“Pick your heads up!” yelled a drill instructor. “Scream, ‘Aye, Ma’am!’ No! Scream louder than that!”
The women had come from places like Louisville, Kentucky, and Columbus, Ohio, in street clothes and sneakers, which they would soon shed for military fatigues. For the next 11 weeks, they would speak only in the third person, calling themselves “this recruit” instead of “I” to absolve all individuality.
They are recruits to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina — the only place in the country where women become Marines.
Women have been training to become Marines for decades, but only since 2016 have they been able to serve in combat roles alongside men — a requirement, when it was announced by the Department of Defense, that the Marine Corps fought against. (They cited a 2015 study they had conducted, in which they determined that women Marines could not perform physically demanding tasks at the same level as their male counterparts; the Pentagon rejected that request.)
Today, women make up 8 percent of the U.S. Marine force, the lowest percentage of any military branch. Their challenges have been well-documented.
I followed a handful of these women as they went through basic training — rappelling from a tower, learning rope climbing and martial arts, and completing courses in military history and Marine Corps values (honor, courage, and commitment).
The following are snapshots from their journey.
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Their stay began with a phone call home — in which the women were ordered to yell the following script into the phone to their family or next of kin:
1. This is recruit (Last name)
2. I have arrived safely at Parris Island
3. Please do not send any food or bulky items to me in the mail
4. I will contact you in seven to nine days by letter with my new address
5. Thank you for your support goodbye for now
The women would not speak to their families again until the day before graduation. During their time on Parris Island, recruits are permitted one phone call in case of an emergency or an exceptional circumstance. They have no email access.
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In 2018, the U.S. Marine Corps celebrated its centennial of women being able to serve. But it wasn’t until 1949 that the Marines set up a battalion specifically tasked with training women recruits, according to Lt. Col. Misty Posey, who commands the women recruits at Parris Island.
Today, platoons at Parris Island remain segregated by gender, though men and women partake in some activities together, such as classroom courses. The exception to this rule is the India Company, a recently integrated battalion. The Marine Corps has said the integration was for the purpose of “training efficiency” during a class cycle with fewer women recruits.
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All recruits at Parris Island are required to take an initial physical fitness test — and those who don’t meet the requirements are placed into a special training program.
The requirements are:
Men:
34 push-ups or three pullups
44 crunches
1.5-mile run in 13:30 or less
Women:
15 push-ups or one pullup
44 crunches
1.5-mile run in 15:00 or less
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At any given time on Parris Island there are approximately 750 to 1,000 women in various stages of recruit training, compared to roughly 2,850 men, according to the Marine Corps.
“We made a conscious decision to try and increase that number of young women, because in many instances it’s not what they’d naturally think about doing,” said Brig. Gen. James Glynn.
The Marine Corps remains the only military service that still separates men and women during basic training.
Most of the women at Parris Island have women as their drill instructors. They live on a female floor in the barracks. Their training, Posey said, is identical to the men’s — though they are graded differently on the physical fitness test.
“When I say identical, males get haircuts that we don’t get ... Females get a pregnancy test when they get here. That’s it,” Posey said, adding: "We hike the same miles with the same weight in our pack, we have one physical training playbook, our chow halls serve the same food.”
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A typical day at Parris Island consists of a 4 a.m. wake-up, physical fitness, academic classes and group meals. Teamwork is central to everything the recruits do.
All of this is in preparation for “the Crucible” — a 54-hour marathon of physical and emotional endurance that will test what they have learned.
“The Crucible is actually seeing everything that has been taught to them come to life,” said Staff Sgt. Jasmine Rodgers, 26, a drill instructor from Philadelphia. “It shows the best and the worst from them, and by the end of it, they are better for it.”
Their challenges during the Crucible include long hikes during the day and night, climbing ropes, deciphering how to get the very last person of a group over a plywood wall, and crawling through thick mud while pushing heavy boxes of ammunition under barbed wire as battle soundtracks are blasted into the course to simulate moving while under fire.
One of the most grueling exercises is called “Noonan’s evacuation,” a mock casualty rescue based on a real battle and evacuation that took place during the Vietnam War. During that exercise, the recruits had to tend to and evacuate their wounded and dead while receiving simulated rounds and sniper fire.
The recruits average four hours of sleep per night during the Crucible. They sleep in wooden huts.
“It’s a lot of teamwork, especially working with so many other females.,” said Jasmine Dickson, 26, a recruit from Atlanta, Georgia, who has a bachelor’s degree in opera music and also sings R&B. “Everybody has different personalities coming from different places, and working together.”
Eventually, on almost no sleep and with hungry stomachs, sore and exhausted limbs and blistered feet, the women receive their Eagle, Globe and Anchor insignia.
They are told they can begin using the word “I” again, as they are no longer recruits. They have officially become Marines.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.