The Marines Defend Their Women

The only time I served closely with a female was in my National Guard Infantry Company, where we had a female records clerk. While I cannot speak for her, I believe she was treated as a team member, afforded all the same respect as the rest of us, was a sister in arms, and was not harassed in any way. (to my knowledge.)

SSG V. Michelle Woods , question do you know the soldiers names in this photo? One looks very familiar and I would like to request a name please...

WOW

Yut

There is no simple answer. Any time we talk about the interactions of people things become complicated by a factor of how many people we are talking about.

I was a Soldier (two decades ago), not a Marine, and I can tell you without a doubt that I and fellow (male) soldiers defended fellow (female) soldiers, just like in the story you described above. Why? Because it was the right thing to do.

However... there will ALWAYS be people in EVERY occupation and location that are of the opinion that someone of a different gender, race, religion, or sexual preference are inferior to them. In the case of gender stereotyping it could be that they were raised by parents who's relationship was that the wife played helpless and the husband took care of everything (my first wife is like that, she wants a man to take care of everything, freeing up her time to do nothing... she isn't stupid, or weak, just lazy).

There also will always be people who see perceived weakness as an opportunity to be exploited. That may mean taking advantage of a naive soldier financially, or a female soldier physically... Those people are scum for the earth, and we have to avoid applying their scumminess to a generalization about everyone of their demographic. So I'll give you three examples of relational interactions with fellow (female) soldiers of what I'm talking about:

- Tina was "same sex oriented" and a good friend of mine. An excellent light wheel vehicle mechanic, but a terrible all around soldier (barracks room was always a mess, barely passed PT tests). I owned 5 pairs of jungle boots and my Sunday afternoon SOP was to rent a couple of movies and polish them all so I wouldn't have to worry about it during the week. Tina would often join me and I would polish *one* of her boots, and she would spend the rest of the time trying to get the others to match. We had great times together as friends, the fact that her genitalia was different from mine didn't matter.

- Sarah was a first duty station private and I was a specialist at my last duty station. We worked together at HQ. I had come from a unit that lived in the field and had gone to Desert Storm. When our unit's annual "field exercise" came up (one night in a tent, and two weeks on "heightened alert" I fell right back into "Army mode" (as opposed to feeling like I had a civilian job where I wore BDU's). I started spending my "free time" going out to the guard post talking to whoever was on duty about what to look for, how to "play mind games with yourself" to stay alert, teaching as I had been taught. One evening Sarah was on guard duty when the base commander's driver played "Opposing force" and was running around base up to no good when we saw them and called it in... the only unit on base to do so. Sarah and I both got "atta-boy" letters in our folders. That progressed into spending more time together which eventually progressed into sleeping together.

- Cherry (I don't remember her real name, but she had a tattoo of of a cherry below the waist with the words "gone forever") we were in AIT together and was proud to show off the tattoo. One night she crept into my room in the barracks to give me a closer look at her tattoo (apparently I didn't seem impressed enough when she showed it off in the hallway). Being a young dumb 18 year old male with no thought to VD I was happy to let her have her way with me... but had she been totally unattractive to me I doubt anyone would have felt pity for her taking advantage of me. As a side note, I was far from being "pure as the driven snow" in those days, people called ME a "male-slut" and I deserved it... it didn't bother me and people didn't continue.

So what's my point? People are different, and generalizations suck. Based on Cherry we could make the assumption that "female soldiers are sluts". Based on Sarah we could come to the conclusion that "female soldiers are female soldiers, who need to be mentored, who want to develop into BETTER soldiers, and yes, there is a possibility of having a personal relationship with them.". Based on Tina we could come to the conclusion that "female soldiers are all dykes that should be treated like 'one of the guys'". All three assumptions would be wrong... and at the same time right...

Is it sexist for you to expect male soldiers to stand up for female soldiers? Yes it is. Is it sexist for ANY soldier to stand up for their FELLOW soldier(s)? No... that's comradery, and every unit strives to develop it.

It is a whole other mentality in the Marines. When they get time off they generally stick together, ask around their units and neighboring companies to get ideas on whats going on that weekend, who's having a party, which party to go to, what beach has the better waves, stuff like that. In the army most soldiers have a few friends in their unit, and i use that term loosely because given the choice have hanging out with their soldier friends or connecting with high school friends back home they will choose the latter. why this is an important fact for this discussion is if you really feel connected to your fellow service members (as in the marines case) you care about them and look out for them no matter the situation or possible consequences. same principle goes for a bar, if a group of marines are in a bar, they see a single marine walk in and get into trouble (i.e. bar fight or someone delivering unwelcome attention) without hesitation they go to the rescue (which sometimes may be overbearing), same situation with a group of soldiers more often then not theyll turn their backs and pretend nothing is happenning.

Ok, what about sexual harassment from members of the same sex? I do not see this addressed here. It happened to me, and other female Marines have told me they had the same type of unwanted attention from apparently gay female Marines. One of my roommates at Quantico was gay. She thought nothing of having her girlfriends in the room, over night. Another lesbian was famous for jumping on beds and "tickling" unsuspecting female Marines. It happened to me one night and I had to lay the law down with this woman; I worked with her, so it made it harder on me because she outranked me.

Honor and loyalty huh? Doesn't apply to Philippino tranny hookers eh? That Pemberton kid making the home town proud... New Bedford represent!

There is sexual assault in all branches, it’s just the Army is focused on the most because of its size compared to all other branches combined. When the general population thinks of the military it tends to think of the Army first because that is what is advertised and promoted the most. In the Army I have been in units where women are part of the team and treated the same and respected the same as men and I have been in units where there has been a clear divide between genders that is often uncomfortable.

Standing up for women varies between units. It truly depends on factors such as command climate, individual Soldiers, etc. Some branches, such as the Marines, are smaller and tighter knit groups where that protection factor exists BUT I am 100% positive the same factors affect those groups as mentioned for the Army. However, military culture is maybe one of the largest factors in this and it varies substantially between branches. Women should be treated equally but at the same time not “specially”.

Men and women are simply wired differently; we are physically and psychologically different. Women should be treated as equals to men but both genders are not the same. Men should honor women and treat them with dignity and respect but as others have mentioned, that lack of that respect is an inherent societal flaw and not specific to the military. The military is under a microscope and being a small community overall, every indiscretion is magnified and blown up by the media and public making it seem more of an issue than it may, or may not, actually be.

At the same time the military is designed to function a certain way. Historically the US military has not had a lot of direct interaction between genders. The last 10+ years of war has changed that atmosphere substantially. Traditional military thinking, training, dogma, etc has been focused on “MAN MAN MAN” with no "weakness" and “KILL” (to use generic terms). The Army was just not prepared at this time to fully immerse both genders without question because old traditions, dogmas, and thoughts die hard. At the same time we cannot purely blame the men for all these issues as there are plenty of women making this transition difficult as well. Both genders are part of this problem and have to work together to figure it all out.

I hope the military can evolve to a point where both genders can interact fully and cooperatively where both are treated with proper and due respect. It will not happen overnight though. In conclusion, the bottom line is that the military has a primary purpose: DESTRUCTION. The military is in place to defend and protect the nation's people and interests. We work in a violent profession and not all of those serving can be gentlemen and that is an aspect of the military I don't think can, or should, change because it’s a fine edge that is required for war. So if you are looking for a gentleman, the military is not the first place you should look.

I cant believe where the original premise of this post has gone. I felt that SSG Woods put labels on the different services and made the assertion that only the Marines would defend their women and that is hogwash. I think its important to remember that in the Army that all people are trained as soldiers first and although the label has changed, there is not a soldier that has not been through basic combat training. My time as a Drill Sergeant in BCT then MP AIT, I was the Platoon Sergeant for women and men on several occasions. I have seen men cry and women cry, I have seen women fail and men fail, I have had women honor platoons and men honor platoons. In MP and Drill Sergeant Schools where men and women train together side by side, I have been smoked by female drill sergeants as well as male drill sergeants I have seen men jump to the aide of women and women jump to the aide of men, WHY? because we were and still are part of a team. In the military we are to put ourselves behind the team, it does not matter your race, creed, color, religion or what sex you are or now what sex you think you should be. When the team fails people die in all the differences as I listed above, we all bleed the same color. The best commander I have ever had was a female, the worst commander I ever had was a female; in-between there are commander's of both sex's that I would not hesitate to follow into battle. The answer to all of the responses in this post is... character you either have it or you don't.