Female Marine recruits will train in San Diego for the first time ever

For the first time ever, female Marine recruits will begin training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego in February, as the branch continues to assess new ways to integrate the genders in training environments.

“Beginning Feb. 12, 2021, an integrated company of male and female recruits is scheduled to begin their journey to become Marines at MCRD, after undergoing a two-week COVID-19 quarantine protocol,” the Marine Corps said in a statement. “This initial opportunity for male and female recruits to train concurrently at MCRD San Diego will serve as a proof of concept to validate requirements needed to sustain integrated training on the West Coast in the future.”

All Marine Corps recruits train in one of two installations: Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego or Recruit Depot Parris Island, in South Carolina. Historically, all female recruits have been trained in Parris Island’s female-specific 4th battalion, with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd battalions made up of all male recruits. San Diego, on the other hand, has never trained female recruits in its century-long history.

Last year, Parris Island made headlines when it graduated its first ever gender-integrated company of recruits. The company was made up of five all-male platoons and a single all-female one. That means male and female recruits interacting with one another during certain training evolutions, but were housed in separate squad bays and had little to no opportunity to socialize. A similar approach will be testing in San Diego next year, where around 60 female recruits will form a platoon within Lima Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion.

“Information collected from Lima Company will be used to validate long-term facility and personnel needs to accomplish one of the Marine Corps’ top priorities of gender-integrated training companies at recruit training,” reads the statement.

The female recruits who will be training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego have already been notified of where they’ll be training, and will depart for San Diego this coming February.

“In an effort to forge Marines of the highest quality, we must give them every opportunity to succeed. This is the first time we are able to give Marines who graduate from MCRD San Diego the same integrated experience that many of their peers at Parris Island have received already,” Brig. Gen. Ryan P. Heritage, the commanding general of MCRD San Diego, said in a statement.