Women Marines - how is your attitude?

[sparkie]

So I am here... again been busy. As to you, SSGT... No, I do not have to pull anything "out of my GySgt toolbox" to control the students in my classroom. Its called respect. They have it for me. I teach high school special education classes. Any other questions?

Can you teach a special ed class around here? I'm sure a lot of us old Marines would sign up.

[Old Marine]

I know exactly what you mean... sometimes when I am wearing my Marine Corps League "gear" someone will ask "where did you get that shirt?" Inside my head I am thinking "Where the **** do you think I got it?" or sometimes I want to respond "I just beat the crap outta some old WWII Marine at the VFW and stole his ****!" but.... I usually just say "I'm a member, I used to be in the Corps." They are always pleasantly surprised and will ask me questions that I pleasantly answer....

You might want to be careful with the talk about beating the crap out of some old WWII Marine at the VFW. Most of those old guys could probably still wear you out.

[MotherGoose]

You might want to be careful with the talk about beating the crap out of some old WWII Marine at the VFW. Most of those old guys could probably still wear you out.

I would never think about messing with them. I've seen too many newpaper articles and youtube clips of old Marines beatin the tar out of some would be mugger/thief/whathaveyou.

[natevines]

I have known a *few* good WM's in my time, but sadly our views today are far too corrupted by political correctness. There's a reason why women weren't allowed on active duty for most of Marine Corps history. Frankly, in my experience most women I've dealt with with slutty and everyone else had to pick up their weight. That's one of the reasons I lat-moved to infantry. I love it now, the camaraderie is so much stronger and our PT isn't mired down by females falling out. Not saying all are bad or nothing, this is just my experience. I definitely would never date or marry one.

[THAT AINT IT]

I'm the only female that lives in barracks at my unit and it doesn't bother me at all. Maybe it's because I've been "one of the guys" my whole life but I never had any brothers and now I have more than I know what to do with. Honestly the only female Marines that I like are the ones I went to boot camp with. I'm not saying that I hate all female Marines, I just don't like the sh*tty ones that give the rest of us a bad name. There are only 4 active duty females here, two SSgt's and two Lance's. I hate the fact that everytime I start hanging out with one of the guys here, everyone thinks we're doing it. As far as PT goes, I know I can hold my own. I have no problem keeping up with the males. I hate being compared to females that fall out of every run or the ones that pull the "I'm a female, I can't do that" card.

[mjs2000us]

I understand what you mean... I recently signed up for the Marines. After I told my friends this naturally they were surprised. I am way to "feminine" to want to be a Marine. I must have been forced into it by my father or some crap like that. No, my choice, my decision. Of course this spread to the friends of my friends, and some j**k in the middle of the night calls me (having gotten my # from a friend). He introduces himself and starts making just plain chit chat. Me not wanting to be rude, I decide to chat. About 5 minutes into the conversation he just plain says that I don't sound "manly" enough to become a Marine. Then proceeds to harass me for my choice. I told him to go "youknow" himself and hung up. Haven't gotten a call from him since. Still it makes me angry to think that my so called friends would be so unsupportive. I have bled and gotten knocked out while sparring for karate before. So why so surprised? and why the crap?

[mjs2000us]

I know what you mean by so called discrimination for being to girly or pretty. After I told my friends about my decision, they were shocked. Immediately, I was bombarded with "your to girly" or "you didn't seem like the manly type to me". Others thought my father got me to do it, but no it is my choice, my decision. If I want to fight for my country, then let me. I was very surprised at how unsupportive my "friends" are.

The only thing that matters to me now, is that my family supports me. They know I am doing the right thing. That goes for women everywhere that meet ridiculous opposition. Do what you feel is right and don't let them get you down.

M. Sieger

[SgtDBrownRet]

I thought this section was for Woman Marines to converse, but it seems to have changed the question about our attitude into “I knew a WM story”. We are no different in attitude than the men. There are some that are easy going, and some that are brash. Me, I’m brash, and I love it. Over the years I have worked on my “delivery”, but I make no excuses for what I say, because I usually think before I speak. I always say “Listen to what I say and not worry so much about how I say it.” It is okay for a man to have a little base in his voice when trying to get a point across, or chewing some a$$, but people expect women to have a motherly loving tone. Nonsense, you f***ed up, I’m p***ed, and I’m going to let you know. In my office at work I have many references to me being a Marine. I even had my Certificate of Retirement on my wall for years, and would still the question of “Is your husband a Marine?” I use to get upset, but now I just say “I didn’t go on that line when they were issuing them at Parris Island, I was in the pit instead, it was easier.”

As for the “purdy” comment, I was a runway model while I was attached to my reserve unit 2/25 (Infantry reserve unit in Garden City, NY). If I wasn’t asked about my Eagle, Globe and Anchor that I wear around my neck, I won’t bring it up. Once word got out among the local designers that I was a Marine I did enjoy the more work. It was about 1½ before the Marines in my unit found out about my modeling. All they knew was I was PFC then LCPL D. Brown. They were shocked that I could get down and dirty with them, tough as nail, took no crap, cammied war face, pulling my load, carrying the Guidon, leading the runs , calling cadence, running 3 miles when I could have stopped at 1½ to motivate the one that would stop the snorers in the squadbay (LOL), and got your back in a bar fight. A MARINE.

Hell yeah, I complained about being soaked to the bone in the freezing rain during field training. Hell, yeah, I *****ed when I was awoken at 2am to look for some lost private in the woods at Devil Dog. That’s what Marines do *****, moan, complain, and suck it up to get the da*n job done right so we can go have fun. Men do it all the time. Hell, I learned it from them. That crap was not allowed in my house when I was growing up or in boot camp. Ladies, how many of you were excused from anything in boot camp because of “that time”? I know no one in my platoon did. Why, because females know females and the DI were not playing that mess So, just like there are female whiners, there are many more male whiners, because there are more of you than us. Don’t get mad at WM because you men didn’t have the balls to tell that WM to get her a$$ to work, or pull out the world’s smallest violin. You would have told a male Marine that, what’s the difference? Leaders make the Marines the lead no matter what the sex. Marines of both sexes will do what they can get away with if you let them. Stop letting them get away with that mess.

The roles of women in combat ARE changing, whether the U.S. like it or not. Hell, the world in general is changing the roles of women. Men that sit and try to coddle and protect their little Princess from the hard bad world do them no good. They may not be lucky enough to find a man like “Dear ole Dad” to care for them.

This documentary is about the experiences of five women soldiers in Iraq who, as part of Team Lioness, supported Army and Marine combat units. It will be broadcast nationally on PBS stations on November 13. You can see a two minute introduction to the documentary on the following ITVS Independent Lens web site, under “Video” http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/video/?page=&video. Then click on “Lioness”

[Sgt Jim]

My niece who is a Marine,she is in the airwing.has one daughter nicnamed Freedom who was born on 911. I am very proud of both of them,she is on her way to Iraq to do her duty.any man or Marine who would slight her is no better than the maggots that spit on and called GI.s and Marines baby killers when they came back from Nam

[reedmaker1]

I was a WM. I was PAO, so my MOS was full of us. I never had a problem. In fact, I worked in and out of DC and saw my share of brass. As long as I held my own and acted like a Marine, I was treated like a Marine (1987-1992).

However, now I get the, "You don't look like a Marine treatment." I pull up a picture of myself, usually one from the desert (Kuwait), and they shut up.

I may be 39 and the mother of four, but I challenge any of those old buggers to find out how much of a Marine I still am.

It doesn't anger me. I don't mind being an "attractive" Marine, but I just wish people could understand WMs are Marines too.

One more thought...I have a customer who is a retired Top. He told my boss to ask me if I was a BAM, which my boss did reluctantly (not knowing Marine lingo). My response, "Your damn right I am. I'm proud to be a Marine and if my a** is a little wider than his -great! I'll use it when I kick his!"

Sometimes, you have to take what they think are insults and turn them into badges of HONOR!!!

Semper Fi!

[shellyhunter]

Mothergoose-
Its male Marines like the outlaw (whose response about thank god WM's arent in battle with us because we'd have to worry about....blah blah blah) who talk down to WM's like they are not TRUE MARINES or not as great as they are that make me sick. we endured the same bootcamp and the same training as they did. we earned the title just as they did. in fact nine times out of ten its the male Marines with attitudes like this that are seen wearing LITTLE CEASAR pizza boxes on there chest because they do not have the skills to do better than marksmen! hhhhmmmm not so sure i'd want to be in a foxhole with him either!

Greetings to my sisters-in-arms! I often wonder if other female Marines go through some of the same situations or feelings as I do, or if it is just me and my redheaded temperament. And if so, how do you react? I can usually blow stuff off (and account the other party's actions to extremely limited intelligence) and then there are times when "snapping" or "becoming unglued" seems in accordance with proper SOP. I'm not too ashamed to say that I have become unglued at inappropriate times... but hey, what can I say???

For instance:

Scenario 1: You are at a veterans' function and people will come up and shake the hand of the male next to you and thank him for his service but they won't even look your way even though you have more time and grade than the puke you're standing beside. Really p*$$#$ me off but I have to remember that most folks are unbelievably backwards in their thinking.

Scenario 2: The infamous (and extremely insulting) lines of "yer too purdy to be a Marine" or "I'd have never thought you were a Marine." Nothing can make me snap more than that last line. My responses have included "Why? I don't seem squared away, intelligent, motivated and patriotic? Or do I have to be some beer guzzling swine to get some credibility."

Scenario 3: Some friggin hack on this site makes disparaging, passive aggressive remarks about female Marines because said hack has a burr in his p-hole over some encounter with a female Marine that made him angry. This really makes me mad too because we all get lumped together in the same category. It's the same as if I categorized all male Marines as liars, thieves, adulterers (come on you know a male Marine will stick his **** in anything that moves, or doesn't move, and they ALL will cheat when given the opportunity), murderers, rapists and gangbangers. Not all male Marines are exemplary. Not all female Marines are exemplary. In this case, when I read some anal comment on this site, I say nothing but it sticks in my craw and I lose a little respect for that poster. His posts have to be taken with a grain of salt from then on because his view is obviously warped.

Semper Fi Marines!

[Marine84]

Stick around Ladies, you'll see these guys really aren't that bad. They just like stirring $h!t up in us every now and then just to keep things going. They can talk to us any way but, if someone else does, these guys will kick their a$$. Even Outlaw would take a bullet for one of us.

And they all luuuuuuuuuv WM's!

[montana]

yuppers...what 84 said

[Bdchi1]

MotherGoose, I was stationed in DC for most of my tour and I was around WMs all the time. Some were great, some were good, some were bad...just like the males. In fact, some pulled more than their own weight, while others sandbagged it...just like the males. I saw some smoke their PFTs and some fail...just like the males. I saw some drink it up and some throw it up...just like the males. But all were wearing the Eagle, Globe and Anchor, and thats enough for me.

To all our sisters, great, good and bad, I'd fight with ya, for ya and let you do the same for me. Because thats what the Corps is about.

SEMPER FI, we all bleed marine. So if we're ever in conversation, I'll just introduce you as Marine and we won't need that rediculous "WM" tag.

Salute

[Enigmatic]

MotherGoose, I was stationed in DC for most of my tour and I was around WMs all the time. Some were great, some were good, some were bad...just like the males. In fact, some pulled more than their own weight, while others sandbagged it...just like the males. I saw some smoke their PFTs and some fail...just like the males. I saw some drink it up and some throw it up...just like the males. But all were wearing the Eagle, Globe and Anchor, and thats enough for me.

To all our sisters, great, good and bad, I'd fight with ya, for ya and let you do the same for me. Because thats what the Corps is about.

SEMPER FI, we all bleed marine. So if we're ever in conversation, I'll just introduce you as Marine and we won't need that rediculous "WM" tag.

Salute

My thoughts exactly. Semper Fi MARINES