Lance Cpl. Jessica Craver, a motor transportation operator with Combat Logistics Battalion 7, carries a .50-caliber machine gun barrel for mounting onto an MK48 Logistics Vehicle System.
"No later than January, 15, 2016, submit to my office a detailed implementation plan that addresses the gender integration of officer and enlisted basic training," Mabus wrote in the memo.
In the past, the Marine Corps expressed that some roles should remain closed to women.
"As we achieve full integration of the force ... this is an opportunity to update the position titles and descriptions themselves to demonstrate through this language that women are included in these MOSs (Military Occupation Specialties)," Mabus wrote in a second memo.
"Please review the position titles throughout the Marine Corps and ensure that they are gender-integrated as well, removing 'man' from the titles and provide a report to me as soon as is practicable and no later than April 1, 2016."
This step may seem a huge change, that would alter age-old axioms like "Every marine is a rifleman first," but only certain titles will be changed.
US Marine Corps/Sgt. Steve H. Lopez Gunnery Sgt. Dragos Coca engages targets during a desert survival and tactics course. Coca is a platoon sergeant with 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Elements of the 15th MEU trained with the 5th Overseas Combined Arms Regiment in Djibouti from Sept. 21 to Oct. 7 in order to improve interoperability between the MEU and the French military.
A Navy official told the Marine Times that only titles where the word "man" appears as a separate word will be changed. Therefore, titles like "infantryman" and "rifleman" will go unchanged.
Whereas, "reconnaissance man" or "field artillery sensor support man" will simply have the word "man" removed.