MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif. -- In the early 1900s, a question was posed: Do women have a place in the Marine Corps?
Feb. 13 marks the 60th anniversary of women in the Marine Corps, and history has proven that women not only have a place in the Corps, but also have used the past 60 years to turn a question of belonging into an answer of necessity.
Although 85 years ago Opha Mae Johnson and 304 other women were accepted for duty in the Marine Corps Reserve during World War I to fill clerical positions at Headquarters Marine Corps, they all received orders for separation after the war was over.
It wasn't until Feb. 13, 1943, during World War II, that women came into the Marine Corps in force. A total of 23,145 officer and enlisted women served in more than 200 military assignments including parachute riggers, mechanics, radio operators, mapmakers, motor transport personnel and welders.
When the war was over, unfortunately so was their tour of duty in the Marine Corps. Following the surrender of Japan, the Women's Reserve began to demobilize until Congress passed the Women's Armed Forces Integration Act in 1948. The act authorized women to enlist in the regular component of the Corps.
Since this time there have been major changes to the roles played by women in the Corps, and some of the most significant changes have taken place within the last 20 years.
"When I came into the Marine Corps in 1980, our field training basically consisted of a picnic with MREs, and our drill instructors holding up a rifle saying 'this is an M-16 rifle'," said Master Sgt. Allyson C. Hedrick, financial counselor with Personal Services Division. "Even though we studied the rifle in our (Essential Subjects Training) books, we didn't touch the weapon, we didn't fire the weapon, and we didn't drill with the weapon. When I got to the fleet, I was thrown on the range to fill a quota and I was expected to know what our male counterparts obviously knew."
According to Hedrick, there was an obvious segregation of duties between male and female Marines. Females wore a different uniform than male Marines and were often assigned to stereotypical job assignments.
"Females were often assigned to be clerks at the company office, or file paperwork for their shop," said Hedrick. "That's not what I wanted. I didn't enlist to be a woman Marine; I enlisted to be a Marine. I wanted to get dirty and do the things Marines do."
In the late 1980s, when Hedrick attended staff academy, females were excluded from any offensive field training and left back at the base while the male Marines completed their training.
"We devised a plan with our male counterparts to get us into the field," said Hedrick. "Though the policies were the way they were, I always felt accepted by the male Marines as part of the team. They gave us directions and instructions on where they were, and of course we were camouflaged so the instructors didn't even notice we were there until we returned with the platoon. There was camaraderie there; we were a team. We did get a royal chew out for what we did, but you could tell there was respect under the words for what we had done to remain a part of the platoon."
Since Hedrick's enlistment into the Marine Corps, women have continued to step up to serve their country in larger numbers and in more non-traditional roles.
Today, women represent approximately five percent of the active-duty force at 9,000, and the numbers are rising annually. The Marine Corps has equipped itself to deal with these changes by changing policy and training to equip women Marines for the future.
Lance Cpl. Rebekah Wavle, travel clerk with the finance department, joined the Marine Corps Feb. 11, 2002. Shortly before joining she was confronted by a friend who was an active-duty Marine in the infantry.
"He lectured me for about an hour trying to convince me that there is no place for women in the Marine Corps," said Wavle. "He said, 'This is my Corps, and your joining will cause the death of one of my Marines.' Needless to say, I didn't listen to him, and what I found out was that he couldn't have been more wrong."
Upon arriving at her first duty station, the 20-year-old South Carolina native found the Marine Corps to be more than adequately accepting. Within a year of her first assignment, she was given the opportunity to be a part of the base Security Augmentation Force, which can be called in to help protect the base in times of increased force readiness.
"I can't imagine better training than being sprayed in the face with pepper spray," said Wavle. "I may not have my chance to go fight on the front lines, but if the front lines come to me and this base, there is nothing that's going to stop me from checking my M-16 out from the armory and sending rounds down range!"
From the time of Hedrick's experience in the early '80s, not knowing what the term "down range" meant, to Wavle's excitement for being a vital part of her base's security, woman Marines have become -- Marines.
"Right now there is not a thing I would change about women's role in the Marine Corps," said Wavle. "We have the best of both sides; the combat training and conditioning we want, along with the liberty to still be a woman. We're not expected to do everything the strongest man can do."
The stereotype of women not belonging in a ground combat role may not be totally eradicated from social beliefs, but the idea 60 years in the making of women belonging in the Corps is finally achieved, and the Marine Corps family is secure with its female counterparts' roles.
"Before joining the Marine Corps, people told me I was absolutely nuts," said Hedrick. "But the female drill instructors made me a Marine. It was the first time in my life I had leaders push me past what I thought I was capable of doing, and after graduation I couldn't imagine anything I couldn't do."