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Every Marine knows Opha Mae Johnson, the first woman who ever enlisted in the Marine Corps.
Now almost 100 years later, the first four females in
Delta Company's Harlee "Rambo" Bradford, Katie Gorz, Cristina Fuentes and one Marine who we have yet to identify started as a group of 15 enlisted
For the duration of
The hike lasted no more than 5 hours while each student hauled almost 90-pounds of gear, at nearly a 4 mph pace (almost a jog), rifle included.
The women still must pass a Combat Fitness Test with male scoring in the next two days, but the test is largely symbolic, despite being officially scored. Every Marine in every job field usually takes both a basic Physical Fitness Test and CFT at the beginning and end of their course curriculum.
These girls have already passed both tests with male standards.
Unfortunately, qualifying doesn't mean entry into the infantry ranks quite yet. These four are just part of a 100-Marine pilot program aimed at testing the viability of women in Infantry training.
"The women who graduate from infantry training on Thursday will not be assigned to infantry units, nor will they earn an infantry occupational specialty. They will report to their originally slated schoolhouses to earn a non-combat MOS," Capt. Carey of SOI-East wrote via email.
The Corps plans to send more female