Three women pass Marine ‘grunt’ test, but Corps holds off on letting them in infantry

By Craig Whitlock, WashPost, Published: November 20

For the first time, three enlisted women have passed the Marine Corps’ grueling infantry course, carrying the same rifles and lugging the same 85-pound packs on the same 12-mile hikes through the piney woods of North Carolina as the men.

The female Marines are scheduled to graduate Thursday at Camp Geiger, N.C. — a historic development as the U.S. military prepares to open ground combat forces to women. But in a twist, the three women still won’t be allowed to serve in an infantry unit, at least not for a long while.

Marine Corps leaders say they need two more years to study whether it makes sense to allow women to serve as grunts. They note that no woman has passed the even more challenging infantry training course for officers (10 have tried). Before making a final decision, they said, they want to see many more female Marines try to pass the courses so the results can be evaluated.

“Any force-wide changes to be made will occur only after we have conducted our research, determined the way ahead and set the conditions to implement our recommendations,” Capt. Maureen Krebs, a Marine spokes­woman, said in an e-mail.

(More here.)