Sisters to launch Web site that unites female Marines
December 21, 2009 1:51 AM
HOPE HODGE
United by blood and their service to the country, four sisters are preparing to launch a Web site that will unite female Marines worldwide.
Tammie Martin, a Jacksonville resident and chief warrant officer II who joined the Marine Corps in 1996, said she got the idea for a Web site forum that would allow female Marines to connect and share experience when she considered writing a book about recruit training.
“There weren’t a lot of females that I could speak to, to get information from a woman’s perspective,” Martin said.
According to Department of Defense statistics, 12,951 active-duty women are serving in the Marines, which is less than 6.5 percent of all active-duty Marines.
“We’re such a small percentage of the Marine Corps,” Martin said. “There’s not a lot of resources out there. There weren’t a lot of sites out there that highlighted (female Marines’) achievements.”
So the book became a Web site which, Martin said, entered active planning stages between September and October. Martin’s sister Tina Barrett, a retired Marine Corps master sergeant and Jacksonville resident, signed on as the chief operating officer, while the eldest sister, Tanya Bell, headed up the business aspect. Sister Tracy Faust, a retired Air Force master sergeant, provided advice and experience.
The site, Martin said, will have user forums covering topics such as education, deployments and PCS moves, along with where to find important resources and information throughout the service. In a section called “Women Making History” and photo galleries, the narrative will be carried by the sites’ users, from all military occupational specialties and locations around the Corps.
“Every member is a featured member,” Martin said.
The site, www.wherethedifferencebegins.com, goes live on Jan. 1. While it doesn’t have any sponsors yet, Martin said she has big ambitions for its future.
“Ideally, I would like recruiters to use this as a tool to show that other women have gone before them and accepted this challenge to become Marines,” Martin said.
Barrett, who retired from the Marines in 2006 after 22 years of service, said while she was in, she used to visit www.ivillage.com to find information and forums on issues specific to women. It would have been wonderful, she said, to have access to a site specifically for female Marines.
“If you have a particular situation, you’re going to find that there is another woman who’s going to be out there who has had a similar situation,” Barrett said.
While Barrett and Martin said they found existing organizations such as the Women Marines Association and the Womens’ Memorial to be valuable resources, this would be different in that its focus was not primarily historical but concerned with women currently serving, specifically the site’s own users.
“We just wanted something that honors (women) for their sacrifice and for their service,” Barrett said. “It’s not Tammy and I that are doing it; it’s all the other women who are going to be doing it for each other.”
Contact Hope Hodge at 910-219-8453 or hhodge@freedomenc.com.
