It takes 13 weeks to complete boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, where young recruits become hardened US Marines. The three-month course is considered one of the most difficult in any branch of the US military.
But before this year, male and female recruits never trained side-by-side.
This week, after grinding through three months of training and team building, the San Diego depot’s first gender-integrated class of Marines graduated after completing boot camp together. The historic first was motivated by the National Defense Authorization Act, signed in 2020, which required the Marines to begin training male and female recruits together before 2028.
Until recently, the two training depots were largely segregated by gender: Companies of women trained at the recruit depot in Parris Island, South Carolina, and men trained either in South Carolina or San Diego, but not concurrently with the women recruits. (CNN)
Progress!
If they’re going to fight side-by-side, they should be trained side-by-side!
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