Wedding Bell Dress Blues : Marriage Jeopardizes Careers of 2 Marines

Steve Williams and Kym Scott love the Marine Corps.

He’s a gunnery sergeant with 16 years in service and has been called “a Marine’s Marine.” He’s done sea duty, been a drill instructor and served in Saudia Arabia, Kuwait and Somalia, where he was cited for bravery under fire.

She’s a captain with 10 years in service. She’s been highly rated by her superiors, including a good review of her leadership of a motorized transport unit during Operation Desert Storm.

Four years ago Williams and Scott got married, and in a few days Scott is expecting their first child, a boy.

But what should be a time of joy is clouded by the worry that their careers appear doomed by the military’s ambivalent attitude toward marriages between officers and enlisted people.

When the Marine Corps learned recently of their marriage, Williams and Scott both got letters of censure. Both are appealing to their generals, but it is likely that Williams will be pushed out of the Corps in December, and Scott will be cut loose in two years.

Williams and Scott were aware that the Marine Corps, like other military branches, frowns on social relationships among the ranks and lists so-called “fraternization” as a criminal offense.

Williams had a friend who married an officer and got in trouble because of it. So Williams and Scott decided not to announce their marriage to their superiors.

As far as the brass knew, Scott was still single and Williams was still divorced. They bought a home in Encinitas and lived quietly with 11-year-old Krystal, Williams’ daughter from a previous marriage. They took only one housing allotment, not the two that they could have gotten if they were unmarried.

They felt that they had done nothing to hurt the Marine Corps or undermine respect for authority. They are in different commands and at different bases: Scott at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, Williams at Camp Pendleton.

“Our goal was to be discreet and still be good Marines,” said Williams, who has a Marine tattoo on his arm.

Neither Scott nor Williams was in a position to give or receive orders from the other or influence the other’s career, which in civilian life is usually the test of whether a marriage between employees is any concern of the organization.

Their undoing came when Scott got pregnant. A colonel at the recruit depot noticed that she was rapidly gaining weight.

Scott told the colonel that she was pregnant, but declined to reveal the father or to volunteer that she is married. He ordered an investigation to see if she was guilty of “wrongful cohabitation.”

Investigators found that Williams and Scott owned a home and then kept the home under surveillance to catch the two living there. Outside was Williams’ truck with the license plate DI USMC.

“I thought investigations were reserved for criminals, not for being pregnant,” Scott said.

Scott, 36, was charged with fraternization, conduct unbecoming an officer and submitting false documents. The latter charge dealt with a life insurance form on which she listed Williams as a “friend” and an emergency notification card on which she listed herself as single.

After a hearing and appeal, Scott was found guilty only of the false document charges. A scalding letter was put in her file.

The letter, signed by Col. J. P. Wright, read, in part:

“Your conduct is inexcusable. The offense of false official statements reflects a total lack of integrity on your part. Your lack of integrity and inability to abide by the rules and regulations that govern the Marine Corps brings into question your ability to command and to set the example for those you are called upon to lead.”

Williams, 33, who is assigned to a landing support battalion, was found guilty of similar charges of submitting false documents. He was fined $500 and given a letter akin to his wife’s.

As the Marine Corps reduces its manpower, it is becoming increasingly difficult to receive promotions or gain approval to re-enlist, officials agree. Any Marine found guilty of dishonesty will most likely not be allowed to remain.

The letter virtually ends Scott’s chances of being promoted and thus her dream of staying in the Marine Corps until she can retire with 20 years in service. Any officer passed over two years in a row for promotion is discharged.

Williams’ two-year enlistment is up in December and if he is not allowed to re-enlist, he will be out of the Marine Corps, four years short of retirement benefits. The Marine Corps shows no signs of leniency toward the couple.

“The issue is not so much that they are married, but their lack of truthfulness,” Marine spokesman Lt. Dave Griesmer said. “The bottom line is that the most important thing in the Marine Corps is integrity. If you don’t have integrity, it’s time to take off the uniform.”

Until their marriage was discovered, Williams had been on the list to become a first sergeant and possibly a chief warrant officer. Scott’s fitness report said she had “unlimited potential.”

The Marine Corps policy toward marriages between officers and enlisted persons is, in some respects, contradictory.

There is no requirement that a Marine must report to supervisors that he or she has gotten married. But not including that information on certain annual forms can be seen as duplicity.

The fraternization policy forbids “dating, cohabitating and intimate or sexual relations between officers and enlisted members.” Such conduct is seen as a “detriment to good order and discipline resulting in the erosion of respect for authority inherent in an unduly familiar senior-subordinate relationship.”

Still, according to Marine Corps documents, there are at least 60 couples in the Marine Corps with one spouse an officer and the other an enlisted person, and no punitive action is being taken.

The Marine Corps does not prohibit or discourage marriages in which both partners are officers or both are enlisted persons, and, in fact, tries to accommodate those marriages by assigning couples to the same base.

Scott believes that the colonel’s demand that she divulge the name of the father of her unborn child was improper. A recent order from the secretary of the Navy said that pregnancy is a “natural occurrence” and that pregnant sailors, even if unmarried, are not to be hassled.

The walls of their home in Encinitas are decorated with the pictures and mementos of their careers. On the dresser of the baby’s room is a miniature statue of a Marine drill instructor and a set of Williams’ service ribbons.

Although they feel that they have been dealt with harshly and unfairly, neither Scott nor Williams has anything but high regard for the Marine Corps.

“I have nothing bad to say about the Marine Corps,” Williams said. “The Corps is known for taking care of its people. But the Corps is not taking care of us in this case.”