Women Marines Gearing Up to Go to Mideast : Deployment: They make plans for their children, cars, husbands, bills and a host of other things so they will be ready to move fast if ordered to Saudi Arabia.
Women Marines at Camp Pendleton are scrambling to find a place for their children, get inoculations, sign wills, figure out how to handle bills and what to do with their cars--all in preparation for possible deployment in the Persian Gulf area.
“Women serving in roles that are going to be needed are preparing to go,” said Capt. Rose-Ann Sgrignoli, a Camp Pendleton Marine Corps spokeswoman. “If her job is essential to the mission, she will be there.”
That has meant special hardships for some Marines. One Camp Pendleton-based Marine took her two mentally handicapped toddlers to stay with a sister in Florida in case she is called. Another made arrangements with an Oceanside day care center to have her husband pick up their children. And as U.S. military muscle gathers in the Middle East, women in such units as the First Force Service Support Group at Camp Pendleton are scurrying to get ready for possible deployment.
Still, they say, they will be ready should the time come.
“My father didn’t think I had it in me to complete Marine Corps training,” said Cpl. Dawn Anderson, 24, “but I did it. And if my country needs me, I am ready.”
Women throughout the military face the same dilemma: They can carry a gun but they are not suppose to fight--though they are allowed to defend themselves. Prohibited by law from actually fighting, women can work in a variety of non-combat positions, such as technicians, mechanics and doctors. During the invasion of Panama, however, American military women were reportedly fired upon and returned fire.
About 10% of all Marines, and those at Camp Pendleton, are women. The North San Diego County camp is home to about 36,000 Marines, but officials refused to reveal how many women were destined for the Middle East.
At El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, spokesman Lt. Gene Browne said no women stationed at the air base were among troops sent so far to the Mideast. He said there are no current plans to train or ready any El Toro female Marines for deployment to the region.
Elsewhere in the military, the Navy has 140 female sailors aboard support vessels in the North Arabian Sea; of those, 34 are aboard the West Coast-based ammunition ship Flint, Navy officials said. Army officials, while unwilling to give actual numbers, confirm that they have sent women. And about 12% of the Air Force now deployed in the Middle East “is, in all probability, female,” said Major Lou Figueroa, a spokesman in Washington.
“Normally, women make up almost 14% of the Air Force, and we have not made any exceptions over there,” Figueroa said. “They do the same things they would normally do with their units.”
At Camp Pendleton, the tension is almost palpable. Public affairs officials have added extra phone lines. And to help busy parents, who are now putting in longer than usual shifts, two of the five on-base day care facilities at Camp Pendleton have lengthened their hours so they tend children until 8 p.m.
All Marines who are parents have already signed an agreement indicating that they have made provisions for their children, should they be deployed. In some cases, the other spouse or family members are on standby to take care of children.
But sometimes, a Marine will not have much time and a fellow Marine will care for a colleague’s child until family members arrive.
“In the Marine Corps, we take care of our own,” Sgrignoli said.
At the base, both men and women are trying to prepare their personal world so they can be uprooted at any moment.
“It is not the intent of the Marine Corps to preclude women from participating in Operation Desert Shield,” Sgrignoli said. “In keeping with Marine Corps policy and operational concepts, the initial scheduled assault waves will not include women. However, as Marine Corps service support (personnel) are established and functioning ashore, women will serve alongside their male counterparts.”
And the strain of parents’ preparations and deployments has begun to trickle down to the children of Marines, day care center operators in Oceanside say.
“How do you explain to an 18-month-old? They don’t understand,” said Dorothy Baker, director of the Ivey Ranch Day Care Center. “One day they have a parent; the next day the parent is gone.”
At Ivey Ranch, teachers are planning to have children tie yellow ribbons on the walkway outside the facility. Teachers there cared for the two mentally handicapped toddlers whose mother abruptly took them to Florida.
“Those little girls couldn’t understand. I just hope it ends soon,” Baker said. “The mother was just distraught.”
Women Marines, dubbed “WM’s,” who have endured the grueling 13-week boot camp, say they are prepared.
“I don’t have any apprehensions whatsoever,” one female 17-year veteran of the Marine Corps said. Her husband already has been deployed, she said, but she figures her 15-year-old son can fend for himself if necessary.
“When you’ve put in as much time as I have, you don’t hesitate when you have a call to arms.”
This woman, however, said she had, in fact, never been called to a combat area.
One female officer, based at Twentynine Palms, said she was looking over her apartment, figuring out which of her possessions she might manage to pack along to the Middle East. Marines will heft a duffel bag, wear a pack and tote a carry-on bag, which can be filled with personal items.
Unlike others, she was more open about her anxiety.
“It’s fear of the unknown. I don’t think anyone goes to a situation like that facing a madman and says they are not going to be scared,” said the 24-year-old officer, who requested anonymity. “It’s just a natural fear--one that a man or a woman would feel.”