Two women made history on Wednesday by becoming the Marine Corps' first female field artillery officers.
"A lot of people set the stage for this to happen," 2nd Lt. Virginia Brodie told Marine Corps Times on Wednesday. "There’s a lot of females who have been in combat situations who have wanted to do these jobs and we were just in the right place at the right time."
In May, Brodie and 2nd Lt. Katherine Boy completed the 19-week Field Artillery Basic Officers Leaders Course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for Marines and soldiers. Afterward, they spent a month at the Marine Artillery Officer Basic Course. After completing that course, they picked up the 0802 military occupational specialty.
"Being able to grasp all of that information, retain it and be able to use it, that’s probably the hardest part of the course here," Boy said told Marine Corps Times.
Both Marines scored perfect 300s on their physical and combat fitness tests Physical Fitness Test and Combat Fitness Test, so they were able to meet the demanding physical standards for the gender-neutral training, including moving five 95-pound shells to a truck in less than just under five minutes.
"Just like everybody else, we train to it with weight lifting and doing a lot of pullups," said Brodie, who can do 13 pullups.
Second Lt. Katherine Boy, right, and 2nd Lt. Daniel Lowery prepare to load the next round into a M777A2 Howitzer at the Field Artillery Basic Officers Leadership Course.
Photo Credit: Lance Cpl. Julien Rodarte/Marine Corps
The two lieutenants volunteered to become artillery officers after completing The Basic School. Brodie, who finished graduated No. 1 out the 137 students in both the gunnery portion of the course and in overall score, and was recognized as her class’ distinguished honor graduate.
"I really liked the Howitzer," Brodie said. "I saw it at TBS and fell in love."
Second Lt. Katherine Boy, left, and 2nd Lt. Virginia Brodie finish up maneuvers during the Basic Officer Leader Course for artillery officers at Fort Sill, Okla.
Photo Credit: Cindy McIntyre/Defense Department
Boy finished in the top five 5 percent of the her class and was named one of the class’ honor graduates. She studied hard to absorb the fire hose of information on the basics of gunnery and fire support, and then put those lessons into practice.
"I was intrigued by the numbers and the math behind getting the rounds downrange accurately," she Boy said.
Being the first women to complete the training did not feel out of the ordinary because the Army already has female artillery officers, she said.
"There have been a lot of female Army lieutenants that have gone through here," Boy said. "It didn't seem that different. There were other female lieutenants in our platoon."
Also, mMany of the Marines they were training alongside who took part in the training were also part of their class from The Basic School, Brodie said.
"We were treated as Marines and that's what our goal was," she said. "We are just very thankful to be afforded this opportunity to live out this awesome MOS and be a part of it."
Now that they have their MOS, Boy is headed to 1st Battalion, 10th Marines, and Brodie is going to 1st Battalion, 11th Marines. Brodie is excited to begin her first command.
"We've gotten to interact with a lot of the Marine section chiefs that are over here training and they bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the environment, so I'm really looking forward to that," she said.
