A diverse group of about 100 female Marines have volunteered for a combat training and research experiment unlike any other.
In October, they checked into the Marine Corps Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force an unprecedented project designed to help commanders decide whether to open all remaining combat jobs to women.
These potential history-makers joined mixed-gender platoons of infantry, artillery and armored vehicles at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Then last week, they followed the advance party out to Twentynine Palms for what is expected to be three intense months of combat-skills testing in the Mojave Desert. After that, some head to Camp Pendleton and the mountain warfare center in Bridgeport for further evaluations.
Before they signed up for the task force, the servicewomen were forging military careers in combat support positions. They worked as computer desk jockeys, convoy operators and the like, in occupations they likely will return to when the project disbands this summer.
Even if the Corps decides to permanently open ground-combat jobs to women by years end, few of the project volunteers would choose to start over in a new Marine occupation and abandon career momentum. There is also the stress of what many predict will be a rough transition if the Corps and the nations other armed forces insert women into formerly all-male combat units.
Who are these female warriors, and why did they sign up for the unusual undertaking?
Here is a look at four women in the task force we intend to follow through their months of training:
