E.J. Graff's piece on women in the Marines, published in the most recent issue of the Prospect, generated a number of letters from members of the Marine Corps. Below are several of those letters, as well as Graff's response.
To the Editor:
My introduction to your journal and E.J. Graff's article came by way of a daily media service that reports stories about Marines. Graff's writing is of the sensationalist style popular in tabloids and her article possesses fundamental faults against which any editor has a moral obligation to guard.
The author's thesis is that even though the Marines haven't been pegged, like the Army, Navy and Air Force, with charges of ignoring rape, they are destined to be soon because they have problems integrating women. The rapes that Graff refers to, however, occurred at the service academies for each of these institutions. The Marines do not have their own academy. Officers come primarily from the United States Naval Academy, but many officers come from other service academies, private schools and universities around the country. Behavior such as sexual harassment can surface in the academies as an experiment to see if what was tolerated in civilian life will be tolerated in the military. It is ludicrous, however, to insinuate that we should consider the Marines just as guilty because something similar probably will happen. How did this story even get printed?
Another issue is the idea that women are unwelcome in the Marine Corps. Marines at the highest levels are concerned about the treatment of women in the Marine Corps. Promotion boards, special-duty selection teams, educational opportunities and quality-of-life initiatives are just some of the areas inspected for gender equality, and even the perceptions of fairness are closely monitored. Every year, the Corps sees enlistments and re-enlistments of women, and promotions to the highest ranks of women who shoot the straightest, run the longest and think the fastest.
Why is the equitable treatment of women so important to the Marine Corps? If women make up 6 percent of our organization, as Graff states, what fighting force could function with a loss of 6 percent? Today's Marine Corps is committed to tasks all around the world, and working with women integrated into our corps has become our way of life. Any person, man or woman, who can live up to our high standards is a precious commodity, and we want every one we can get. To portray us as the He-Man Woman Hater's Club is inaccurate, unscholarly and journalistically immature.
Capt. D. J. Swicegood
United States Marine Corps
To the Editor:
In response to Graff's article full of unnamed sources, I have to say that she exaggerates the circumstances in the Marine Corps. She stated that women entering boot camp are told "that there are only three kinds of female Marines: 'bitches, lesbians, and whores.'" I am a staff sergeant with 12 years in the Marine Corps, and my wife -- a 15-year gunnery sergeant and former drill instructor in boot camp -- can attest to the fact that this is an outright lie. Female recruits are only surrounded by other females, and I doubt that they would tell other females such things.
The article also states that both men and women say that male Marines regularly call female Marines "bags of nasties" or use the semi-official designation for women Marines, "WM," to mean "walking mattress." "Bag nasty" refers to the bagged chow Marines sometimes receive in the field. The term is also used to refer to substandard Marines in general, and I have never heard it used to refer to a female Marine. "WM" meant "Woman Marine" about eight to 10 years ago and is now very rarely used.
Graff seems to think that a sexual-assault counselor's report of one rape per month is truly awful. I am shocked that the number is that low. The Marine Corps is moving toward offering classes to women through Rape Aggression Defense Systems, of which I am an instructor. I have trained hundreds of women, including active-duty women of all services, civilian employees and family members.
Staff Sgt. Jason J. Ellington
United States Marine Corps
To the Editor:
Your article is appalling and completely untrue. How can you write such a scathing article about the Marine Corps with nothing more than what might happen as a basis? Give me the best corporation or organization and you can find somebody, somewhere who feels slighted regarding equal rights. Quoting a few women and disagreeing with policies and decisions that were not made by the Marine Corps certainly leaves me perplexed.
E.J. Graff, back up your report with facts: Stating that certain combat-coded Military Occupational Specialties won't actually go into harm's way shows more ignorance. Do a little research and you will find that past enemies such as North Korea and Iraq often adopt tactics that avoid front-line troops and instead hit rear areas. This means cooks, drivers, logisticians and troops with similar specialties can quickly find themselves fighting for their lives.
Here's a suggestion: Instead of writing about things you know nothing of, why not do some research? I would be happy to help you. I have worked with and led female Marines. They're women, and they're Marines -- as much as I am. They get paid the same as men, have identical opportunities for promotion and do as good a job as men -- sometimes better. How many civilian corporations can make that claim? Don't take my word for it; go talk to a Marine.
Capt. Lance C. Costa
United States Marine Corps
To the Editor:
Your article came as a shock to me. I am a female Marine. I have heard the jokes and the cruel things said about female Marines, seen the discrimination and listened to females tell their stories. Your article has some truth to it, but you failed to mention that some females have no problems in the Marine Corps. We, as females, are not readily accepted in this service, but we are here and it is a great accomplishment. Although there are some males who think females should not be allowed in the service, there are some that do. Your article makes it seem as though every female in the Marine Corps has no faith in her chain of command. I, however, have great faith in my command. I honestly believe that if I were experiencing a problem, it would be handled in a professional and timely manner.
The comment about "bitches, lesbians, and whores" is misleading. In boot camp, the drill instructors do not categorize females. They simply tell you not to go out into the fleet and portray yourself to be those things, because if you do, that is how you will be treated. I believe that if you were to sit down with a group of female Marines and ask them about sexual harassment in the corps, they wouldn't have many negative things to say. There is the occasional male Marine who says vulgar things, can't take "no" for an answer or jokes about females being in the military. But, for the most part, if problems are reported, they are taken care of. I would consider interviewing a vast number of female Marines before writing an article of this kind.
Lance Cpl. Candice K. Pineda
United States Marine Corps
To the Editor:
Your article isn't worth the cyberspace it's written on. I have been a Marine for 17 years, and yes, I am a female, too. I have never had a problem with sexual harassment. And I have always believed that I could bring any such problem to my superiors and that it would be dealt with immediately. I have never felt intimidated by the men I have worked for or with, and I hold them and the Marine Corps in the highest regard for setting standards many civilian companies can't compete with or hold their employees to.
I would venture to say that if you conducted a survey within your own organization, you would find the same such statistics with regard to how many women there believe they have been harassed and how many think they would lose their jobs if they spoke out. I hope you pursue more balanced reporting in the future.
Maj. Cathy Close, Public Affairs Officer
United States Marine Corps
E.J. Graff responds:
Before tackling any of the particulars, let me offer a little more background on my sources and my reasoning.
Here's how I came to write about the Marines. I published an article about the Air Force Academy rape scandal. As a result, someone contacted me and sent me several suppressed reports. Those included a Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) installation report on conditions in the Marine Corps' Camp Lejeune; a DACOWITS Overseas Trip Report, from July 15-29, 2001, covering bases in the Pacific; and two separate Marine Corps inspector general reports investigating and confirming the DACOWITS findings and offering strongly worded recommendations for action.
None of these had been released publicly before. My source insisted on remaining anonymous.
All these documents included shocking statements and claims, some of which I quoted; I will excerpt some other portions of these reports below. To check on their accuracy, I interviewed some of the authors of the DACOWITS reports. These authorities confirmed that they had written what was in those reports. They explained that they had drawn their conclusions after speaking to more than 500 Marines. And they told me that, afraid of being disbelieved, they had toned down their conclusions and chosen the less inflammatory comments to quote. The Marine Corps inspector general reports confirmed these findings in extremely strong language. Although the inspector general's office did not make anyone available for comment, the public-affairs liaison did send me a formal statement that did not question the reports' existence or accuracy.
Both DACOWITS and the inspector general's reports agreed that open hostility toward female Marines was tolerated to an appalling degree. Here is what one of the inspector general's reports said:
While it is completely unacceptable in today's Corps to demean or disparage a Marine for his or her race and religion, the same does not hold true for a Marine's gender. Disparaging remarks about female Marines by NCOs, SNCOs, and officers go unchecked by peers and superiors. Although it is only a symptom of the underlying problem, a message from the top leaders of the Corps to the leadership of the Corps (every Marine out of recruit training) may provide needed guidance in expressing opinions that are ignorant, archaic, and detrimental to good order and discipline in our ranks. Not only a matter of gender, any disparaging remark regarding ethnicity, race, religious persuasion, or gender is a blow to good order and discipline and must not be condoned or tolerated.
Among its other suggestions, the report recommended that the top brass of the Marine Corps issue a white letter:
Issue a White Letter from the Commandant of the Marine Corps and the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. Such a letter should explain the ignorance and detrimental effect on morale and the fiber of the Corps by the voicing of derogatory comments regarding race, religion or gender, and encourage all Marines to take steps to curb the acceptability of such comments. While it is true that such a letter only addresses a symptom of a greater underlying problem, a curbing of unprofessional comments about women should have the impact of reducing the poisoning of our younger Marines. [italics are in the original]
Both commissions also concluded that women who report harassment -- and I'm not talking about plain old flirting, I'm talking about grabbing, threatening and quid-pro-quo demands for sex in exchange for good postings -- faced retaliation.
Now combine these aspects of life in the Marines -- open and vicious hostility toward women, plus retaliation for reporting harassment -- with close living quarters. What do you conclude? I could only assume some female Marines are likely being raped, that some of the rapists aren't being punished by their commands and that many women are choosing to shut up about it to keep their careers. That's the same ugly stew that led to rape cover-ups at the Air Force Academy -- but not just there, contra Capt. Swicegood's letter; there have also been incidents at a number of Army and Navy bases. In fact, Army and Navy investigations during the 1990s made it clear that the only way to stop rape and other sexual violence was to drain the swamp of hostility toward female service members.
Before I went to print, however, I wanted to check the hunch that rape was being ignored in the Marines. I found more than enough evidence that such incidents were taking place.
One ex-DACOWITS member told me that she had been contacted by a Marine who was in tremendous distress; the Marine said that living in the barracks at her camp put women at high risk for rape. This Marine, however, chose not to speak with a journalist, which is probably a sane choice for someone who does not want to spend the rest of her life publicly attacked and vilified. As a result, I did not refer to her stories.
Marcella Baker of the Onslow Women's Center in Jacksonville, N.C., told me horrible stories about what had happened to clients of hers who were Marines. To put such stories in print would be a violation of confidentiality, so I did not and will not. However, I can say that, according to Baker, these women are afraid to report their situations on bases, they believe such rapes are common and they feel trapped.
Finally, I found this article about a Camp Lejeune male-male hazing. Go check out this story; you'll see that this "hazing" is actually a near-rape. The perpetrator's lieutenant said he was ready to take him back. No wonder women are afraid to report their own incidents!
Rape gets more media attention than harassment. That's why I led my article with my conclusion. Female Marines need a media spotlight that will help bring on real reform -- something that I'm told is unlikely because of the special political stature the Marines enjoy.
Now, to the particulars. Sgt. Ellington accuses me of quoting unnamed sources. He hasn't read the article closely; those sources are from the DACOWITS and Marine Corps inspector general reports. He also says he's training female Marines to defend themselves against rape. Well, whoop-de-do. The corps should be training men to behave themselves, and training everyone in command to swiftly punish anyone who commits a crime against fellow Marines, female or male. Finally, and most startlingly, Sgt. Ellington says he is shocked that only -- only! -- one Marine a month is desperate enough to search for and call a local civilian rape-crisis center -- feeling that she can't go to her own base for help because she was raped by a fellow Marine. That's 12 reports from 1,800 women, or 1.5 percent of female Camp Pendleton Marines each year. OK, so that's the number of calls to a rape-crisis center; how many actual rapes occur? According to information from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, only 5 percent of rape victims ever contact a rape-crisis center. I'd guess that Marines would be less likely to whine to civilians and more likely to try to tough things out -- Sgt. Ellington would know about that better than I would -- but let's see what happens if we use that figure. If those 12 women a year are 5 percent of the Camp Pendleton rapes, then 240 Marines -- or 13 percent of the female Marines on base -- are raped each year by a fellow Marine. Sgt. Ellington, if you think that's low, I would not want to live in your neighborhood.
Capt. Costa suggests that I stated "that certain combat-coded Military Occupational Specialties won't actually go into harm's way." I would never suggest that anyone in the military is out of harm's way. The military is the military: Putting your life at risk is part of the deal, both for women and for men. (One would hope that they'd just be putting themselves at risk from the enemy -- not from their comrades-in-arms.) Here's what I actually said: I quoted Carolyn Becraft, former assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserve affairs, as saying that the Marine Corps could code more jobs (in her opinion, up to 9 percent) as noncombat, and that it didn't because the corps was trying to hold down the number of women. (Noncombat doesn't mean out of harm's way.) Others I spoke with agreed with Becraft. Here's why that matters: Sociological research shows a "critical mass" at which minorities are integrated more easily and harassed at a far lower rate. The Navy has found 25 percent to be the magic number, and so it will only deploy ships staffed with at least 25 percent or more women -- or with none. Why can't or won't the Marines manage something similar?
I am very glad to hear that Maj. Close and Lance Cpl. Pineda have had such good experiences in the Marines. But their personal stories can't override the more thorough and documented official investigations -- or account for the appalling fact that those investigations have been buried from view. In fact, of all these letters, the one I found most distressing was Pineda's -- because she wrote, "We, as females, are not readily accepted in this service, but we are here and it is a great accomplishment." That is simply not enough. Women should not settle for extra hardship (on top of the hardship of being in the military!) and call it victory. Rather, the Marines should be called to enforce the all-American standard that men and women are equal and must be treated with equal dignity and respect.
E.J. Graff, the author of What Is Marriage For? The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution, is a visiting scholar at the Brandeis Women's Studies Research Center and a Prospect contributing editor.
