Inspiration of this book came to me while I was serving on Recruiting Duty in Shreveport, Louisiana. I discovered that there were not only myths about what male marines encounter in basic training but more myths about the women marines training. Most of what I heard was negative. Some of what I heard was that all women marines were masculine. None of them were heterosexual. I listened as some said that before meeting me that they believed that most of the women that joined the marines were unattractive. Also, incapable of landing a husband. I also heard that only women that did not want to accomplish much in life joined the marines. Most of those that I spoke with were thinking as I did before I joined. That women could not join the Marine Corps. That this branch of the armed services was dominated and designed only for men. My goal in writing this book is to share the fact that not only can women become marines but that it can also be a very rewarding experience. To also know that I understand, just like any occupation, everyone will not become a marine. If they could, we would not be such a recognized branch. For those that want a rewarding adventure, I feel that they should be a marine. The Marine Corps recruiting motto, The Few, the Proud, the Marines, shows that the important thing is the quality of the person, which is what is looked for and developed. Thats why many women that have celebrated successful careers in the Marine Corps can say proudly that they are more than women; they are women marines.

Just out of high school in 1977, her personal life already a mess, Tracy Crow thought the Marines might straighten her out. And sure enough, in the Corps she became a respected public affairs officer and military journalist—one day covering tank maneuvers or beach assaults, the next interviewing the secretary of the navy. But success didn’t come without a price. When Crow pledged herself to God, Corps, and Country, women Marines were still a rarity, and gender inequality and harassment were rampant. Determined to prove she belonged, Crow always put her career first—even when, after two miscarriages and a stillborn child, her marriage to another Marine officer began to deteriorate. And when her affair with a prominent general was exposed—and both were threatened with court-martial—Crow was forced to re-evaluate her loyalty to the Marines, her career, and her family. Eyes Right is Crow’s story. A clear-eyed self-portrait of a troubled teen bootstrapping her way out of a world of alcoholism and domestic violence, it is also a rare inside look at the Marines from a woman’s perspective. Her memoir, which includes two Pushcart Prize–nominated essays, evokes the challenges of being a woman and a Marine with immediacy and clarity, and in the process reveals how much Crow’s generation did for today’s military women, and at what cost.

What happens if we bet too heavily on unmanned systems, cyber warfare, and special operations in our defense? In today's U.S. defense policy debates, big land wars are out. Drones, cyber weapons, special forces, and space weapons are in. Accordingly, Pentagon budget cuts have honed in on the army and ground forces: this, after the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, seems like an appealing idea. No one really wants American boots on the ground in bloody conflicts abroad. But it is not so easy to simply declare an end to messy land wars. A survey of the world's trouble spots suggests that land warfare has more of a future than many now seem to believe. In The Future of Land Warfare, Michael O'Hanlon offers an analysis of the future of the world's ground forces: Where are large-scale conflicts or other catastrophes most plausible? Which of these could be important enough to require the option of a U.S. military response? And which of these could in turn demand significant numbers of American ground forces in their resolution? O'Hanlon is not predicting or advocating big American roles in such operations—only cautioning against overconfidence that we can and will avoid them. O'Hanlon considers a number of illustrative scenarios in which large conventional forces may be necessary: discouraging Russia from even contemplating attacks against the Baltic states; discouraging China from considering an unfriendly future role on the Korean peninsula; handling an asymmetric threat in the South China Sea with the construction and protection of a number of bases in the Philippines and elsewhere; managing the aftermath of a major and complex humanitarian disaster superimposed on a security crisis—perhaps in South Asia; coping with a severe Ebola outbreak not in the small states of West Africa but in Nigeria, at the same time that country falls further into violence; addressing a further meltdown in security conditions in Central America.

A Marine Corps combat veteran with twenty years of service describes her professional battle against gender bias in the Marines and the lessons it holds for other arenas. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Kate Germano arrived at Parris Island convinced that if she expected more of the female recruits just coming into Corps, she could raise historically low standards for female performance and make women better Marines. One year after she took command of the Fourth Recruit Training Battalion, shooting qualifications of the women under her command equaled those of men, injuries had decreased, and unit morale had noticeably improved. Then the Marines fired her. This is the story of Germano's struggle to achieve equality of performance and opportunity for female Marines against an entrenched male-dominated status quo. Germano charges that the men above her in the chain of command were too invested in perpetuating the subordinate role of women in the Corps to allow her to prove that the female Marine can be equal to her male counterpart. She notes that the Marine Corps continues to be the only service where men and women train separately in boot camp or basic training. Meanwhile, in the U.S. Army, women have already become Army Rangers and applied to be infantry officers. Germano addresses the Marine Corps' $35-million gender-integration study, which shows that all-male squads perform at a higher level than mixed male-female squads. This study flies in the face of the results she demonstrated with the all-female Fourth Battalion and raises questions about the Marine Corps' willingness to let women succeed. At a time when women are fighting sexism in many sectors of society, Germano's story has wide-ranging implications and lessons not just for the military but for corporate America, the labor force, education, and government.

Describes what a career in marine biology is like, using examples from the life of research scientist Dr. Florence McAlary.

The history of the first women to serve in the Marine Corps is a fascinating record of the dedication and drive of American women during World War I. The purpose of this monograph is to tell the story of the small band of women who answered the Corps' call for volunteers in 1918 with patriotism and enthusiasm. A former Director of Women Marines, Colonel Jeanette I. Sustad, USHC (Ret.) originated the project of compiling data for a history of women Marines who served in World War I. In 1971, she asked various members of the Women Marines Association to interview surviving veterans throughout the country. A questionnaire designed to guide the interviewers as well as background information on the service of women Marines in the 1918-1919 period was developed by Lieutenant Colonel Pat Meid, USMCR. Lieutenant Colonel Meid, who authored the official history, Marine Corps Women's Reserve in World War II, originally published in 1964, accumulated considerable material on the earlier group of women Marines during her research. This was all made available to the author of this monograph. The interviews conducted during 1971-1972, 29 in number, form a valuable archive of personal experiences of these pioneer women Marines. They have been used to supplement the official records which are sparse and elusive. Muster rolls of the time were checked exhaustively in compiling a roster of women who served, but it proved impossible to discover all the names making up the 305 women who were enlisted as Marine .Corps Reserve (F). Much information was gleaned from contemporary magazine and newspaper articles, particularly from Leatherneck, Marine Corps Gazette, The Marine Magazine, Recruiter's Bulletin, and the New York and Washington daily newspapers. A small but useful collection of Women Marine memorabilia, including photographs, letters, and clippings, was donated by various individuals as a result of publicity about the project.

Brimming “with the ebullient Bhagwati’s fierce humanism, seething humor, and change-maker righteousness,” (Shelf Awareness) a raw, unflinching memoir by a former US Marine Captain chronicling her journey from dutiful daughter of immigrants to radical activist fighting for historic policy reform. After a lifetime of buckling to the demands of her strict Indian parents, Anuradha Bhagwati abandons grad school in the Ivy League to join the Marines—the fiercest, most violent, most masculine branch of the military—determined to prove herself there in ways she couldn’t before. Yet once training begins, Anuradha’s GI Jane fantasy is punctured. As a bisexual woman of color in the military, she faces underestimation at every stage, confronting misogyny, racism, sexual violence, and astonishing injustice perpetrated by those in power. Pushing herself beyond her limits, she also wrestles with what drove her to pursue such punishment in the first place. Once her service concludes in 2004, Anuradha courageously vows to take to task the very leaders and traditions that cast such a dark cloud over her time in the Marines. Her efforts result in historic change, including the lifting of the ban on women from pursuing combat roles in the military. “Bhagwati’s fight is both incensing and inspiring” (Booklist) in this tale of heroic resilience and grapples with the timely question of what, exactly, America stands for, showing how one woman learned to believe in herself in spite of everything.