The Marine Corps is closing the doors on its only single-sex training battalion focusing on female Marines as the service joins the other military branches that have male and female recruits training together.
On June 15, the 4th Recruit Training Battalion will be deactivated in a ceremony at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in South Carolina. Gen. David H. Berger, commandant of the Marine Corps, said it will be a moment to honor the legacy of the battalion responsible for the initial training of all female enlisted Marines since 1986.
“It’s also a moment to celebrate progress. I’m proud to see our male and female recruits benefit from having access to the quality of all our leaders — at Parris Island and San Diego — through an unchanging, tough and realistic recruit training curriculum,” Gen. Berger said in a statement.
Male recruits began training with the 4th Battalion in 2019. Marine Corps officials said successful recruit training standardization makes an all-female training battalion unnecessary. Following the battalion’s closure, some personnel based at Parris Island will be transferred to the Marine Corps’ other recruit base in San Diego, which is scheduled to train about half of the female Marine recruits by 2024, officials said.
“What matters most is making the very best Marines,” said Troy E. Black, sergeant major of the Marine Corps. “It won’t be very long before there are female drill instructors who, as recruits, graduated alongside their male counterparts. They will train recruits and make Marines with that experience.”
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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