CAMP PENDLETON — For the first time in Marine Corps history, female Marines on Tuesday, March 6 checked into the Marine Combat Training Battalion within the School of Infantry at Camp Pendleton.

U.S. Marine Pfc. Kira Kozik, the first female Marine student to check in to School of Infantry  West, stands in line to turn in her medical records on Camp Pendleton, March 6, 2018. This marks the first male-female integrated Marine Combat Training company on the West Coast. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Pfc. Kerstin Roberts)

U.S. Marine Pfc. Savana Anderson steps off the bus to the School of Infantry – West on Camp Pendleton, March 6, 2018. This marks the first male-female integrated Marine Combat Training company on the West Coast. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Pfc. Kerstin Roberts)

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U.S. Marines walk off the bus to start their check-in process for Marine Combat Training at the School of Infantry – West on Camp Pendleton, Calif., March 6, 2018. This marks the first male-female integrated Marine Combat Training company on the West Coast. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Pfc. Kerstin Roberts)

U.S. Marine Col. Jeffery Holt, commanding officer, School of Infantry – West, left, and Sgt. Maj. Jonathon Groth, School of Infantry – West, greet Pvt. Nathalie Lizama. She is the second female to arrive at SOI – W on Camp Pendleton, March 6, 2018. This marks the first male-female integrated Marine Combat Training company on the West Coast. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Pfc. Kerstin Roberts)



The 40 female Marines, arriving from Parris Island, S.C., will be fully integrated with the male Marines at the platoon and squad level as part of Golf Company, said Capt. Joshua Pena.

The addition of the female Marines will not change the battalion’s training or its training timeline, he said.

Once the rotation is at full capacity, there will be approximately 1,700 women trained at the Combat Training Battalion at Camp Pendleton. All female boot camp graduates recruited west of the Mississippi will be sent to the base.

“It’s never been done in the history of the Marine Corps,” Pena said. “In the past, the Marine Corps has trained women in combat training on the East Coast because that’s where the facilities are.”

The course lasts about 30 days and includes basic combat training, patrol and convoy, and marksmanship with grenade launchers and machine guns.

Women have undergone combat training on the East Coast for decades; plans began about a year ago to add combat training at Camp Pendleton, Pena said. In order to prepare for the female Marines, medical services, bathrooms and housing had to be modified at existing buildings.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted the ban on women in combat roles in 2013. The policy, at the advice of the Defense Department, overturned a 1994 Pentagon rule preventing women from jobs in infantry, artillery, armor and other combat roles.

Still, Marine Corps leaders sought to keep certain infantry and combat jobs closed to women, citing a gender-integrated task force study at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms. The 2015 study reported that a majority of women and some men dropped out of the task force, and in one Marine experiment, teams with women performed worse than all-male teams.

In January 2016, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced that all gender-based restrictions on military service were lifted, clearing the way for women to serve next to men in infantry roles.

Three months later, Marine Corps officials announced all Marines will fall under the same polices.

In September, the first female Marine to graduate from the Marine Corps’ Infantry Officer Course was assigned to the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton.

On Oct. 3, Second Lt. Mariah Klenke became the first female Marine to graduate from the Marine Corps Assault Amphibian Officer Course and earn the military occupational specialty of assault amphibian officer. Klenke, 24, was assigned to the 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion with the 1st Marine Division.

About 7 percent of the 50,000-member Marine Expeditionary Force, or 1MEF, based at Camp Pendleton are women. Of those approximately 3,500 women, 685 serve in infantry divisions, and 155 of those are now assigned to previously restricted units. Twenty-two are serving for the first time in combat jobs, according to officials at Camp Pendleton.

Overall, female Marines make up about 9 percent of the 186,000 active member Marine Corps.

“The integration of female Marines at Marine Combat Training Battalion West is part of the Marine Corps efforts to enhance training in the entry-level training pipeline and to facilitate an environment that reflects the operating forces,” Pena said.