officer. Colonel Clowers' outstanding service, judgment an d

devotion to duty reflected great credit upon herself and th e

Marine Corps and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service?'
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS, 1951-1963 6 5

A World War II mail clerk, TSgt Frances A . Curwen, the Marine Corps' only female

postmaster in 1952, supervised the Montford Point Branch, Camp Lejeune Post Office .

Rank Does Not Have Its Privileges —

Staff Noncommissioned Officers

The staff noncommissioned officers were in a slightly different position in that they generally had a

specialty and some training, whereas nearly all of th e

field grade officers at the time were classified as eithe r

women's unit officer or personnel administrator.

Nevertheless, the staff noncommissioned officer foun d

that 1) she was moved out of her field too often t o

serve in women 's recruiting or training billets, and 2 )

as she became more senior, she was less welcome sinc e

she would be in the position to supervise male Marines. Then, once she proved herself, she was often con -

sidered indispensable . Inevitably, a controversy erupte d

when she was needed to fill a slot in the women's pro -

gram, and more often than not, the Director of Women Marines was blamed by the woman for sending he r

on a third recruiting tour, and accused by the assignment branch of meddling in their business .

The staff noncommissioned officers of this perio d

were, for the most part, former WRs who had serve d

in responsible positions during World War II and ha d

seen women perform all manner of duties to include

supervision of male Marines. This only made them

more incredulous at the narrow attitude taken by man y

male Marines. Master Sergeant Ruth Ryan, in 1960,

for example, was on orders to the Reserve district i n

Atlanta as the Logistics Chief until it was discovere d

that she was a woman . Eventually she went as planned ,

but only after being interviewed by her prospectiv e

officer in charge, an unusual procedure, and then rio t

as the Logistics Chief, but as the Fiscal Chief, sinc e

that was deemed more appropriate 32

Retired First Sergeant Frances A. Curwen Bilski

represents a similar case . She had been a mail clerk

from August 1943 until September 1946 at the flee t

post office in San Francisco . Following the war, sh e

was a member of the VTU and later the WR platoo n

in Boston . Mobilized for the Korean War, she serve d

as postmaster at the Montford Point branch of the

Camp Lejeune post office, and as an instructor at th e

Marine Corps East Coast Postal School in 1952 . In the

early 1960s, after having served as postmaster at Parris Island, she was ordered to similar duty in Hawaii ,

but the command absolutely refused to have a woman in the job, saying that the mail bags were too heavy

for a female . ss

Noncommissioned Office r

Leadership School

With a memorandum to the Assistant Chief o f

Staff, G-3, written by 12 May 1952, Colonel Towle initiated a stream of correspondence that culminated
66 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

with the creation of an NCO Leadership School fo r

women Marines 34 She cited the prevailing accelerate d

promotions of enlisted Marines with short periods o f

service and the loss of older, qualified NCOs as evidence of the need for such a course . Colonel Towle

recommended that the school be located at Quantico

in the same barracks used by officer candidates an d

basic second lieutenants from June throug h

November.

The Commandant, Marine Corps Schools, an d

Commanding General, Marine Corps Base, Camp

Lejeune, were both queried on the matter and in th e

meantime, the Director was asked to furnish guidanc e

concerning the mission of the proposed school, subject matter to be covered, course length, and appropriate rank of the students. In answer, Colonel Towl e

recommended a four-week course whose mission

would be " . . . to train an efficient and continuing

staff of women noncommissioned officers for th e

duties and responsibilities commonly associated wit h

`troop' leadership,"35 and to provide a source of potential officer candidates. She emphasized classes i n

leadership, personnel management, technique of in -

struction, use of training aids, Uniform Code of Military Justice, and military customs and courtesies fo r

students ranking from staff sergeant through maste r

sergeant.

Camp Lejeune was selected as the site and First Lieu -

tenant Mary Jane Connell was named officer in charge .

On 19 January 1953, for the first time since 1945 a

Staff NCO Leadership School for women was convened . Major General Henry D . Linscott, the commanding general, gave the opening address to the 2 5

members of the new class.36 Classes were held in a wing

of Barracks 65 at the Navy Field Medical Researc h

Laboratory five and a half days a week . In preparation, all the hand-selected instructors, Technical Sergeant Alice McIntyre, Technical Sergeant Frances A .

Curwen (later Bilski), Master Sergeant Lillian V . Dolence, and Technical Sergeant Josephine R. Milbur n

attended a month-long session at the Navy Instructors School at Norfolk, Virginia .37 Members of the first

class included:

Master Sergeant Margaret A. Goings

Master Sergeant Alice M . Reny

Master Sergeant Margery R. Wilki e

Instructors of the Woman Marine Staff NCO Leadership School, Camp Lejeune, congratulate Officer-in-Charge Elaine T. Carville on her promotion to captain in July 1953 .
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS, 1951-1963 6 7

Capt E. T. Carville, officer-in-charge, NCO Leadership School, is pictured (front row

center) with Class 9 in 1953 . MSgt P. C. Nigro (second row left) was the honor graduate .

Technical Sergeant Loraine G. Bruso

Technical Sergeant Eleanor L. Childers

Technical Sergeant Margaret L. Harwell

Technical Sergeant Beatrice J. Jackson

Technical Sergeant Dorothy L. Kearns

Technical Sergeant Blossom J . McCal l

Technical Sergeant Sarah N . Thornto n

Technical Sergeant Laura H . Woolge r

Staff Sergeant May S . Bellett o

Staff Sergeant Phyllis J . Curtiss

Staff Sergeant Anna M . Finniga n

Staff Sergeant Nellie C. George

Staff Sergeant Naomi Hutchinson

Staff Sergeant Inez E. Smit h

Staff Sergeant Dorothy L . Vollme r

Sergeant Carolyn J . Freeman

Sergeant Sonya A . Gree n

Sergeant Mary E . King

Sergeant Dorothy L. Ley

Sergeant Carol J. Homa n

Sergeant Margaret A. Shaffer"

Colonel Towle gave the graduation speech and distributed the diplomas at ceremonies held on 13 February 1953, 10th anniversary of the Women Marines. The

honor student for this first woman Marine NC O

Leadership Class was Master Sergeant Reny, with Tech -

nical Sergeant Childers in second place, and Staff Sergeant Vollmer in third. Classes continued at Camp

Lejeune for a little more than a year on a five-week

cycle, four weeks of training and one week off . Staff

changes brought Captain Elaine T. Carville as the

officer in charge with First Lieutenant Connell as he r

assistant and Technical Sergeants Lillian J . West and

June V. Doberstein as instructors 3 9

Colonel Hamblet, successor to Colonel Towle ,

reevaluated the situation and while convinced of th e

real need for the school, found the basis on which i t

was being run to be inefficient . Only 129 students

rather than the authorized 225 had completed the

training. The table of organization called for one officer, four enlisted instructors, and one clerk typist an d

the physical facilities used by the women included a n

office, a classroom, and a wing of a barracks . She proposed a move to Quantico since the staff required to

train officer candidates from June through Novembe r

could handle the NCO School during the winte r

months with only two additional enlisted women instructors. In turn, these enlisted women could b e

profitably used as platoon sergeants in the officer candidate program . There was at the time an unsuccessful (in terms of numbers) winter officer candidate class

which would have to be cancelled, thereby making th e

barracks, classroom, and staff available 4 0

The plan, promising a personnel and financial savings, was enthusiastically endorsed at Headquarters

and by September 1954 the change were made . Technical Sergeants West and Doberstein was transferred
68 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

to Quantico where they worked with NCOs during th e

winter and officer candidates in the summer . Captain

Carville was sent to Parris Island, and the remainder

of the staff was dispersed .

The majority of women noncommissioned officers

received leadership training during these years,

1954-1964, at the course conducted by the Women Ma -

rines Detachment, Quantico . Several commands assigned women to local, predominantly male, NCO

schools. In fact, as early as 1951, Staff Sergeant Laur a

H. Woolger attended the 2d Wing NCO leadership

school, graduating on 10 August of that year. A different tactic was tried at San Diego, California, where

in 1959, the depot NCO school conducted two one -

week accelerated courses for women Marines .

A Woman in the Fleet Marine Forc e

In this decade of status quo, it is surprising to fin d

the first reported WM working in an FMF headquarters, admittedly in a traditional job. On 13 January 1954, Private First Class Betty Sue Murray was

assigned as the secretary to the Commanding General, 2d Marine Division, Major General George E.

Good, Jr4 1 The general had called Captain Elaine T.

Carville, Commanding Officer, Woman Marine Company, Camp Lejeune, and told her that his office was

in a mess, that he could not find anything, and tha t

he wanted a woman Marine immediately. She explained that women Marines could not be assigne d

to an FMF unit, but the general only answered that

he trusted her to work out the administrative details .

Private First Class Murray was officially attached to th e

office of the Commanding Officer, Headquarters Battalion, Marine Corps Base (Colonel John H . Cook),

billeted in the WM barracks, and worked for Majo r

General Good . She'stayed at the job long enough to

serve his successors, Major General Lewis B . Puller an d

Brigadier General Edward W. Snedeker.4 2 Not until

1975, 20 years in the future, would WMs be assigne d

legitimately to any FMF uni t

1954-1964 Summary

The WM situation then, on 30 June 1964, was a

strength of 129 officers and 1,320 enlisted women serving in 20 occupational fields. Women received littl e

formal technical MOS training and were assigned to

only one professional development course, the NC O

Leadership School .
CHAPTER 6

Utilization and Numbers: Pepper Board, 1964-197 2

The Pepper Board— Women Marine Program Revitalized, 1965-1973 —Strength Increases

Women Officers Specialist Training, 1965-1973—Women Lawyers and Judges, A Beginnin g

Professional Training—Amphibious Warfare School—Post-Graduate Schoolin g

Command and Staff College—The Armed Forces Staff Colleg e

Advanced Training and Assignment of Enlisted Women Marines, 1965-197 3

New Woman Marine Units, Stateside—Women Marines Overseas—Women Marines in Vietna m

Women Marines in Marine Security Guard Battalion — Women Marines Overseas, Summary

Rapidly waning strength, unsatisfactory recruitment

and retention results, and a need to improve the status and acceptance of women in the Marine Corps wer e

the basis of Marine Corps Bulletin 5312, dated 2 7

February 1963, asking commands for recommendations on more efficient utilization of WMs . The results

were collated and sent to the Director, Colonel Margaret M. Henderson, for comment . She categorized

the recommendations into:

1. those which could not be implemented by the commands themselves.

2. those which were presumably already in effect .

3. those relating to more formal training for women

Marines.

4. those which had possibilities, but required more study .

5. those in which she nonconcurred .

Taken as a whole, the recommendations made b y

the commands demonstrated a general lack of under -

standing of the status of women in the Marine Corps .

It was readily apparent that the women were no t

thought of as personnel assets to be managed as al l

Marines. Statements that WMs should be assigned t o

billets appropriate to their grade and MOS, that women should be encouraged to participate in correspondence courses relating to their occupational specialty ,

and that the same performance standards be demanded of them as for male Marines, indicated a flaw i n

the system at the command level rather than in Head -

quarters policy since all of these matters came unde r

local purview.'

On one subject, the need for more formal training

for women Marines, there was unanimity . Colonel

Henderson strongly concurred, pointing out the fallacy of assigning WMs with eight weeks of recruit train -

ing directly to support establishment billets, an d

expecting the degree of knowledge and skill shown by

male Marines who, after 11 weeks of recruit training ,

and four weeks of infantry training, had more than

likely served 13 months in the Fleet Marine Force . She

supported her stand with the statement :

Seventy percent of our Women Marine recruit graduate s

are between the ages of 18 and 20 and, in most instances,

have come directly from high school into the Marine Corp s

with little or no work experience . These young women are

bright, capable trainees, but we are actually expecting them

to be proficient in a specific MOS with only eight weeks o f

basic training . During calendar year 1963, 771 women Marines completed recruit training and only five were ordere d

directly from recruit training to a service school . In comparison, the women basic graduates from the Army, Nav y

and Air Force were ordered directly to service school a s

follows:

(a) Army, approximately 90 percent

(b) Navy, approximately 50 percen t

(c) Air Force, approximately 60 percent '

Colonel Henderson reasoned that specialty training in administration, supply, and communication s

would greatly improve the performance of WM recrui t

graduates since 77 percent of the 1963 graduates were

concentrated in those three fields .

One week following the submission of her comments, Colonel Henderson completed her tour, an d

on 3 January 1964, she was relieved as Director of

Women Marines by Colonel Barbara J . Bishop . Just

three days earlier on the 1st of January, General Wallace M. Greene, Jr., took the helm as the 23d Commandant of the Marine Corps, a timely occurrence fo r

the women Marines. Writing about him later, Colonel

Bishop said, "General Greene was light years ahea d

of his time in his support of increased opportunitie s

for women Marines." 3

Shortly after assuming command of the Corps, he

directed Colonel Bishop to submit recommendations

to effect improvement in the selection, training, an d

utilization of women Marines. Taking each identifiable

problem in order: a strength decline to 1,333 WM s

on 30 April 1964; conflicts over the assignments o f

noncommissioned officers and officers ; unsatisfactory recruiting results for officers and enlisted women ;

inadequate training ; inefficient utilization ; low retention; and poor living conditions for enlisted women ,

Colonel Bishop expressed a number of highly controversial facts, observations, and recommendations .4

A discussion of the strength and general utilization

of women Marines centered on the traditionally accepted goal of one percent of total enlisted strength ,

1,750 enlisted women and 175 officers, which was con -

sidered workable based upon billeting conditions a t

the time. Women were assigned to all bases havin g

mobilization requirements for WMs except the Ma -

69
70 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

LCpI A. Digman Atau, one of two women at El Toro in 1965 to give pilots trainin g

in the aviation trainer field, instructs Cpl J. Harris in the operation of an F8 link trainer.

rifle Corps Supply Centers at Barstow and Albany, a

factor which would cause a delay in time of emergency. Accordingly, Colonel Bishop recommended that

woman Marine units be established at those two activities. And finally, in connection with general utilization of women, Colonel Bishop noted that in filling

certain command, training, and recruiting billets there

was a conflict between the authority of the Personnel

Department and the Director of Women Marines, she

asked that all changes of station orders for WM officers

and enlisted women be routed to her office for

information and concurrence.

Turning to officer training, policy at the time al -

lowed officer candidates to disenroll at any time during the training cycle, and many did so before givin g

themselves a chance to adjust to military life . The

colonel recommended a change that would require all

candidates to complete the course before making suc h

a decision.

As for the career officer, she said :

There is a definite need to provide women majors and

lieutenant colonels with professional education in command

and staff duties. The value of advanced military education

is recognized for male officers and the need is met by assignment to the Senior Course [later Command and Staff

College]. Women officers of field grade would benefit equally

from broadened knowledge of policies, programs an d

problems at all levels of the military establishment and of

staff functioning at Headquarters Marine Corps, in the

Department of Defense, and on joint staffs s
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS: PEPPER BOARD, 1964-1972 7 1

To that end, Colonel Bishop reviewed the 1964-196 5

syllabus for the Senior Course, held at Quantico, an d

determined that at least 432 hours of instruction

would be extremely valuable for women . She specifically identified the following courses: Executive Leader -

ship, Management Techniques and Procedures ,

Geopolitical and Current World Situation, Organization and Functioning for National Security, and Foreign Language.

In respect to senior WM officers' utilization, she discussed the hesitancy to assign them on the basis of

their professional qualifications . She wrote:

When a woman major or lieutenant colonel becomes eligible for transfer and one of the billets requiring a woma n

is not available, there is a tendency prior to issuance of orders to query commands on their willingness to accept a woman . Acceptance is not based on ability since certainly th e

Personnel Monitors would not recommend the assignmen t

of a woman to a billet inappropriate to her rank and professional qualifications.°

Then, as each Director of Women Marines before

had done, Colonel Bishop pointed out the need fo r

advanced specialist training for enlisted women . And,

she ended her report with recommendations designe d

to improve the retention rate of WMs. These included a stricter policy on separations due to marriage

balanced by increased efforts to station husbands an d

wives together, abolishment of the two-year enlistment

contract in favor of a three- or four-year commitment,

a guarantee similar to the one made to male enlistee s

of a change of station during the first enlistment, and

improved living conditions. On the latter subject she

was emphatic . It was not just that the women neede d

more privacy, she argued, but they spend more tim e

in the barracks than men; the women staff NCOs who

remain in the service are more likely to be single tha n

male Marines who marry and live in their famil y

homes; the majority of career women Marines woul d

never share in the large expenditures made on married quarters and in the support of dependents' programs; and because the women took such good care

of their barracks, inspecting officers were duly impressed by the cleanliness and attempts to create a

homelike atmosphere . She recommended new construction of barracks adapted to the needs of wome n

or at least the complete rehabilitation of existing structures, to be accomplished with the aid of a nationall y

known interior decorator .

That then is the essence of Director of Women Marines Study No. 1-64, a report that precipitated so

much opposition that the Commandant ordered the

creation of a study group to "propose a program to

render the peacetime service of women Marines of op -

timum benefit to the Marine Corps." 7

The Pepper Board

On 3 August 1964, Lieutenant General Robert H.

Pepper, USMC (Retired), was designated chairman of

the Woman Marine Program Study Group, popularl y

known as the Pepper Board .8 The members include d

Colonel Bishop; Colonel Frank R . Porter, Jr., representative, G-1 ; Lieutenant Colonel Eugenous E . Hovatter, representative, Director of Personnel ; Lieutenan t

Colonel Alfred I. Thomas, representative, G-3 ; Major

Paul R. Fields, representative, G-4 ; Major Patricia A . Maas, representative, WM; Major Charles E. Baker,

representative, Aviation ; Major Paul P. Pirhalla,

representative, Fiscal; and Major Jenny Wrenn, record -

er. The Commandant's letter of instruction directe d

the study group to convene on 11 August 1964 and

to submit its report by 1 October . Early on it was apparent that a detailed study could not be complete d

in the time allowed and verbal authority was given t o

extend the deadline as necessary. The final report was

submitted on 30 November and routed to staff sections at Headquarters Marine Corps for comment.

Reaction was mixed and ranged from enthusiastic

support for the 83 recommendations to bitter op -

position. The Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3, Major

General Richard G. Weede, for example, concurre d

with all but one recommendation under his purview.

The one exception was the recommendation tha t

selected field grade officers attend the Marine Corps

Command and Staff College as full-time students. G- 3

Division preferred courses in civilian universities fo r

women officers or attendance at only a few selected

subcourses of the Command and Staff College .

On the other hand, the Personnel Department,

headed by Major General Lewis J. Fields, took issue

with the thrust of the report and the philosophy that

costly improvement would, in his words, ". . . attrac t

more young ladies into the Marine Corps and induc e

them to stay longer and be more productive during

their stay." 9 He continued, "We should . . . tailor our

whole women's program to attract not young, untrained small-town high school graduates, but young

women of professional skills and training who trul y

want to make their mark in a man's (which the military is unarguably) world." io General Fields recommended recruitment of women already trained for a

skilled trade, advanced rank, personal freedom com-
72 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

parable with Civil Service, and "a modified trainin g

program designed to teach about the Corps and no t

how to be a male Marine in skirts ."" And lastly, since

the Personnel Department reasoned that the greatest

problem in WM housing in most places was cause d

by overcrowding, it was submitted that, "the best and

quickest means of improving current housing woul d

be to reduce the WM strength . . . "12

In light of staff comments, some recommendation s

were changed or modified and on 13 April 1965 a Marine Corps Bulletin directed the staff agencies to tak e

action on 75 of the recommendations already approved

by the Commandant, and a reporting schedule wa s

set up to keep General Greene informed of th e

progress being made . Although the program was considered long-range, not to be fully realized for two

years, more than half of the proposals were at leas t

a matter of policy by mid-1965 . As a result, Lieutenan t

Colonel Jeanette I. Sustad was named to the new post

of Deputy Director of Women Marines . In the past,

the next senior woman officer at Headquarters fille d

that billet as an additional duty.

Women were to be assigned to and get training i n

a broader range of occupational fields, to include

drafting, lithography, operational communications ,

communications maintenance, auditing, finance, ac -

counting, informational services, aerology, air control ,

and flight equipment. The Basic Supply School an d

Teletype Operator School were made available almost

immediately. The Pepper Board recommendation that

senior officers attend Command and Staff College wa s

unacceptable to most staff officers and post-graduat e

training in civilian or military schools was approve d

as a substitute .

An impressive list of new duty stations for WMs wa s

published to include : Fleet Home Town News Cente r

at Great Lakes; Marine Corps Reserve Data Service s

Center, Kansas City; Marine Corps Base, Twentynin e

Palms, California; Marine Air Reserve Training Center,

Glenview, Illinois; the Supply Centers at Albany an d

Barstow; and Marine Corps Air Stations at Beaufort,

New River, Kaneohe, Santa Ana, and Yuma . The absence of a WM Company or barracks no longe r

precluded the assignment of women Marines to an y

post or station as long as suitable offstation housin g

was available . Additionally, women would be afforded more overseas billets.

Changes in basic training included a greater use of

male instructors; increased instruction in personal development and grooming;* integration of some classes at the Woman Officer Basic Course and the Woma n

Officer Candidate Class; and a new requirement tha t

candidates complete four weeks of training before being allowed to disenroll . At Parris Island, a two-platoo n

system or series system was created to inspire competition, and on-base liberty for recruits was to be in effect by January 1966.

Enlistment incentives that guaranteed preferre d

area, school, and occupational assignments to qualified enlisted women were planned . For the new officers

who requested it, there was the promise of two dut y

stations during the initial three-year period of active

duty.

To settle the difficulties of assignment arising fro m

varying interests of the Director of Women Marine s

and the Personnel Department, a woman officer was

assigned to the Classification and Assignment Branch

at Headquarters as an occupational field monitor.

Major Valeria F. Hilgart was the first to fill that position, arriving in Washington in November 1966.

An aggressive enforcement of the recommendation s

covering better living conditions for the women await -

ed the result of a Department of Defense study o n

the subject. Meanwhile, the Marine Corps reevaluated all WM barracks, SNCO quarters, and the furnishings. At Parris Island, lockers and dressers were

installed in the recruit barracks to make their quarters less austere .** At Camp Pendleton, plans wer e

made for a newly constructed WM barracks.

These are but a fraction of the changes in effect o r

on the drawing board in 1965 . Some were implemented quickly ; others came only with firm prodding from

* " Strangely (?) this became the most controversial change in W M

training and was fiercely and almost entirely opposed by the senio r

WM officers and senior WM NCOs! I was determined to institut e

this program for a number of very valid (as they later proved) reasons:

(1)to give polish and new confidence to the individual woman .

(2) to improve WM recruiting by sending the girl back home

where her improved and smart appearance invariably brought compliments and new recruits.

(3) to emphasize femininity as an asset to a woman's role in the

military—to be coupled with proper assignment .

I enlisted and received the enthusiastic assistance of airlines whic h

conducted aircraft hostess training schools (e .g . Pan Am) to which

I assigned selected WM instructors for training and return to P.I.

where we established a good grooming school. Beauty aids were

provided free of charge by national cosmetic firms" (Gen Wallac e

M . Greene, Jr., comments on draft manuscript, dtd 26Dec79 )

**A new clothing layout inspection requiring certain items to

be displayed hanging in a locker hastened the addition of locker s

to recruit barracks.
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS : PEPPER BOARD, 1964-1972 7 3

1.I want this type of report coordinated with the DIRWM

prior to submission to CMC .

2. I have approved this particular report, but I am definitely not satisfiedwith action reported . See attached comments

DIRWMs which deserve consideration and action' s

At the time the Marine Corps' only woman Marin e

lawyer on active duty, future military judge Cap t

Patricia A. Murphy, is promoted by MajJane Dallis,

Commanding Officer, IM Company, and LtCol

Frederick D. Clements, at Camp Butler in 1967.

General Greene . In November of 1965 the Commandant was given a resume of actions completed on th e

Pepper Board recommendations which indicated considerable progress had been made . Not fully satisfied,

he sent it to Colonel Bishop for her views. She began

her remarks by noting the strength increase from 12 8

officers and 1,320 enlisted women on 30 June 196 4

to 145 officers and 1,718 enlisted women on board o n

31 October 1965 and the increased satisfaction ex -

pressed by commands with the performance and appearance of women Marines. "

She then commented in depth on the more disappointing progress shown in some areas. Of particular

concern was the question of advanced training fo r

senior officers. The original recommendation to sen d

WM officers to Command and Staff College had bee n

diluted to a statement about providing postgraduat e

training in civilian or military schools and the notation that WM officers were eligible to compete wit h

male applicants for post-graduate training . No othe r

action was considered necessary on this recommendation. Colonel Bishop wrote :

This has always been the case, with the result that on e

woman in 1950 managed to obtain a year in Personnel Ad -

ministration at Ohio State . No gain has been made here

as post-graduate training for senior women was to be a substitute for advanced professional training available to caree r

Marines in AWS (Amphibious Warfare School) and Command and Staff College. "

After comparing Colonel Bishop's separate assessment of the progress made with that provided by the

G-1, the Commandant pencilled in on the latter :

Women Marine Program Revitalized, 1965-1973

Three unrelated factors of disparate importance al l

joined to alter the future course of the woman Marine program at this point : a stricter policy on discharge based on marriage effective 15 July 1964 ; the

Pepper Board report of 30 November 1964 ; and increased involvement of Marines in the war in Vietna m

in 1965 . Dramatic progress was made in strength ,

availability of formal training, opening of new occupational fields, and in assignment possibilities in the

United States and overseas.

Strength Increases

The Pepper Board reaffirmed the policy stated i n

1948 of maintaining a woman Marine strength of on e

percent of total Marine Corps enlisted strength . Actually the number of WMs had been steadily declining since 1953, leveling off at the one percent goal,

approximately 1,700 from 1956 to 1959 and reachin g

a nadir of 1,281 in December 1964, when the Peppe r

Board reported its findings. In August 1965, due t o

Vietnam commitments, a 30,000-man increase was approved for the Marine Corps and higher objectives wer e

concurrently set for WMs. By 31 May 1967, enliste d

strength was 2,082 and officer strength reached 190.

A peak of about 2,700 WMs was reached during th e

Vietnam era of 1968 and 1969 and then tapered t o

2,288 on 30 June 1973 . 1 6

Higher recruiting goals accounted for some of th e

success, but more impact was made by better retention due to tighter control of discharges solely for reason of marriage . On 15 July 1964, a joint househol d

policy became effective which denied discharge to

women Marines who were located in the same area as

their husbands. All discharges of this type were the n

suspended on 20 August 1965 in conjunction with a

four-month involuntary extension for all Marines. By

1966 new regulations virtually eliminated marriage a s

a condition for discharge for WMs resulting in a reduction of that type of separation from 18 .6 percent of

woman Marine losses in 1964 to 2 .3 percent in 196 6

and finally 0 percent in 1969 .1 7

Recruiting incentives guaranteeing geographi c

choices of duty and formal training combined wit h

other enhancements resulting from the implementa-
74 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

tion of Pepper Board recommendations raised enlisted recruiting from about 60 percent attainment of

quota in 1963 to 105.7 percent in 1966. Officer selection not only improved numerically, but a larger

proportion of candidates were seniors or graduate s

than in previous years, a factor which cut down on th e

drop-out rate of younger students and ultimately le d

to an increase in commissions accepted. In 1966,

officer selection attained 103 .3 percent of seniorgraduates quota and 152 .5 percent of junior quota .

Sophomores were no longer eligible . 18 At the same

time, the percent of women recruited as Regulars to

serve a three- or four-year contract as opposed t o

Reserves with a two-year obligation rose from 48 per -

cent in June to 77 percent on 31 March 1968 .1 9

All told, efforts in the mid-1960s to stabilize th e

woman Marine program, to encourage women Marines

to complete their initial enlistment, to lengthen th e

average tour of women Marines, and to make the Marine Corps an attractive choice for potential enlistee s

achieved demonstrable success.

Women Officers' Specialist Training ,

1965-1973

In 1964, women officers were serving in only eight

occupational fields with about 70 percent in administrative billets, and no deliberate attempt was

made to achieve a wider distribution . Only 30.6 percent of the second lieutenants commissioned in th e

three-year period ending in 1964 had received formal

specialist training. No training was available in personnel administration although the majority of women

officers served in this field. In contrast, members of

the 20th Woman Officers Basic Course which graduated in October 1966 were assigned in 14 occupational fields to include intelligence, operationa l

communications, transportation, legal, avionics, aerology, and aviation operations, specialities in whic h

women officers had been a rarity since World War II .

Other fields to which the graduates were assigned wer e

personnel and administration ; supply administratio n

and operations ; auditing, finance, and accounting;

data processing ; Marine Corps exchange ; information

services; photography ; training and training aids; and

air control-antiair warfare. Seventy-two percent of thes e

newly commissioned women officers received formal

training at eight schools?" Earlier in the year, First

Lieutenant Alice K. Kurashige, the first woman Marine officer since World War II to be assigned a primary

MOS in food service, completed a 12-week course i n

food services supervision at Fort Lee, Virginia .

Capt Carol A, Vertalino, first woman Marine office r

to attend Amphibious Warfare School, is shown with

LtGen Carson A . Roberts, Commanding General,

Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, at Quantico in 1963 .

The following spring, 1967, Colonel Bishop reported in the Woman Marine Newsletter on the status of

this officer training . The first WM officers to atten d

the Communication Officers Orientation Course a t

Quantico had made an impressive showing . In a class

of three women and 23 men, Second Lieutenant Margaret B. Read finished second ; Second Lieutenan t

Patricia A. Allegree fourth ; and Second Lieutenant Lyn

A. Liddle sixth. Second Lieutenant Janice C . Scott had

completed the Military Intelligence Orientatio n

Course at Fort Holabird, Maryland, in January and

continued on to attend the 18-week Aerial Surveillanc e

Officer Course . Second Lieutenant Tommy L. Treasure, also a graduate of Fort Holabird's Military Intelligence Officer Course, was ordered to a subsequen t

Aerial Surveillance Officers Course . CWO Elaine G .

Freeman was to begin a four-week course in automatic data processing analysis in April and Captain Sara

R. Beauchamp and Second Lieutenant JoAnn Deberry would follow in June . Four WM officers, Secon d

Lieutenants Alpha R. Noguera, Donna J. Sherwood ,

Norma L. Tomlinson, and Harriet T. Wendel were

scheduled to attend the 10-week Air Traffic Contro l

Officers Course at the Naval Air Station, Glynco ,

Georgia 2'
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS : PEPPER BOARD, 1964-1972 7 5

Women Lawyers and Judges—A Beginning

On 1 May 1944, Captain Lily S . Hutcheon, a lawyer stationed at Camp Lejeune, became the first woman judge advocate in the history of the Marine Corps .

Captain Hutcheon had originally joined the Navy, but

upon completion of Midshipman's School at Northhampton, Massachusetts, was commissioned a first

lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps Reserve .

She was released to inactive duty in 1946 but returne d

to continuous active duty in 1949 . Under her marrie d

name, Gridley, she became a well-known Marine ,

highly respected for her work in legal assistance at

Headquarters Marine Corps where she served until he r

retirement in 1965 . Lieutenant Colonel Gridley, fo r

all those years, was the only woman Marine lawyer.22

Then, as a direct result of the Pepper Board study,

a woman was permitted to complete officer candidat e

training, accept a commission, and delay her activ e

duty service while attending law school . In 1966-1967 ,

First Lieutenant Patricia A. Murphy received he r

bachelor of laws degree from Catholic University i n

Washington, D.C., graduated from the Woman Officer Basic Course, passed the District of Columbia Ba r

examination, graduated from the Lawyer's Course a t

SSgts Mary L. McLain (left) and Carmen Adams (right), the first enlisted women to arrive for duty at Marine Corps Air Station, Iwakuni, Japan, are greeted by Col William

M. Lundin, commanding officer; SgtMajJ. F. Moore ; and 1stSgt K. L. Ford in 1967.
76 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

Naval Justice School, was selected for promotion t o

captain, and was certified by the Judge Advocat e

General to perform as a trial or defense counsel of a

general court martia12 3 Two years later, she became

the first woman Marine officer ever to argue a case be -

fore the Court of Military Appeals, and in 1970 whil e

stationed at Treasure Island, California, and by the n

Captain Patricia Murphy Gormley, she became the firs t

woman Marine lawyer in 26 years to be certified as a

military judge .24

Professional Training

The Woman Marine Program Study Group (Pep -

per Board) identified the lack of career-type forma l

school training as the most notable deficiency in th e

woman Marine officer program. There was almost total opposition to the inclusion of women students a t

the Marine Corps' Command and Staff College since

it would deprive a male Marine of the opportunity t o

attend this career-enhancing school . Less was said of

the junior level course conducted for captains and

majors at the Amphibious Warfare School and ther e

was no opposition to sending women to Army or Navy

schools provided these services would not ask for a

reciprocal space in a Marine school for a WAC or WAVE

officer.

Through unofficial conversation with the Director ,

Women's Army Corps, Colonel Bishop was able to la y

the groundwork for women Marines to participate i n

the five-month WAC Career Officers Course at Fort

McClellan, Alabama . Captain Barbara J. Lee, the first

Marine to attend, graduated in May 1965 .25 She was

followed by seven others. Captains Elaine E. Filkins

(later Davies), Gail M. Reals, Jeanne Botwright (later

Humphrey), and Joan M. Collins, who distinguished

herself as an honor graduate by finishing second in

the class, comprised an early group. The last three

women to attend this school before it was disestablished in 1972 were Captains Karen G. Grant,

Judybeth D. Barnett, and Ellen T. Laws28

Amphibious Warfare School

Given the climate of the period following the Pep -

per Board, the intense interest of Colonel Bishop in

woman officer schooling, and the vigorous support o f

General Greene, it was but a matter of time befor e

a woman officer was enrolled in the Marine Corps'

Amphibious Warfare Course . Captain Carol A. Vertalino (later Diliberto) was assigned to a modified version of AWS 1-67, on a trial basis, beginning on 2 3

August 1966 . Aware of the limits of her formal mili -

tary education, and knowing that the future assignment of WMs to the school was contingent upon he r

performance, Captain Vertalino spoke of her apprehension to Colonel Bishop . The director assured her

that her selection was based on her professional reputation and her ability to get along with people . She

was not expected to finish first in the class, indeed that

might antagonize her fellow students. With five

months to prepare herself, Captain Vertalino, on her

own time, completed the Basic Officer and the AWS

correspondence courses, each one designed to take th e

better part of a year.

The normal syllabus was altered to allow the lone

woman student to visit base staff offices for briefings

and informal training while the class was working o n

combat-related matters. It proved awkward for all concerned, the academic staff making suitable arrangements, the staff sections assigned to brief her ,

and, most of all, for Captain Vertalino . After her successful completion of the course in May 1967, it was

decided that woman officers would attend subsequent ,

unmodified classes at AWS .27

Post-Graduate Schooling

For the first time in more than 15 years, a woma n

officer was selected for postgraduate training in the

Special Education Program.* In July 1967, First Lieutenant Judith Davenport reported to the Naval Post

Graduate School at Monterey, California, to pursue

a two-year course in applied mathematics2 8

Command and Staff Colleg e

The question of women officer students at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College remained unresolved for more than three years after th e

recommendation was made by the Pepper Board . Encouraged by the passage of Public Law 90-130 in 1967

which made women eligible for selection to the permanent grade of colonel, Colonel Bishop sent a

memorandum to the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3, in

which she stated :

. . . women officers will be expected to fill established

billets appropriate for the grade of colonel in various Marine Corps commands. . . . Women Marines who are now

lieutenant colonels have had little or no formal professiona l

education during their service careers. Efforts should be

directed toward providing the younger group of these lieu -

tenant colonels with career training which will enable the m

to serve beneficially in higher grades? *

She asked that Lieutenant Colonel Jenny Wrenn b e

*In 1950, Major Julia E . Hamblet attended Ohio State .
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS : PEPPER BOARD, 1964-1972 7 7

assigned, on a trial basis, to the class convening in Au -

gust 1968. Lieutenant Colonel Wrenn had previousl y

asked for such an assignment and the colonel for whom

she worked, Chief, Plans and Operations Branch, Marine Corps Education Center, indicated to Colone l

Bishop that he considered her to be, " an outstandin g

candidate should women officers be assigned to Command and Staff College ." 30 Approval came on 9 February 1968 and included the words :

It is recognized that the restricted nature of assignments

for Women Marine officers will preclude the full application of all instruction received from the college. However,

participation in the full syllabus will provide valuable professional knowledge to enhance the growth of this selecte d

Woman Marine officer and correspondingly increase her value

to the U.S . Marine Corps 3 1

Women officers at the time reasoned that all Marine officers are limited to some degree by their classification as infantry officer, aviator, supply officer, etc . ,

and none of them could expect to use fully all the instructional material . Since Lieutenant Colonel Wren n

successfully completed the Command and Staff College, women officers have been regularly included as

class members.

The Armed Forces Staff College

The Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, opened its doors to women officers in 1970 . Provision was made for a quota of one woman officer of

each service for the class which convened in February .

Competition for selection between men and wome n

was thereby eliminated and apparently there was no

Marine Corps opposition to the plan to send a woman officer to this high-level school . Lieutenant Colonel

Mary Evelyn Bane was selected to attend this course ,

graduated, and was then assigned to the G-1 Divisio n

at Headquarters Marine Corps.3 2

Completion of such a prestigious military school di d

not dispel the notion that women colonels were no t

to be assigned in the normal fashion. When Lieutenant Colonel Bane was selected for promotion, the

personnel monitor responsible for colonel assignment s

called her in and asked her where she thought she

should be transferred since in her words, "The though t

of disposing of a woman colonel was turning hi m

pale" 33 Based upon her past experience, and her training, she offered the opinion that the most logical plac e

might be Headquarters. He did not agree and said,

"That would never do . You would have to be a branch

head"34 And so Colonel Bane was ordered to Camp

Pendleton where she filled an assistant chief of staff

billet.*

Advanced Training and Assignment of

Enlisted Women Marines, 1965-1973

Little time was lost between the Commandant's approval in mid-1965 and the implementation of th e

Pepper Board's recommendations regarding advance d

training for enlisted women Marines. On 1 January

1966 a program emphasizing advanced technical training for women recruit graduates was published. Its

purpose was to bring the woman Marine to an effective level of proficiency in her MOS as soon as possible . During the first six months of 1966, 75 percen t

of the women recruit graduates went on to advance d

formal schools in 17 different fields, a sharp contrast

to the five recruits who received post-recruit training

in 1963 .35 In the Winter 1967 Woman Marine Newsletter, Colonel Bishop reported that women Marine s

attended a variety of military schools at Army, Navy,

and Marine Corps bases and received basic-level instruction in such areas as administration, supply,

telecommunications, electronics, disbursing, photography, aviation operations, aerology, air control, aviation training devices, optical instrument repair,

transportation, cooking and baking, and journalism .

Others attended advanced courses such as NC O

leadership, administration chief, recruiting, air control, legal clerk and court reporter, supply, process pho -

tography, Marine security guard, instructor orientation ,

and data processing30

During the period 1965-1973, opportunities fo r

women Marines were greatly expanded . The gains were

evident but not to be taken for granted . Many long -

held assignment prejudices persisted . Women Marine s

sent to the Naval Air Station, Memphis, for advance d

training in aviation specialties, for example, were nearly all channeled into aviation supply and aviatio n

operations, crowding these two specialties while others

were far short of the planned WM quotas. Others,

upon arrival at Memphis were reclassified into field s

such as administration, which Colonel Bishop note d

as " . . . unfortunate since they are denied advanced

training and, having qualified for aviation school, the y

are among the better qualified WMs. . . " 37 The Commandant reacted quickly with a letter to the corn -

*In 1975 Colonel Bane returned to Headquarters as the Hea d

of the Separation and Retirement Branch where she served unti l

her retirement in 1977 .
78 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

manding officer of the Marine Aviation Detachmen t

at Memphis stating:

It is the Commandant's desire that Women Marines b e

assigned to a greater range of military occupational special -

ties to form a more efficient mobilization base . In consequence, it is requested that Women Marines assigned to you r

command for aviation training be assigned in the percent -

ages indicated . . . 3 fl

A second example of strictly "sexist" assignments

was the practice of using attractive, intelligent women Marines in jobs that were more show than substance. A number of WMs served in highly visibl e

positions as receptionists in the Pentagon and it ofte n

happened that the most capable were retained ther e

for inordinate periods of time . This worked to the disadvantage of the individual woman Marine who, whe n

eventually transferred, found herself on a Marin e

Corps base as a staff noncommissioned officer withou t

adequate experience to supervise, instruct, and counsel, let alone to drill a platoon or stand a duty watch .

In the latter part of 1966, the Marine Corps was queried on the prospect of establishing a new billet in th e

office of a Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy .

Colonel Bishop's comment was :

As desirable as these billets may be as "window dressing "

for the Marine Corps, they have long been wasteful of th e

most capable and best appearing Women Marines . The work

entailed in receptionists' billets offer no challenge to the

caliber of women assigned to them. Each time a replacement is needed unreasonable selectivity requires a long parade of nominees to be submitted for the personal inspection

of the office concerned . It is considered that the Marine Corps

already had an undesirable monopoly on receptionist billets

in the various Navy Secretary's Offices. It is recommended

that the invitation to establish yet another billet b e

declined as

Overall, the plusses outweighed the minuses in th e

training and assignment of enlisted women in the year s

following the Pepper Board . In 1972, Colonel Sustad ,

as Director of Women Marines, reported to Congres s

that women could serve in 23 occupational fields; service in two of them, motor transport and band, was

restricted to time of war. Women Marines were, in

1972, as a matter of law and of Marine Corps policy ,

prohibited from the following 12 fields : infantry; field

artillery; utilities; construction equipment and shor e

party; tank and amphibian tractor ; ammunition and

explosive ordnance disposal; supply services; nuclear,

biological, and chemical warfare ; military police an d

corrections; electronics maintenance ; aviation ordnance ; and air delivery. Colonel Sustad went on to explain that :

Marine Corps policy on the utilization of women permit s

wide flexibility and interchangability with male Marines.

While 100 percent workability of this policy cannot be attained because of such factors as billeting, physical limitations, rotation base, or combat capability, it is recognize d

that basically a Woman Marine is qualified to serve in an y

location or in any billet if she possesses an appropriate an d

required skill? "

At the time of her statement before Congress, enlisted women were actually assigned in 21 occupational

fields with 34 percent in administration, 12 percen t

in supply, and 5 percent in operational communications, the three fields of greatest WM concentration.

New Woman Marine Units, Stateside

Coupled with new job opportunities came new geographic assignments. In Director of Women Marine s

Study 1-64, Colonel Bishop recommended the opening of woman Marine companies at bases with a

mobilization requirement for women Marines, specifically, the Marine Corps Supply Centers at Barstow an d

Albany. The Pepper Board reaffirmed the idea an d

expanded it to include the Air Station at Kaneohe ,

Hawaii. Additionally, it recommended that wome n

staff noncommissioned officers be assigned to Marine

Corps Base, Twentynine Palms; Marine Corps Air Stations at Yuma and Beaufort; the Marine Corps Air Facilities at New River and Santa Ana ; and, finally, it

proposed that WM sergeants and above, be assigned

to appropriate billets with the support and administrative sections of the various Marine barrack s

overseas 4 '

Marine Corps Supply Center, Barstow

On 13 January 1966, Prospector, the Barstow post

newspaper, announced the arrival of the first woman

Marine to report for duty at the Supply Center sinc e

1946 . Captain Vea J. Smith was named supply operations officer in Services Division . She became the expert in residence in the planning for a company of 100

women Marines due to be established when billeting

arrangements were completed . The following month,

First Lieutenant Wanda Raye Silvey assumed duties a s

disbursing officer in the Comptroller Division' a

Gunnery Sergeants Virginia Almonte and Lea E .

Woodworth arrived in June 1966, both assigned to the

Center's Adjutant office 4 3 First Lieutenant Rebecca M .

Kraft, slated to be the first WM company commande r

at Barstow, joined them a year later on 25 June 1967 "

And so, the first WM Company in the 25-year his-
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS : PEPPER BOARD, 1964-1972 7 9

tory of the Supply Center was activated on 1 July 1967 .

It was also the first new WM unit to be establishe d

in 13 years and brought to 11 the number of majo r

Marine Corps commands with women's organizations .

The first contingent of WMs, Lance Corporals Suzann e

Bryant, Sheryl L. Moore, and Christina M. Christopher,

arrived on 17 July and were greeted by First Lieutenan t

Kraft and the company first sergeant, Gunnery Sergeant Woodworth . Building 182 had been completely renovated and outfitted with new furniture "

The company at Barstow was short-lived, being

deactivated in August 1971 and designated as a platoon of Headquarters Company, Headquarters an d

Service Battalion . The senior WM on board was there -

after assigned additional duty as woman Marine ad -

visor on the commanding general's special staff. From

1967 to 1971, seven officers served as WM compan y

commanders at Barstow: First Lieutenant Rebecca M .

Kraft, Captain Joan M. Hammond, First Lieutenant

Diane L. Hamel, Captain Alice K . Kurashige, First

Lieutenant Geraldine E. Peeler, Captain Vanda K .

Brame,* and First Lieutenant Linda J . Lenhart 4 8

Marine Corps Supply Center, Albany

Similar activity was taking place at Albany, Georgia . Private First Class Donna L. Albert, on 4 February 1966, was the first WM to report to that post for

duty . Her assignment, making a departure from th e

custom of only stationing lower ranked women at lo -

cations with a WM unit was permitted because sh e

was able to maintain a household with her husband ,

Private First Class Dennis M . Albert. 4 7

Second Lieutenant Emma G . Ramsey, formerly enlisted, arrived on 29 July 1966, the first WM office r

to serve at the center. She was followed shortly there -

after by Master Sergeant Rita M . Walsh, making a total of three .

Second Lieutenant Ramsey, officer in charge of the

manpower utilization unit, found herself undertakin g

the additional duty of commanding officer of the W M

company then being formed . Working with Maste r

Sergeant Walsh, she began the task of planning an d

preparing for a full-strength company . Barracks wer e

remodeled, administrative support was arranged, an d

directives were drafted .4 8

Apart from Second Lieutenant Ramsey and Maste r

Sergeant Walsh, the initial company members arriv -

*Captain Brame was one of four women Marines to receive th e

Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism . See Chapter 15 fo r

details.

ing in August 1967 were : Master Sergeant Bernice P.

Querry, the new first sergeant; Corporals Margaret G .

Wegener and Barbara A . Zimmer; Lance Corporals

Doris H . Pallant, Carrie M. Saxon, Marjorie W.

Groht, Donna L. Correll, Cheryl L . Larison, Robi n

M. Holloway, Virginia Gonzales, Cathy L . Pierce, Barbara L . Bradek, and Rosemary Lamont ; Privates First

Class Kathleen A . Kisczik, Daryl R. Cessna, Linda A .

Dewaele, and Gertrude Martin . Captain Sara R .

Beauchamp arrived in September and was named th e

new commanding officer.4 9

At the formal activation ceremonies on 13 September 1967, Sergeant Major of the Woman Marines Ouida W. Craddock unveiled a cornerstone plaque on the

Woman Marine Barracks. Colonel Bishop and Captain Beauchamp assisted Albany 's mayor, the Honorable James V . Davis, with the ribbon-cutting at

Barracks 7103 . 5 ° But, like the company at Barstow ,

the WM Company, Albany, enjoyed but a brief existence . It was deactivated on 1 November 1972 and

the women became a platoon of Service Company ,

Headquarters and Service Battalion . 5 1

Marine Corps Air Station, Kaneoh e

The Pepper Board had recommended reactivation

of a WM unit at the Marine Corps Air Station at

Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii . Approval was initially defer -

red mainly because WM strength could not support

establishment of this unit as well as new units at Bar -

stow and Albany . Under the new policy permittin g

the assignment of women on an individual basis t o

commands where no WM unit or housing existed, two

officers, Captain Manuela Hernandez and First Lieutenant Diane Leppaluoto were ordered to Kaneohe

early in 1966 . By the end of the year, the decision

was made to activate a company of 100 enlisted women and two officers . Alterations began on a barrack s

and the company was formed in December 1967 . 5 2

Women Marines Overseas

In July 1966 a decision was made to assign wome n

Marines to the western Pacific area . The purpose was

twofold : to free as many male Marines as possible fo r

duty with committed Fleet Marine Force units and t o

provide WMs with additional career incentives. Plans

were made to send women to Camp Butler on Okinawa; the Marine Corps Air Station at Iwakuni, Japan ;

and Headquarters, United States Military Assistanc e

Command at Saigon, Vietnam. Each command was

queried on the number of billets suitable for WM s

and billeting space available .
80 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

Verbal and written objections expressed to date concerning the assignment of enlisted women to Iwakuni impl y

either that the prime consideration is the women's enjoyment of their tour or that their presence constitutes a serious threat to the good order and discipline of their masculine

associates.s"

1 stLt Anne Tallman (center), officer-in-charge of th e

first woman Marine contingent to arrive on Okinawa, stops to confer with members of her group upo n

arrival at Kadena Air Base in November 1966.

Women were asked to volunteer for the 13-month

tour and had to be recommended by their commanding officers. Those with less than 13 months to serve

were required to extend or reenlist to cover the tou r

length . Opportunities for enlisted women, private

through gunnery sergeant, were greatest for those in

administration, logistics, operational communications,

telecommunications maintenance, supply, disbursing ,

data processing, informational services, photography ,

weather service, air traffic control, and aviation operations . Officers, warrant through major, were eligible for assignment to the Far East and were especially

needed in administration, communications, supply ,

disbursing, and legal services. WMs were ordered t o

the Pacific area in increments to avoid a 100 percen t

turnover at the end of 13 months .

ss

Marine Corps Air Station, Iwakuni

There was very little resistance to the idea of assigning WMs to Vietnam. The enthusiasm on Okinawa

was somewhat less . There was outright opposition t o

the proposal at the Marine Corps Air Station at Iwakuni, Japan. The Commanding General, Fleet Marin e

Force, Pacific, Lieutenant General Victor H . Krulak,

had doubts about the plan based on the inadequac y

of appropriate on-base recreational facilities and a lac k

of suitable off-base liberty areas. Colonel Bishop ,

when asked by the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Leonard F. Chapman, Jr., to comment on the subject, wrote :

She advocated the weighing of adequate liberty facilities against the chance for the women to make

meaningful contributions to Marine Corps personne l

needs under conditions of minor personal hardship ,

and continued, "This response was not beyond their

capabilities in the past ." 55 Taking up the matter of

the female presence, she added :

Presumably, the local command has been able to maintain sufficient disciplinary control over the masculine element to avoid undue unpleasantness for Navy Nurses ,

dependents of the other services, and civilian school teachers

aboard the base .

The most telling argument against the assignment of

women to Iwakuni is not their ability to adjust to unusual

or difficult circumstances but the negative attitude expresse d

at all levels of command in WestPac toward their presenc e

at Iwakuni . This attitude is hardly conducive to their welcome reception and normal uneventful adjustment . 56 *

Colonel Bishop and the Sergeant Major of Women Marines, First Sergeant Evelyn E . Albert, made a

trip to WestPac to confer with the commands and to

inspect the available barracks. At Iwakuni all the briefings were designed to discourage the plan . In respons e

to a question on the controversy, the former directo r

wrote in a letter to the History and Museums Division in 1977 :

Controversial is an understatement of the assignment of

women to the Far East—particularly to Japan . Okinawa was

no great problem—nor Vietnam, but the CO of the Air Station in Japan was unbelievable in his efforts to prevent this

"catastrophe ." (He made my trip interesting tho by havin g

me dragged through an assortment of bars and what no t

as an indoctrination to the horrors of the Far East . I stil l

have a fan presented to me by an aging proprietress of one

of those establishments to show she bore no ill will to the

women . )57

*"Interestingly, the senior Navy nurse [when queried by General Greene during a visit to Iwakuni] adamantly opposed the assignment of women Marines to the station without being able t o

justify her opposition !

"This observation also applied to the CO of the Air Station! Based on an on-the-spot analysis it quickly became evident that WMs

should be assigned to the station and I left determined to see this

done, even if it became necessary to relieve the CO—a prospec t

which I communicated to him before my departure!" (Gen Wallace M. Greene, Jr., comments on draft manuscript, dtd 26Dec79)
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS : PEPPER BOARD, 1964-1972 8 1

Captain Marilyn E. Wallace became the first

woman Marine to serve in the Far East, reporting t o

the Marine Corps Air Station, Iwakuni on 15 Octobe r

1966 . Assigned as station disbursing officer, she was

billeted in a BOQ housing Navy nurses5 8 Five months

later, on 23 March 1967, the arrival of the first enlisted women Marines raised the air station distaff

strength to seven . The WMs, Gunnery Sergeant

Frances J. Fisher, Staff Sergeants Carmen Adams an d

Mary L. McLain, and Sergeants Elva M. Pounders,

Patricia Malnar, and Donna K . Duncan were accompanied on the last leg of their journey from Okinawa

to Japan by Major Jane L. Wallis, senior WM in th e

Far East.5 9

At Iwakuni, Colonel William M. Lundin, station

commanding officer; Lieutenant Colonel Robert W.

Taylor, station executive officer; Sergeant Major J . E

Moore, station sergeant major; and First Sergeant K .

L . Ford of Headquarters and Headquarters Squadro n

were on hand to greet the women Marines and to tak e

them to lunch. They were taken on a tour of the station ending with a welcome aboard gathering wher e

they met the officers for whom they would work . Staff

Sergeant Adams wrote to the Director of Woman Marines, "These Marines over here just can't seem to d o

enough for us" 80 The WMs received thorough briefings on customs, laws, and Japanese religions. Interviews were arranged with the Japanese press explaining

the work of the women Marines to dispel any notion s

that they were taking jobs away from Japanese

women 81

The welcome accorded the WMs at Iwakuni i n

1967, in the wake of the bitter opposition voiced at

the prospect of their assignment, was not unlike th e

reception given the first Regulars in 1948. Once the

decision was final and the presence of women Marine s

was a fait accompli, Marines, with few exceptions, accepted the situation with good grace .

Marine Corps Air Station ,

Futema, Okinawa

Within days of Captain Wallace's arrival at Iwakuni in October 1966, First Lieutenant Anne S . Tallman

and nine enlisted WMs reported to Travis Air Forc e

Base, California, for transportation to Okinawa 8 2 Arriving at Kadena Air Force Base not far from Futem a

on Saturday, 22 October, they were greeted by Majo r

John D. Way, administrative officer; Captain George

A. Kinser, personnel officer ; and Sergeant Major John

W. Arnby, the facility sergeant major. Included in the

first group were Sergeant Carol A. Kindig; Corporals

Joan A. Carey, San Crosby, Patricia Hurlburt, Elizabeth

Turner, and Ronelle Wuerch ; and Lance Corporals

Maryann Burger, Suzanne Davis, and Diana Savage .

First Lieutenant Tallman took up the duties of

informational officer and the enlisted women were assigned to operations, disbursing, supply, weather service, and communications.6 3

The women Marines were attached to Headquarters

and Headquarters Squadron . The senior WM office r

functioned as the WM liaison to the commandin g

officer of the Marine Corps Air Facility . When more

officers arrived, the senior woman officer became, a s

an additional duty, the officer in charge of the WMs.

She reported to the commanding officer of th e

squardon and helped him with duty assignments, inspections, and matters related to the distaff Marines .

The officers and staff noncommissioned officers (du e

to a lack of adequate space) lived in BOQ 217 . The

enlisted women lived in a small barracks, ideally situated behind the post exchange, and next to the swimming pool, theater, and gymnasium 6 9

Marine Corps Base,

Camp Butler, Okinawa

The renovation of a barracks at Camp Smedley D .

BGen Ronald R. Van Stockum, assisted by Maj Jan e

L. Wallis, WM Company commander, Camp Butler,

Okinawa cuts the birthday cake in November 1967 .
82 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

Between 1967 and 1973, 36 women Marines served in South Vietnam . Capt Elaine E.

Filkins (left) and Sgt Doris Denton (right) tour Saigon in a cyclo on a rare afternoon off.

Butler delayed the arrival of WMs for a few months.

The first aboard were Major Jane L. Wallis and Second

Lieutenant Doris M . Keeler, reporting in on 10 December 1966 . Major Wallis, assistant base adjutant,

was in addition officer in charge of the women Marines. Second Lieutenant Keeler, formerly enlisted, wa s

assigned as communications officer85

On Monday, 16 January 1967, a contingent of 1 8

enlisted WMs arrived on Okinawa for assignment t o

Camp Butler and Futema . On hand to meet the arrivals were Brigadier General Ronald R. Van Stockum, Commanding General, FMFPac (Forward) ;

Colonel Robert B. Laing, Sr., Futema Marine Corp s

Air Facility commander; Colonel James A. Gallo, Jr. ,

Camp Butler executive officer ; and Major Wallis, th e

senior woman Marine on the island . The 9th Marin e

Amphibious Brigade Band from Camp Hanse n

serenaded the women during the welcoming ceremony. The first enlisted women to be assigned at Cam p

Butler were Staff Sergeant Helen A . Dowd; Corporals

Kathleen Wright,* Sharon Lynn Bowe, Suzanne T .

Guyman, Susan W . Blair, and Mary J. Andlott; and

Lance Corporals Linda C . (nee Jaquet) Beck, Virgini a

Emaline Baker, and Brenda Ray Brown . "

At work in the adjutant's office, Major Wallis saw

much of the correspondence dealing with the op -

position of the command toward the assignment o f

WMs to Okinawa. Yet, the welcome the wome n

received was characteristically cordial . Major Wallis be -

lieves the Marines were sincere as they performed smal l

acts of courtesy and consideration beyond the routine .

As an example, at the time it was unofficially accepted that the men of each unit had their own table at

the Staff Noncommissioned Officers Club, leaving th e

women SNCOs with literally no place to sit except th e

*Sergeant Wright became the first Camp Butler woman Marin e

to receive a Certificate of Commendation for outstanding performance of duty. The certificate was presented by Major General Joh n

G. Bouker in February 1968 .
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS : PEPPER BOARD, 1964-1972 8 3

bar. When Master Sergeant Sarah N . Thornton arrived ,

men from several of the units invited her to join their

group whenever she came to the club . The WMs further found that once on the job, they soon became

indispensable . Their work sections did not easil y

release women on Saturdays or Mondays, making

weekend liberty trips difficult 8 7 It was a bitterswee t

compliment.

Women Marines on Okinawa had a uniform problem since they wore the two-piece summer cord dress

all year and it was often quite cold . The raincoat di d

not provide a satisfactory answer as it was too hot an d

sticky in the humid weather. Major Wallis and Secon d

Lieutenant Keeler designed a green, V-necked cardigan sweater that fit under the lapels of the uniform.

The small standard green buttons normally worn on

the epaulets of the summer uniform were used on th e

non-regulation sweater. It cost about $15 to have on e

custom made, and Colonel Bishop gave permission to

wear it on Okinawa only.8 8

WMs stationed at Camp Butler and Futema joine d

together to celebrate Christmas in Japan in 1967 .

Major Wallis and one enlisted woman flew to Cam p

Fuji to check the facilities. The question was, "Could

17 women live in one hootch (quonset hut) with only

one shower?" They decided they certainly coul d

manage for 72 hours. Marines moved out, doubled up,

and turned over their hootch to the WMs. The medical dispensary was made into quarters for the wome n

officers and staff noncommissioned officers. In all, 25

WMs spent the holidays at the Camp Fuji Range Company. Time was spent climbing the slopes of Mt . Fuji,

skiing, and ice skating, but the highlight of the tri p

was a Christmas Eve party at the Seibi Yamanaka Orphanage . The Marines, men and women, arrived laden

with pots of spaghetti and meatballs, orange soda ,

chocolate cake, and gaily wrapped presents for the 5 1

orphan boys. After the party the group returned to

Camp Fuji to carol and to decorate the trees in th e

mess hall and the clubs. Late in the afternoon of

Christmas Day, the Marines enjoyed a family-styl e

traditional Christmas dinner "

February 1968 marked the 25th anniversary of th e

women Marines and Major Wallis' tour was extended

to complete plans for a special celebration . It was

planned to have WMs from all WestPac command s

attend, and a search was made to find as many former WMs as possible from among the dependents . At

the last moment, the WMs from Vietnam could no t

leave the country due to the Tet offensive of 1968.

Women Marines from Camp Butler, Futema, an d

Iwakuni gathered at Kadena's Airmen's Open Mess

along with their guests. The traditional cake was cut

by Major General John G. Bouker, who presented th e

first piece to Master Sergeant Thornton, oldest WM

at the party, and the second to Lance Corpora l

Maureen McGauren, the youngest 7 0

Women Marines in Vietnam

Companion to greater opportunity is greater responsibility and for women in the Marine Corps in th e

1960s that meant service in the war-torn Republic o f

Vietnam . The announcement was made and plan s

were set in 1967 for one officer and nine enlisted wom -

en to fill desk billets with the Military Assistance Com -

mand, Vietnam (MACV), based in Saigon . Generally,

they were to work with the Marine Corps Personne l

Section on the staff of the Commander, Naval Forces ,

Vietnam. The section provided administrative support

to Marines assigned as far north as the Demilitarize d

Zone (DMZ). Later, another officer billet was added

and Lieutenant Colonels Ruth J . O'Holleran and Ruth

F . Reinholz eventurally served as historians with the

Military History Branch, Secretary Joint Staff, MACV .

Care was taken to select mature, stable WMs who

could be expected to adapt to strange surroundings

and cope in an emergency. Interested women Marine s

were asked to volunteer by notifying their commanding officer or by indicating their desire to serve in Viet -

nam on their fitness reports. There was no shortage

of volunteers, but not all met the criteria. Then ther e

was a number of women who would willingly accept ,

but not volunteer for orders to a combat zone . Theoretically, all WMs who served in Vietnam were volunteers in that nearly all had expressed their willingness

to go and none objected?' When Master Sergean t

Bridget V. Connolly was asked what made her volunteer for duty in Saigon, she laughed and said, "Wh o

volunteered? I received my orders in the guard mail ."

She became a legitimate volunteer when her initia l

tour ended and she extended for an additional six

months "

The first woman Marine to report to Vietnam fo r

duty was Master Sergeant Barbara J. Dulinsky, wh o

arrived on 18 March 1967 . After an 18-hour flight, sh e

landed at dusk at Bien Hoa, about 30 miles north of

Saigon. Travel was restricted after dark on the unsecure roads, so she was billeted overnight at the air -

field. The next morning she was taken by bus and

armed escort to Koeppler Compound in Saigon and
84 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

there her tour began with a security lecture . The briefing was not concerned with security of classifie d

material as one might expect, but with security in dayto-day living in Vietnam, such as recognizing boob y

traps, and checking cabs upon entering to ensure ther e

was a handle inside . Arrival procedures were similar

for most WMs7 3

At first, the enlisted women were quartered in th e

Ambassador Hotel, and later they moved to the Plaza, a hotel-dormitory, two to a room . Women of othe r

services and several hundred men called the Plaz a

home. By spring 1968, the enlisted women were move d

to the Billings Bachelor Enlisted Quarters (BEQ), located near MACV Headquarters and Tan Son Nhu t

Airbase.

Generally, the women officers were billeted in Le

Qui Don, a hotel-like Bachelor Officers Quarters

(BOQ). Company grade officers were usually assigned two to a room; WMs and WAVES billeted together .

Like the Plaza and Billings BEQ, Le Qui Don Hote l

was air conditioned, but electricity was a sometim e

thing.

There were no eating facilities in either the Billing s

BEQ or the Le Qui Don BOQ. Most of the wome n

cooked in their room on hot plates or with electri c

skillets. When the power was out, they managed wit h

charcoal-grilled meals served by candlelight7 4

There were no laundry facilities, but for about $1 5

a month, each woman hired a maid who cleaned he r

room, and washed and pressed her uniforms . Befor e

leaving the United States the women Marines wer e

cautioned to bring an ample supply of nylons, sturd y

cotton lingerie, and summer uniforms. Not only wer e

these items scarce in the post exchange that catere d

to male troops, but the maids were unduly hard o n

them . Lieutenant Colonel Elaine E . Filkins (later Da -

vies) spoke of looking out her window to see the maid

laundering her nylon stockings and lingerie in a cree k

SSgt Ermelinda Salazar, nominated by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary for th e

1970 Unsung Heroine Award, recognizing her assistance to children of the St . Vincent

De Paul Orphanage, Saigon, is the subject of this painting by artist Cliff Young .
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS : PEPPER BOARD, 1964-1972 8 5

by pounding them with rocks. The garments that survived were a mass of torn, short elastic threads. Girdles and bras were short-lived "in the combat zone ." 7 5

Nylon hosiery was a luxury. Women of some services were even excused from wearing them when i n

uniform, a privilege not extended to women Marines .

Vietnamese women were fascinated by the sheer stockings and Lieutenant Colonel Vera M . Jones told o f

walking down the streets of Saigon and being startle d

by the touch of a Vietnamese woman feeling her stockings 7 6

The women were advised to arrive with four to si x

pairs of dress pumps for uniform wear because the

streets were hard on shoes and repair service was unsatisfactory. In the " Information on Saigon" booklet

provided each woman before leaving the United State s

was written, ". . . bring a dozen sets of heel

lifts. . . . Heels can easily be extracted with a pair o f

pliers and new ones inserted with little difficulty."77

For the most part the WMs worked in Saigon, bu t

on occasion duty took them outside the city . In January 1969, Captain Filkins, in a letter to the Directo r

of Women Marines, wrote :

In early December, Corporal Spaatz and I traveled to Da

Nang with nearly 100 SRB/OQRs [service record books/officer qualification records] to conduct an audit of the service records of the men stationed in the north . The Army

I Corps had been most kind in aiding us in our efforts t o

provide administrative assistance to our widely scattered men .

Corporal Spaatz is a fine representative for the WMs with

her professional handling of the audit . It was obvious tha t

the men enjoyed the unfamiliar click of the female high

heeled shoes. The weather was on our side so we were abl e

to wear the dress with pumps the entire visit7 8

When the weather was unusually wet or when th e

city was under attack, the women wore utilities and

oxfords. In addition the Army issued field uniform s

and combat boots to any woman required to wear

them for duty.

The Tet offensive of January-February 1968, a largescale enemy attack that disrupted the city, brough t

some changes to the lives of WMs in Saigon . At the

time enlisted women were still quartered at the Plaz a

which received automatic weapons fire . Bus service to

many of the BOQs and BEQs was cut off, confining

the women to their quarters.

Captain Jones was unable to leave the Le Qui Don

for a day and a half before bus service, with arme d

escorts, resumed . Excerpts of a letter from Captain

Jones to Colonel Bishop told something of th e

situation:

3 February 1968 . Its hard to believe that a war is goin g

on around me. I sit here calmly typing this letter and yet

can get up, walk to a window, and watch the helicopters making machine gun and rocket strikes in the area of the golf

course which is about three blocks away . At night, I lie in

bed and listen to the mortar rounds going off. The streets,

which are normally crowded with traffic, are virtually bar e

. . . . MSgt Dulinsky, Cpl Hensley, and Cpl Wilson finall y

got into work this afternoon . Cpls Hensley and Wilson pla n

to spend the night 7 B

Excerpts from a letter from Master Sergean t

Dulinsky elaborated :

9 February 1968 . We are still on a 24-hour curfew, with

all hands in utilities . . . . MACV personnel (women included) were bussed down to Koeppler compound and issued

3 pair of jungle fatigues and a pair of jungle boots.

Right now, most of us don't look the picture of "The Ne w

Image ." Whew! Hardly! I can't determine at night, if I' m

pooped from the work day or from carrying around thes e

anvils tied to my feet called combat boots.

Our Young-uns (and me too inside) were scared ; but you'd

have been proud of them. They turned to in the mess,

cashiering, washing dishes, serving and clearing tables "

Although the Tet offensive kept the women fro m

attending the celebration of the silver anniversary of

the women Marines in Okinawa, they were not withou t

a celebration. Thanks to a WAVE and male Marines,

they had a cake in the office and the traditional cake -

cutting ceremony.

The command expected each person to work 6 0

productive hours a week . Time off was precious, an d

recreational facilities were limited . Bowling was a

popular sport, and old American television shows wer e

broadcast a few hours each evening . The city was ofte n

under curfew with the Americans back in their quarters by 2000 or 2200 . Movies were available several

nights a week in some of the BEQs and BOQs . A number of the women kept busy during their off-dut y

hours by working at the Armed Forces Television Station, helping at various orphanages, and visiting Vietnamese families. Captain Jones, the only woman

Marine who attended Vietnamese language school ,

taught English to a class of Vietnamese policemen.

Captain Filkins, interested in an orphanage for

blind girls, solicited soap, clothing, linens, toys, and

supplies from the women Marine companies at home .

In her letter she wrote, "They are rather confined i n

their small, dark world of the orphanage so they see m

quite thrilled when visitors come to see them . . . .

Many of these children are lucky if they are picked u p

and held for a few minutes each week 81
86 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

Assigned to administrative duties in Saigon, GySgt Donna Hollowell Murray, shown her e

in Tanh Anh, Vietnam, in 1970, gave time to work with children in outlying areas.

One woman Marine in particular, Staff Sergeant Ermelinda Salazar (later Esquibel), who touched the lives

of Vietnamese orphans, was nominated for the 197 0

Unsung Heroine Award sponsored by the Veterans o f

Foreign Wars Auxiliary, and was immortalized in a

painting by Marine artist Cliff Young. During her 15

months in Saigon, Staff Sergeant Salazar essentially

took over a MACV civic action project involving th e

St. Vincent de Paul orphanage .

In a letter dated 10 September 1969, to Gunnery

Sergeant Helen A. Dowd, she told of her work with

the children :

I don't remember if I mentioned to you that I had bee n

working with the orphanage supported by MACV. It is not

a big one—only 75 children ages from a few weeks old t o

about 11 or 12 years of age . They are precious and quite lively.

. . . This whole orphanage is taken care of by two Catholic

sisters. . . . One of them is rather advanced in age (abou t

in her 60's) and the other is quite young and active . Still

and all, Gunny, these two souls work themselves to death .

. . . The two sisters are Vietnamese who speak no English

at all. . . . And me? I know a limited number of broke n

phrases and words in Vietnamese . . . .

Since I've been working at the orphanage, I've had to overcome much repugnance. There's a lot of sickness and disease here in Vietnam. . . . So when I say the orphanage it

doesn't have the same connotation that it does back in the

states where the children are well fed . . . and healthy for

at least they have medical facilities and medicines available. These children have nothing! If the WM company i s

wondering about any projects for Christmas here is some -

thing you can think about . Anything and everything i s

needed 8 2

Determined that these children would have a party, Staff Sergeant Salazar personally contacted Marin e

units for contributions, arranged a site and bus transportation, enlisted interested people to help, and

wrapped individual gifts for each child. Her interest

continued after the holidays and in spite of 11-hour

workdays, six days a week, she was able to influenc e

other Marines to follow her lead in working at the orphanage . Nominating her for the Unsung Heroine

Award, her commanding officer wrote : "Her unusual
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS: PEPPER BOARD, 1964-1972 8 7

and untiring efforts to assist these otherwise forgot -

ten children reflect great credit upon herself, the United States Marine Corps, this command, and th e

United States"e a

Staff Sergeant Salazar was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal for meritorious achievement in the performance of her duties during th e

period 10 October 1969 to 10 January 1970 while serving with the Military History Branch, Secretary Joint

Staff, U.S . Military Assistance Command, Vietnam .

In addition, the Republic of Vietnam awarded her th e

Vietnamese Service Medal for her work with the

orphans. Women Marines in Vietnam normally numbere d

eight or 10 enlisted women and one or two officers

at any one time for a total of about 28 enlisted women and eight officers between 1967 and 1973 . Their

letters and interviews reveal their apprehension before

arriving in Saigon, their satisfaction with their tour,

and their increased sense of being a Marine .

Women Marines in

Marine Security Guard Battalion

Traditionally, women Marines had not been assigne d

to the Marine Security Guard Battalion, commonly

referred to as embassy duty. The primary mission of

an embassy Marine is to safeguard classified materia l

vital to the United States' interests and to protect

American lives and property abroad . In 1967 the first

two women officers joined the Marine Security Guar d

Battalion, not as guards, but as personnel officers. First

Lieutenant Charlene M . Summers (later Itchkawich )

served with Company C, Manila, Philippines, an d

Warrant Officer Mary E. Pease was assigned to Company D, Panama Canal Zone. The following year, Captain Gail M. Reals reported to Company B, Beirut ,

Lebanon8 4

Women Marines Overseas—Summary

Opportunities for women Marines to serve outsid e

the continental United States had been extremel y

Sgt Doris Denton receives the Joint Service Commendation Medal from MajGen Richar d

F. Shaffer, USA, assistant chief of staff J-5, in Saigon, South Vietnam, on 5 March 1969 .
88 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

limited from World War II to 1966 . Billets available

in Europe never accommodated more than nine or 1 0

women, officers and enlisted. Until October 1966,

Hawaii was the only location in the Pacific at whic h

WMs could serve. On 30 June 1966, 3 .7 percent, or

63 women Marines, 56 in Hawaii and seven at foreig n

locations, were serving outside the continental limits 85

On 30 June 1971, 9.3 percent, or 209 women were serving in the following locations: 86

Officer Enlisted

MCAF, Futema, Okinawa 3 2 0

MCB, Camp Butler, Okinawa 6 3 7

MCAS, Iwakuni, Japan 5 3 4

FMFPac, Camp Smith, Hawaii 14 5 9

MCAS, Kaneohe, Hawaii 5 9

AFSE, Naples, Italy 1 1

EUCOM, Stuttgart, Germany 1 3

MarDet, London, England 0 1

MAS NATO Brussels, Belgium 1 0

MACV, Saigon, Vietnam 2 6

MarSecGdBn, Hong Kong 1 0

TOTAL 39 170

The location of the billets and the numerical requirements change from time to time but the polic y

of expanded overseas assignments for women in th e

Marine Corps made during the years 1966-1972, following the recommendations of the Pepper Board, ha s

persisted.

These years saw remarkable changes made in th e

utilization, training, and assignment of women Marines and marked success in recruiting, officer procure -

ment, and retention efforts. The Pepper Board

reported its findings and recommendations to improv e

the effectiveness of women Marines in 1965 at a tim e

when the war in Vietnam demanded maximum effort and performance of each Marine . Many questione d

the price tag that would accompany implementatio n

of the study group's recommendations ; others recognized the costliness of inadequately trained and disillusioned Marines. Largely due to the leadership and

untiring efforts of the Commandant of the Marin e

Corps, General Greene ; the chairman of the Woma n

Marine Program Study Group, Lieutenant Genera l

Pepper; and the Director of Women Marines, Colone l

Bishop, notable progress was made and the status of

women placed on a firmer footing than any time previously in the history of the Corps .
CHAPTER 7

Utilization and Numbers : Snell Committee, 1973-197 7

Strength, 1973-1977—New Occupational Fields—Military Police—Presiding Judges—Breaking the Traditio n

Bandsmen—Women Marines in the Fleet Marine Force — Women in Command—1973-1977 Summar y

There was, in the early 1970s, an increased awareness of the phenomenon called equal opportunity for

women.' It permeated the family, the schoolroom, business, religion, and the military. In all fairness, laws,

customs, and prejudices notwithstanding, a case can

be made for the advantageous position of servicewomen compared to women in education, business, an d

industry. There were, however, recognized shortcomings which had to be dealt with . The advent of th e

all-volunteer force and the national women's liberation movement were leading to increased use of women in the military. On 1 September 1972, the Chief

of Naval Operations, Admiral Elmo R . Zumwalt, Jr. ,

recommended a plan tailored to meet a goal state d

as "allowing women an equal opportunity to con -

tribute their talents and to achieve full professiona l

status in the Navy."2 The Marine Corps had no such

plan.

One week later, the Secretary of Defense, Melvin

R. Laird, directed the services to develop by 30 Novem -

ber 1972 detailed equal opportunity/affirmative actio n

plans for minorities and servicewomen. As a result,

the Deputy Chief of Staff (Manpower) of the Marine

Corps, Lieutenant General Ormond R. Simpson, proposed an ad hoc committee to be chaired by Colone l

Albert W. Snell. The committee was tasked with developing a plan of action, objectives, and milestones

for a program to increase equal opportunity for women Marines.

The membership of Colonel Snell's committee

varied from time to time but included representative s

of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-1 ; Deputy Directo r

of Personnel ; Director Division of Reserve; and Director Women Marines. Included were Lieutenant

Colonel Jenny Wrenn and Major Barbara E. Dolyak.

At the initial, formal meetings, the committee established the goal to "increase the effectiveness and utilization for all women Marines to fully utilize thei r

abilities in support of Marine Corps objectives." Five

specific objectives identified to accomplish the goa l

were :

a. To identify and eliminate all discrimination based solel y

on sex .

b. To ensure to women Marines equal opportunity for assignment to and within noncombat occupational fields.

c. To provide the opportunity for women Marines to ob -

tain technical and professional schooling at all levels.

d. To provide equal opportunity to women Marines fo r

progression and advancement through duty assignments .

e. To ensure equal economic opportunity for wome n

Marines?

It happened that the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) Central All Volunteer Task Force on the Utilization of

Military Women, headed by Colonel Helen A . Wilson, USMCR, published a separate but related stud y

in December 1972 . This report specifically recommended that the Marine Corps:

(1) Intensify its recruiting efforts for enlisted women .

(2) Open additional job specialties to women.

(3) Take action to reduce attrition rates to a level more

comparable to that being experienced by the other services .

(4) Advise . . . after six months the results achieved in

(1), (2), and (3) above and how these results affect its FY

1974 plans for female military strength in Marine Corps ?

A further consideration by the Snell Committee was

the report of a task group chaired by the Judge Acjvocate General of the Navy to review the portion of Titles 10 and 37 of the United States Code which

differentiated between the treatment of men and

women.

Taking all into consideration, the Snell Committee

identified 17 separate tasks needed to attain its objectives . A background position paper containing the

17 tasks was then staffed to appropriate Headquarters

agencies for comment . Colonel Margaret A . Brewer was

given the job of reviewing the comments, summarizing the recommendations, and making appropriat e

modifications.

The recommendations that evolved included several

concerning promotion boards that would require legislative action. Most, however, challenged the Marin e

Corps' policies and regulations that barred wome n

from occupational fields or schools based solely on sex.

The fields of logistics, military police and corrections ,

and aircraft maintenance, all closed to women, were

singled out as possibilities for immediate action whil e

all other noncombat fields would be studied to determine their appropriateness for women Marines . Two

89
90 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

LCpl Brenda Hockenhull, in 1972 the first woman Marine to graduate from the Test Instrument Course, Albany, Georgia, examines a piece of electronic

equipment with fellow student, LCpl William Day .

of the most unorthodox ideas presented were the pla n

that a pilot program be established to assign women

to stateside Fleet Marine Forces and the recommendation that :

. . . the prohibition in the Marine Corps Manual which

limits women officers to succeeding to command only a t

those activities which have the administration of Wome n

Marines as their primary function be eliminated .'

According to Lieutenant Colonel Barbara Dolyak ,

a member of the Snell Committee, it came as a surprise when the Commandant approved all recommendations on 14 November 1973 . On the final page

of the report, General Robert E. Cushman, Jr. ,

penned, "O.K.—let's move out! "

Strength, 1973-197 7

In April 1973 a goal was set of 3,100 women Marines by 30 June 1977 .7 This represented a 30 percen t

increase of women's strength and completely disregarded the traditional figure of one percent of total Marine Corps enlisted strength . Subsequently, the targe t

date was moved up to 1 January 1976 . During the

summer of 1976, the Commandant, General Louis H . Wilson, Jr., responding to requests from commanders

for additional women, to the improved effectivenes s

of women in the Corps, and to the realities of the all -

volunteer force, approved an additional increase in th e

size of the woman Marine force9 The change was

planned to be implemented over a six-year period be -

ginning 1 October 1976, with a recruiting goal for th e

year of 1,700 women or 164 over the current annual

input. Beginning with fiscal year 1978, in October

1977 the Corps aimed to recruit 2,500 women annually. Then in March 1977, appearing before a Hous e

Armed Services subcommittee, General Wilson made

the surprise announcement that the Marine Corps expected to have 10,000 women in its ranks by 1985 .9

Incremental increases were planned based on logistical limitations related to uniform supplies and billeting space rather than on need or availability o f

qualified applicants. In 1975 18 percent of all wome n

who enlisted in the Marine Corps had attended college and some had baccalaureate degrees ."' In 1977,

both recruiting and officer procurement quotas were

easily met with many fine young women being turne d

away. On 30 June 1977, the strength of the active dut y

women Marines was 407 officers and 3,423 enlisted

women for a total of 3,830 .

The reenlistment and retention rate for women improved to the point where in 1974, the rate of retention for first-term WMs bettered that of male Marines ,

9.9 percent to 7 .9 percent. In 1975, it was 10 .4 percent for women compared to 7 .9 percent for the total

Marine Corps." No one factor is responsible for the

improved recruiting and retention of women . The indications point to a generation of women awakened

to new horizons, improvements in the woman Marin e

program brought on by the Pepper Board and the

Snell Committee, and the positive action taken by th e

Commandants to publicize to all Marines the role of

women in the Marine Corps.

New Occupational Fields

The Snell Committee had recommended that the

Marine Corps regulations and policies not governe d

by law be reviewed to revise or eliminate those whic h

discriminated solely on the basis of sex without rationa l

and valid reason, and that all noncombat MOSs b e

examined to determine which could be made available to women . Since a task analysis of all noncombat

occupational fields was already underway at Headquarters and would not be completed for several years ,

it was further recommended that certain fields b e

opened immediately as a sign of good faith . For

officers, logistics, military police and corrections, an d

aircraft maintenance were suggested, and for enliste d

women, the same three fields plus utilities and electronics. Because of some disagreement and in view o f

the ongoing study of all noncombat MOSs, only logistics and military police and corrections were approve d

for officers and utilities and military police and corrections for enlisted women .
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS: SNELL COMMITTEE, 1973-1977 9 1

The final breakthrough, dropping all barriers except those grounded in law, was made on 15 July 197 5

when the Commandant, General Wilson, approved

the assignment of women to all occupational field s

except the four considered combat-related, infantry

(03), artillery (08), armor (18), and flight crews (75).

Management limitations, preservation of a rotatio n

base for male Marines, equal opportunity regardles s

of sex for job assignments and promotions, need fo r

adequate facilities and housing for WMs, and availability of nondeployable billets, of necessity, affecte d

the number of women assigned to some fields, bu t

this was truly a decisive change .1 2

Military Police

Records indicate that there were five women wit h

a military police MOS in 1952 but a search of the

records failed to reveal who they were or what dutie s

they performed. It is likely that they were former WRs

since the policy after 1948 had been not to assign wom -

en to this field .

The Corps' first known post-World War II military

policewoman, in January 1974, was Lance Corpora l

Harriett F. Voisine, a WM who had a bachelor of

science degree in criminology with a major in polic e

science and administration . She had worked with the

Police Department in Westminster, California, befor e

enlisting in July 1971 and, after recruit training, serve d

for two and one-half years in the Provost Marshal Office at Parris Island. Taking courses on her own i n

juvenile delinquency; vice and narcotics; criminal law;

and arrest, search, and seizure procedures, she was a

Sgt Karen Cottingham, a trained telephone switchboard repairman, checks the level of battery acid i n

the standby power source, at the Marine Corps Base ,

Twentynine Palms, California, on 4 February 1977 .

PFC Regina T. Musser, first woman Marine tan k

mechanic, works on the optic unit of a tank turre t

while assigned to the Tracked Vehicle Maintenanc e

Unit at Camp Pendleton, California, in 1974.

natural candidate for the military police field whe n

it was finally opened to women Marines 13 Lance Corporal Voisine, given on-the-job training by the recrui t

depot's MPs, was used on the desk, on traffic contro l

details, and on motorized patrols.

Two women Marines, Privates M . B. Ogborn and J.

E. Welchel, were the first to attend the seven-week

Military Police School at Fort Gordon, Georgia, graduating in April 1975.' 4 Private Mary F. Bungcayo, who

graduated from the same course the following month

was assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station, Cherr y

Point, for duty. In a 1977 interview, Corporal Bungcayo stated that she met some male opposition at first ,

but no restrictions. She worked on the desk and on

patrol; she responded to fires and flight emergencies ;

and she stood guard on the gate . Corporal Bungcayo ,

who joined the Marine Corps with the guarantee of

military police work, believed that on the job she wa s

given the same responsibilities as the male MPs .1 5

Second Lieutenant Debra J. Baughman, the first

woman officer in the military police field, was assigned

to the Provost Marshal Office at Camp Lejeune afte r

graduation from the 35th Woman Officer Basic Cours e

in March 1975 . She entered the field with a degree

in corrections but no experience . At Camp Lejeune

she was assigned as platoon leader for a platoon of MPs

and in the opinion of Colonel Valeria F. Hilgart, the

base G-1, "She did a topnotch job."°
92 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

lstLt Debra J. Baughman, first woman officer in the military police field, inspects he r

platoon at Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in the summer of 1975 .

The next two officers to enter the 5800 field, military police, were Second Lieutenants Mary A. Krusa

and Judith A. Cataldo. Neither had any police experience but both had majored in criminology and

the police science field in college . In January 1976 all

three attended the Military Police Officer Orientation

Course at Fort McClellan, Alabama, to obtain formall y

the 5803 MOS. After graduation in February 1976 ,

Second Lieutenant Krusa reported to El Toro as th e

assistant operations officer for the Provost Marsha l

Office and Second Lieutenant Cataldo reported to

Cherry Point for assignment as the officer in charge

of the Traffic Investigation, Traffic Control, and Pass

and Identification Section. Second Lieutenant Baugh -

man returned to Camp Lejeune . Each of the thre e

officers had received more extensive training in their

MOS to include attendance at Northwestern University's Traffic Institute at Evanston, Illinois .'

On the subject of police work for women, Secon d

Lieutenant Cataldo, in March 1977, wrote :

Speaking for myself, I love the field . It is a constantl y

changing challenge. Twenty-five male MPs work for me an d

I am given a great deal of responsibility. I feel that after th e

initial testing and proving period I have been fully accept -

ed . I would recommend the field to other women traine d

in it as it is still growing and developing professionally.

. . . It frequently demands 24 hour duty (PMO duty officer )

five days per month and proficiency with various weapons .

. . . For women interested in the police field it offers a grea t

deal.18

Presiding Judges

There were seldom more than one or two women

Marine lawyers on active duty at one time, and it wa s

news when in 1970, First Lieutenant Patricia Murphy

was named a certified military judge. But in 1974, it

was Captain Eileen M. Albertson, second woman to
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS: SNELL COMMITTEE, 1973-1977 9 3

be certified a military judge, who became the first t o

preside in a courtroom . A graduate of Bloomsburg

State College and the Marshall Wythe School of Law

at the College of William and Mary, she served in th e

Marine Corps Reserve for a six-year tour before going

on active duty. She served nine months in Judge Advocate General School for military lawyers at Charlottesville, Virginia ; 14 months on Okinawa as prosecuto r

and foreign claims commissioner ; and some months

as defense counsel at Quantico .1 9

As a judge, Captain Albertson was praised by he r

colleague, Captain David A . Schneider, who said, " I

would give her the highest compliment—I'd call he r

a professional. She shows that she is more interested

in justice and fairness than formality or speed . . . "20

Her former commanding officer, Colonel Joseph R.

Motelewski, commented bluntly, "She is one of the

finest lawyers I've ever worked with ." 2 1

In an effort to attract persons of needed skills, the

Marine Corps inaugurated a program of direct Reserve

commissions for those who met the criteria . Reserve

Marine Major Sara J. Harper, a judge of the Municipa l

Court of Cleveland, Ohio, entered the Corps as a lawyer and served a number of tours on active duty ove r

a four-year period . Then in 1977, she was appointe d

a military judge by General Louis H . Wilson, i n

ceremonies in his office 22

Breaking the Traditio n

Improved educational level of women recruits, a

changed attitude of society toward the role of working women, especially in technical and professiona l

fields, and an openmindedness in the Corps brough t

on by the Pepper Board and fostered by the Snel l

Committee, and finally the Commandant's key decision in July 1975, combined to increase the assignments of women to a greater variety of occupational

fields. For example :

In November 1973, Second Lieutenant Patricia M .

Zaudtke was assigned as one of the first two WM motor transport officers 2 3

In June 1974, Captain Shirley L . Bowen was the onl y

woman and the first woman Marine to graduate fro m

the 34-week Advanced Communication Office r

Course 24

Private Mary P. McKeown made history at the Army's Ordnance Center and School, Aberdeen ,

Maryland, when she became the first WM to attend

the Metal Body Repair Course. Her classroom instruction included practical work in gas welding, exterior finishing of metal bodies, glass cutting, and

Capt Eileen M. Albertson, first woman Marine military judge to preside in a courtroom, administered the

foreign claims section and acted as trial counsel at the

Camp Smedley D . Butler Law Center in 1972.

instruction in inert gas metal welding techniques2 5

First Lieutenant Dian S. George, in 1975, was the

first woman Marine to be assigned to the inspectorinstructor staff of an all-male Reserve unit, Head -

quarters and Service Company, Supply Battalion, 4th

Force Service Support Group, at Newport News, Virginia . Previously she had served as the assistant SASS Y

officer at Cherry Point, North Carolina . SASSY is the

acronym for Supported Activity Supply System, whic h

was, at the time, a new computerized way of keeping

track of all Marine Corps equipment . Thus it was not

merely coincidental that First Lieutenant Georg e

found herself at the Newport News unit, the first

Reserve company to have the SASSY system, one whic h

tied into the computer at Camp Lejeune . During drill

weekend she worked on the organization and supervision of the training program which included computer programming and key punch operations skills.

In addition she served as personnel, public relations,

and recruiting officer on the staff headed by Lieutenant Colonel Robert J. Esposito. For the lieutenant,

being in an all-male outfit was not entirely new since

she had participated in the 1974 pilot program permitting women to serve in the Fleet Marine Forces 2 6

Private First Class Cathy E . Smith was the first woman Marine to attend the Water Supply and Plumbin g

Course at Camp Lejeune . The training which began

on 14 July 1975 was concerned mainly with wate r

purification, i.e., supplying fresh water to Marines in

the field27
94 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

On 28 January 1977, Sergeant Deborah A . Rubel ,

a mechanic in the fuel and electrical shop, Motor

Transport and Maintenance Company, 2d Maintenanc e

Battalion, Force Troops, 2d Force Service Support

Group, was named Force Troops 2d FSSG Marine of

the Quarter, high praise for a woman serving in the

FMF in a nontraditional job2 8

Second Lieutenant Jo Anne Kelly became, in January 1977, the first of four women in her occupationa l

field to qualify for the 7210 MOS, Air Defense Control Officer. She finished initial training at Twenty -

nine Palms in August 1976 and then reported to th e

Marine Corps Air Station, Beaufort, where she completed the required number of live intercepts in tactical flight missions 2 9

On 9 January 1977, three WMs, Sergeants Conni e

Dehart and Cynthia Martin, and Corporal Geneva

Jones, were reported to be the first women to earn thei r

wings while serving as flight attendants on the C-9 B

Skytrain . After a two-week familiarization course a t

the McDonnell Douglas School, the women's dutie s

included loading baggage and cargo, and servin g

meals. In an interview in March 1977, Sergeant Jone s

indicated that there was no resentment shown by mal e

Marines with whom she worked, but at least one lieu -

tenant colonel was uncomfortable about her work a s

Sgt J. S. Burke, a tractor-trailer driver with Base

Material Battalion, Camp Pendleton, California, adjusts the chains of her rig on 11 February 1977.

he ordered her out of the cargo compartment an d

loaded his own baggage .3 °

Private First Class Pamela Loper, the first woma n

Marine to hold a tractor-trailer license at Camp Lejeune since World War II, was described in April 197 7

by Lieutenant Colonel John E. Drummond, base motor transport officer, as ". . . a much better driver tha n

some of our experienced men" Private First Class Lope r

drove a large tractor-trailer rig, known as a " semi" or

"18 wheeler." She obtained her license after passing

tests on handling the vehicle and hooking up and unhooking the trailer. 3 '

Private First Class Katie Jones Dixon, Headquarters

and Maintenance Squadron-32's first WM jet mechanic, worked on jet engines and components whic h

MAG-32's squadrons sent to its power plant for repair.

Extensive schooling prepared her to do the type of intermediate maintenance that the squadrons were no t

authorized to perform .3 2

Private First Class Gail Faith Morise, first enliste d

woman to attend the 12-week Automotive Mechanic s

School at Camp Lejeune, was also the first WM to b e

assigned to Cherry Poin t's Motor Transport Division 3

Bandsmen

Well before the final verdict was in on opening new

occupational fields to women, an old one became

available once more . Until 1973, the musical MOS

5500 was designated for wartime duty only . Wome n

Marine bandsmen were a rare sight after the demobili -

zation of Camp Lejeune's renowned MCWR band of

World War II. In 1967, Colonel Bishop reported tha t

Corporals Donna L . Correll and Marjorie W. Groht

had joined the Marine Corps Supply Center band at

Albany and played in ceremonies on 10 November3 4

These two Marines, members of the first group of

WMs to report to Albany, played the clarinet an d

trumpet and were believed to be the only women performing with a Marine band at the time . In 1969 ,

Lance Corporal Judy A . Tiffany volunteered on a part -

time basis as a cymbal player with the newly forme d

Drum and Bugle Team at the Marine Barracks, Treasure Island, California . And then, in 1971, five WMs,

Corporals Sue Redding and Nancy Wright, Lance Corporals Sue Deleskiewicz and Joan Mahaffey, and Private First Class Martha Eveland became the first WM

musical unit since World War II when they forme d

the WM Drum Section of Treasure Island's Drum an d

Bugle Team.3 5

Private Jay C. Clark was assigned the 5500 MOS i n

February 1973 while in recruit training at Parris Island .
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS : SNELL COMMITTEE, 1973-1977 9 5

PFC Katie' Dixon, H&MS-32 mechanic, safety wires

the fuel control of an A-4 Skyhawk power plant in

the squadron's powerplant section, Marine Corps Air

Station, Cherry Point, North Carolina, in 1977 .

She was assigned to the post band and later sent t o

Basic Music School in Little Creek, Virginia . Upon

completion of the six-month course, she served in th e

bands in Hawaii and at the Recruit Depot at San Die -

go, California .

The famed U.S . Marine Band of Washington, D .C ,

however, remained an all-male bastion until 1973 ,

when, due to a critical shortage of certain instrumentalists, the band sought and received permission to enlist women 3 8 Elizabeth A. Eitel, an oboist

and University of Montana student, became, in Apri l

1973, the first woman to audition and to be accept -

ed . Before she graduated and subsequently enlisted

on 30 July, another young woman, Ruth S . Johnson,

a University of Michigan graduate, joined the band

on 16 May, becoming its first woman member . Like

all members of the band, the women were appointe d

to the rank of staff sergeant and were not required

to attend recruit training. Gunnery Sergeant Johnson ,

in 1977, was the Marine Band's principal French

hornist.3 7

At first there were several conditions imposed b y

the band. The women, for example, were to wear the

male bandsmen uniforms. Colonel Margaret A . Brewer, Director of Women Marines, satisified that this new

opportunity was available to women, prudently offere d

no opposition . It was soon obvious that the men's

trousers were ill-fitting and difficult to tailor for th e

women, so new uniforms, following the traditiona l

pattern but proportioned for the female figure, wer e

designed . Eventually long skirts were added to the

wardrobe . The WM hat posed some problems, especially in wet weather as it required careful blockin g

to keep in shape. The band had a white vinyl mode l

designed and asked Colonel Brewer for her opinion .

With its gold emblem, red cap cord, and semi-shiny

fabric, she found it unattractive at first, but agreed

to a test period. The vinyl hat not only looked fin e

when worn during performances, but it solved th e

maintenance problem. Recognizing the practicality of

a hat that can withstand rain and snow, the white vinyl

was later copied for use by women MPs 3 8

By July 1977, the Marine Band counted in its ranks

the following 10 women musicians: 3 9

Gunnery Sergeant Gail A. Bowfin flute

Gunnery Sergeant Elizabeth A . Eitel oboe

Staff Sergeant Elnora Teopaco Figueroa violi n

Staff Sergeant Michelle Foley oboe

Gunnery Sergeant Carol Hayes viola

Gunnery Sergeant Ruth S . Johnson French horn

Staff Sergeant Denna S . Purdie cell o

Staff Sergeant Linda D . Stolarchyk cell o

Staff Sergeant Vickie J . Yanics violin

Staff Sergeant Dyane Wright bassoon

Women Marines in the Fleet Marine Force

The Snell Committee recommended that a pilo t

program be established to assign women to stateside

division, wing, or force service regiment headquarters

in noncombat rear echelon billets such as disbursing,

data systems, administration, etc . General Cushman,

Commandant of the Marine Corps, approved the concept on 14 November 19734° In February 1974, a message was sent to FMF commanders notifying them o f

a yet-to-be published change in policy which woul d

permit the assignment of women to FMF billets involving service support, aviation support, or communication occupational specialties that would not

require them to deploy with the assault echelon of th e

command if a contingency arose. The legal restrictions

that women not be assigned duty in aircraft that are

engaged in combat missions nor on vessels of the Navy

other than hospital ships and transports were included .

The 2d Marine Aircraft Wing and the 1st Marin e

Division were designated as the commands to participate in a six-month pilot program, and they were
96 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

First woman Marine music unit since 1945 was the drum section of the Marine Barracks ,

Treasure Island Drum and Bugle Team, 1970-1971 : (left to right) Cpls Sue Conley an d

Nancy Wright, LCpI Sue Deleskiewicz, PFC Martha Eveland, and LCpl Joan Mahaffey .

provided information on the grade and MOSs of th e

women selected for FMF assignments. The message

stated, "These Marines will be joined on the rolls of,

and administered by, the headquarters indicated .

Their duties will be consistent with the requiremen t

of the billet to which assigned ."41 This simple statement, referring to Marines without the usual modifier, women, bespoke an important change in attitude .

As an adjunct to the pilot program, all FMF commanders were asked to identify billets within thei r

headquarters considered suitable for women Marines.

Originally, 13 women were selected to take part i n

the experiment: seven to the 2d Marine Aircraft Wing

and six to the 1st Marine Division. Actually, nine

WMs, four officers and five enlisted women, were assigned to the wing. They were :

First Lieutenant Maralee J. Johnson

First Lieutenant Dian S . George

Second Lieutenant Vicki B. Taylor

Second Lieutenant Margaret A . Humphre y

Gunnery Sergeant Sharyl E. Sheftz

Sergeant Charlene K. Wiese

Corporal Pamela S. Scott

Corporal Eva J. Lug o

Lance Corporal Marsha A . Douglas

In an interview published in the Windsock, the

Cherry Point newspaper, in July 1974, Corporal Scott

said, `At first I heard there might be some problem s

because men didn't want women in the Wing, bu t

everyone here has been helpful, and I haven't had an y

problem at all" 42 Sergeant Wiese, accounting analyst

with the comptroller section, 2d Marine Aircraft Wing

said, "There was a lot of apprehension between my -

self and the Marine I was working with, but it's gone

now and things are great "43 Others commented on

the changes brought by being administratively attached to the wing rather than Woman Marin e

Detachment 2, a small unit where everyone knew

everyone else .

The six women assigned to the 1st Marine Divisio n

at Camp Pendleton were Captain Karyl L. Moesel, First

Lieutenant Maria T. Hernandez, Second Lieutenant

Mary S. Burns, Gunnery Sergeant Esther E Peters, Ser-
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS : SNELL COMMITTEE, 1973-1977 9 7

geant Judith A. Alexander, and Sergeant Lynn J .

Powell .

At the end of the six-month experimental period ,

in November 1974, the Commanding General of the

1st Marine Division, Brigadier General William L .

McCulloch, reported that, ". . . the WMs hav e

managed to assimilate necessary knowledge of FM F

peculiar systems to allow them to be assets to their

respective sections"44 and, he continued :

It is this command's interpretation . . . that WMs assigned to FMF commands are deployable to advanced areas a s

long as they are not deployed with assault echelon . . . and

are, therefore, not necessarily bound to rear echelon . . .

billets . . . . This command enthusiastically supports assignments of WMs to CONUS FMF commands and foresees n o

insurmountable problems associated with program. Assignment of WMs would provide source of talent and critical

skills and would ease skill shortages within the First

MARDIV.4 5

The Commanding General, 2d Marine Aircraft

Wing, Major General Ralph H . Spanjer, in his assessment of the pilot program, noted that the nine WMs

GySgts Ruth Johnson (left) and Beth Eitel (right), firs t

women members of the U. S . Marine Band, frequently

performed with the Band's Woodwind Quintet.

were rapidly assimilated into the wing staff, and n o

problems were observed in military courtesy, appearance, or bearing. The physical fitness testing had bee n

conducted by the senior woman officer withou t

difficulty and with notable success. He continued that

the small number involved precluded any effect o n

deployment and during field exercises, the women Marines had a positive effect on the headquarters by remaining in garrison and continuing the dail y

administrative routine . Finally, he submitted :

The pilot program of assigning Women Marines to 2d Marine Aircraft Wing has thus far been successful in terms o f

orientation, capability, and performance. Realizing the practicality of assigning Woman Marines to CONUS Fleet Marine Force Commands, it is felt that the program should b e

continued 4 B

The commanding general of FMFPac, on the subject of women in ConUS FMF commands, wrote : "This

headquarters regards utilization of women Marines i n

FMF commands both feasible and desirable providing such assignment does not adversely affect comba t

readiness . . . " And he offered the recommendation

that :

. . . Marine Corps education and training programs b e

modified to:

1.Increase emphasis on FMF related instruction and training for women Marines, to include extension school course s

and, if possible additional quotas to intermediate and hig h

level schools.

2. Incorporate into Human Relations and Leadership training consideration of the role of women Marines in the FMF ."'

As part of the pilot program, the commanders of

the division, aircraft wings, force troops, and force service regiments identified rear echelon billets totalin g

75 officer and 450 enlisted that could be filled by

women without requiring them to deploy with the assault echelon . The billets included supply, disbursing,

communications, intelligence, administration, data

systems, and legal specialties. When new MOSs were

opened to women by the 1975 decision, even more

FMF billets were considered suitable for women

Marines.

Women in the 1st Marine Division were featured

in an article published in the Los Angeles Times in

September 1976 . Among those mentioned were Second Lieutenant Michele D. Venne, combat enginee r

officer, who was the first woman officer to attend Com -

bat Engineer School and finished first in her class;

Lance Corporal Victoria Carrillo, a plumber and wate r

supplyman who, at the time, was the only woman
98 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

water purification expert in the Marine Corps; Second

Lieutenant Carol Sue Lamb, the only female moto r

transport officer in the FMF, who was serving as assis -

tant division motor transport officer and later served

as a division supply group platoon commander; Corporal Cynthia Robinson, an electrician, who performed

duties such as pole line construction and the stringing of power lines; Second Lieutenant Laura A . Hull,

headquarters battalion adjutant ; and Lance Corporal

Kimberly Greene, only woman coxswain in the Marine Corps. Lance Corporal Greene, who grew up o n

Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, practiced her

seamanship in the Corps by handling a 58-foot landing craft which could carry up to 40 combat-loade d

Marines for an assault on an enemy beach .

There were at the time, 42 women in the 1st Marine Division, and their commanding officer, Lieu -

tenant Colonel Robert D. White, confessed that whil e

the obvious problems such as restroom facilities an d

billeting were nettlesome, they were not difficult . The

women Marines lived in motel-like BEQs with their

male colleagues, since it was thought that segregate d

barracks would run counter to unit integrity.

The men found that women tend to keep their

quarters better policed, but Colonel White soo n

learned that :

. . . there is a greater sense of urgency from the wome n

when equipment, such as washing machines, fails. The women seem to be more conscious of how they look in uniform

. . . and when it comes to wearing sidearms which migh t

make a hippy woman look hippier, an option of uniform

is allowed . They can wear either skirts or utility outfits9 8

Anticipated problems resulting from men and

women living in the same barracks did not materialize as the division men seemed to take a protectiv e

attitude toward the WMs. Barracks and office language

was noticeably improved, but the feminine presenc e

apparently caused little resentment on that score, since

Lieutenant Colonel White was quoted as saying, "Th e

division is more fun with the girls" 4 9

The women unanimously endorsed FMF assignments for WMs. Lance Corporal Debora Pederson, a

correspondence clerk in the headquarters battalion adjutant's office, said, ". . . at Pendleton, we are treate d

as Marines, not specified as women Marines" 50 First

Lieutenant Venne found senior officers dubious whe n

she was assigned as a division engineer, responsibl e

for equipment used in bridge building, grading roads ,

and other construction projects associated with combat. But the skepticism was because she was a lieu -

tenant and not because she was a woman .

In July 1977, there were 610 women Marines serving in the FMF, 96 officers and 514 enlisted women 5 1

The policy to assign them only to stateside organizations was still in effect, but individual exceptions ha d

been made where FMF commanders overseas had specifically asked for women Marines.

Women in Comman d

The Marine Corps Manual, from 1948 until 1973 ,

laid down the rule that women could command onl y

those units that were predominantly female . At least

one exception was made when Captain Jeanne Fleming was assigned as the commanding officer of Company B, Headquarters Battalion, Marine Corp s

Schools, Quantico, from July 1956 until Septembe r

1958 . The company consisted of all officer students

at Quantico, less those attending The Basic School .

Her duties were primarily administrative, but it wa s

quite unusual, nevertheless, for men to report in an d

find a woman commanding officer . One of them was

Major Albert W. Snell, later to head the Ad Hoc Committee in 1973 .

After approving the Snell Committee recommendation that women be permitted to command unit s

other than woman Marine companies, General Cush -

man announced the new policy at a press conferenc e

in southern California in December 1973. He added,

as a side comment, that, indeed, Camp Pendleton wa s

soon to make such an assignment . According to th e

woman destined to become the Marine Corps' firs t

woman commander of a nearly all male battalion,

Colonel Mary E. Bane, the general's pronouncement

was news to the command at Camp Pendleton . The

press picked up on the Commandant's statement immediately and all other topics of his news conference

were forgotten.

Colonel Bane, who had been filling a colonel's bille t

as an assistant chief of staff for personnel services, wa s

informed by the Assistant Chief of Staff (Manpower) ,

"You have been selected to sacrifice, Evie ." 52 The day

following the Commandant's announcement, the

commanding general, Brigadier General Robert L .

Nichols, named Colonel Bane to be Commandin g

Officer, Headquarters and Service Battalion, Marin e

Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, California . The furor

was astonishing. In less than 24 hours, she had to

change her telephone to an unlisted number. She ha d

spent a sleepless night answering calls from the media, women's liberation organizations, cranks, an d

friends. In a short time she received over 300 letters,
UTILIZATION AND NUMBERS: SNELL COMMITTEE, 1973-1977 9 9

Capt Kathleen V. Ables takes command of a predominantly male unit, Supply Company, Headquarters and Service Battalion, Marine Corps Base, Twentynine Palms, in 1975 .

both congratulatory and abusive . There were requests

for autographed photographs and an 80-year-old re -

tired Navy chief petty officer wrote to General Earl

E . Anderson, Assistant Commandant, and asked fo r

a set of Colonel Bane's first lieutenant bars . Mail came

from Germany, Vietnam, Korea, and the Philippines ,

and from such diverse sources as the American Nazi

Party and the National Organization of Women . In

fact, the letters continued to arrive two years after sh e

left the command.

Headquarters and Service Battalion was a unit o f

1,700 Marines, including a woman Marine company.

Colonel Bane's immediate staff, the executive officer,

Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Topping, and the battalion sergeant major, were all very supportive . She ,

herself, felt unprepared for the billet and resented being assigned because of sex rather than qualifications .

In due time the commotion subsided, and business

at the battalion went on as usual . Eleven months later,

Brigadier General Paul Graham assumed comman d

of Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, and reassigned Colonel Bane for, in her words, ". . . precisely

the same reason for which I was assigned — because I

was a woman"53 He just did not want a woman as th e

commanding officer of a headquarters battalion. In

fact, he did not want a woman in a colonel's billet an d

Colonel Bane, who had held the responsible positio n

of an assistant chief of staff and had been a battalio n

commander for 11 months, was reassigned as the base

human affairs officer, a major's billet 54

When Captain Kathleen V. Abbott Ables took command of Supply Company, Headquarters and Service

Battalion, Marine Corps Base, Twentynine Palms,

California, on 7 March 1975, there was none of th e

hoopla that accompanied Colonel Bane's appointment. It was, just the same, an historic event,

a woman in command of a predominantly male company. Looking back, Major Ables was not certain wha t

prompted the battalion commander to assign a woma n

to the job. The billet was open, and she was the next

senior captain in the battalion . She wrote, "The

prevailing attitude was that it was my job as a captain, and that I could and would handle it professionally."5 s

The company first sergeant, Gayle R . Heitman,

made it known to the NCOs and SNCOs that he ha d

worked with Captain Ables before and their expressed fears were unfounded . Only the company clerk, a

sergeant, had real difficulty accepting a woman commanding officer, and he went to the battalion commander several times, in vain, to ask for a transfer.

In the beginning, as might be expected, inspection s

were the cause of some concern . Personnel inspection s

had been held without weapons at Supply Company

so that when Captain Ables arrived on the scene sh e

merely had to learn the details of male uniform regulations and personal appearance standards. As for

quarters inspections, it was not difficult to respect th e

privacy of Marine shift workers who were apt to b e

sleeping or relaxing in the barracks during the da y

since the battalion was billeted in motel-style rooms

rather than in open squadbays. First Sergeant Heitman would knock and if there was no answer, he would
100 A HISTORY OF THE WOMEN MARINES, 1946-197 7

unlock the door and go in . If the room was empty,

Captain Ables followed him in to inspect . The procedure was reversed in the women's BEQ. Male Marine s

learned something about a woman's idea of a clea n

barracks . In a 1977 letter, Major Ables wrote :

BEQ inspections caused some heartburn in the company

for about a month after I became commanding officer . With

two of us inspecting, a large number of previously undetected

discrepancies were found . One morning, we arrived at on e

room to find one of the occupants leaning over a table wit h

a cloth in his hand . I made some comment about makin g

the final touchup, and he replied, "Yes, m'am. We hear you' re

a real stickler on dust" s e

Nonjudicial punishment is always unpleasant but

with a woman commanding officer could be awkward

as well, depending upon the nature of the offense .

One case involved language that neither the accuse d

nor the witnesses wanted to use in front of a lady . A

relatively simple solution was found : the offending

statement was written out and all parties read an d

signed it.

Five months after taking over Supply Company,

Captain Ables was assigned as commanding officer o f

her second and larger nearly all-male company, Head -

quarters Company, Headquarters and Service Battalion, which consisted of about 330 men and 40 women .

Again, the first sergeant, Gene A. Lafond, was a key

to a successful tour. Integrated battalions and companies such as this one gave rise to some interestin g

adjustments, notably in the area of physical training .

In this instance, the battalion organized a competitive seven-mile conditioning hike . The course included a climb over hills behind the main camp, but

because the WMs did not have adequate boots for th e

cross-country portion, a seven-mile road march wa s

planned for them to be lead by Captain Ables . The

battalion commander had arranged to take her company himself. The women's platoons from each company were combined to form a single WM unit and

scheduled to hike on the day before Captain Ables '

Headquarters Company.

Having finished her portion of training, Captai n

Ables was challenged by her husband, Major Charles

K. Ables, to lead her own company the next day. She

admitted that it was a struggle to run-walk to kee p

from straggling. It happened that she was not onl y

not the last to complete the course, but she helpe d

to push a Marine over the finish line, and Headquarters Company won the competition. Afterwards, it was

decided that future company hikes would be conducted with men and women participating together, maintaining unit integrity.

An interesting aspect of Captain Ables' experience

as a commanding officer is the fact that her husband

was a member of her command, no doubt a unique

situation in Marine Corps history.

In addition to the command tours of Colonel Bane

and Captain Ables, other assignments evidenced some

change in philosophy and policy. In 1974, Lieutenant

Colonel Annie M . Trowsdale was assigned as executive officer of Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron, Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, and Sergean t

Major Eleanor L. Judge was named sergeant major of

Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron, Marin e

Corps Air Station, Cherry Point . Gunnery Sergean t

Frances Gonzales, in 1975, became the first sergean t

of Casual Company, Headquarters and Service Battalion, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego .5 7

1973-1977 Summary

The Snell Committee report, approved in November 1973, challenged the Marine Corps to take a new

look at its use of womanpower, and the zero draft situation for military services demanded it. Combined

with the women's movement, changing attitudes in

American society, and successful recruiting in terms

of quality as well as numbers, these factors added u p

to a role of increased importance to be played by women in the Marine Corps .