The U.S. Marine Corps may have to change its motto from Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful) to “Always gender-neutral.”
Nineteen military occupational specialties will soon be stripped of the word “man” as the Marine Corps comes into accordance with Navy Secretary Ray Mabus’ mandated changes.
The Marine Corps Times published a list of the new job titles on Monday, which include:
- Basic infantry Marine.
- Riverine assault craft Marine.
- Light-armor vehicle Marine.
- Reconnaissance Marine.
- Recon Marine Parachute Qual.
- Recon Marine CMBT Div.
- Recron Marine CMBT and Parachute
- Infantry assault Marine.
- Antitank missile gunner.
- Basic field artillery Marine.
- Field artillery fire control Marine.
- Field artillery operations chief.
- Field artillery sensor support Marine.
- Fire support Marine.
- Basic engineer, construction and equipment Marine.
- Basic tank and assault amphibious vehicle Marine.
- Armor Marine.
- Amphibious assault vehicle Marine.
- Amphibious combat vehicle Marine.
“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,” Secretary Mabus wrote in a January order to Commandant Gen. Robert Neller, the newspaper reported. “Please review the position titles throughout the Marine Corps and ensure that they are gender-integrated as well, removing ’man’ from the titles.”
Sgt. Geoff Heath, a Marine rifleman with multiple combat deployments, told the Washington Post on Wednesday that such changes are emblematic of America’s changing culture.
“On one hand, the name changes from ’man’ to ’person’ or whatever they want to call it doesn’t really matter. They could call mortarmen bakers for all I care,” the non-commissioned officer said. “But on the other, it’s a direct reflection on society’s crybaby political correctness.”
A Marine Corps Times reader echoed that sentiment, saying, “We have reached peak crazy.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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