A female Marine officer is slated to attend the Marine Corps' grueling Infantry Officer Course soon, Marine officials have confirmed. said service spokesman Capt. Philip Kulczewski.
Capt. Philip Kulczewski, a Marine spokesman at the Pentagon, declined to release The Marine Corps is not releasing any personal information about the Marine, including her name, rank or when she is expected to attend IOC, Kulczewski said.
So far, 29 female officers have attempted the course, but no women have IOC but none has graduated.
In January, the Marine Corps announced that more than 200 female enlisted Marines who graduated from Infantry Training Battalion or other military occupational specialty schools previously closed to women could request a lateral move into the jobs for which they qualified. So far, none of those Marines has submitted a lateral move package, Kulczewski said.
News of the latest female officer to attempt IOC comes days after Defense Secretary Ash Carter approved the Marine Corps’ plan to integrate women into MOSs military occupational specialties that had been restricted to men only.
"The Marine Corps utilized the time afforded the Services and SOCOM [U.S. Special Operations Command] to develop a comprehensive plan to fully implement the policy of the Secretary of Defense," Kulczewski said in a March 10 statement. "As a result of our research, the Marine Corps instituted clearly defined gender neutral, operationally relevant, individual performance standards across the spectrum of Marine training and military occupation system (MOS) designation, which facilitates the matching of Marines to jobs for which they are best qualified."
Commandant Gen. Robert Neller has ordered the Marine Corps Combat Development Command to prepare for a surge of women who want to train for the newly opened jobs MOSs.
"Our systematic plan is conditions-based and event-driven, with many actions occurring in the first 12 months," Kulczewski said. "The progress of this plan will be viewed through three lenses: (1) combat effectiveness, (2) the health and welfare of each Marine and (3) managing the diverse talent of the Corps."
All prospective Marines, or poolees, who want to train for a ground combat arms MOS must pass a tougher initial strength test introduced in January. The test that requires poolees to complete three pullups; a 1.5-mile run in 13 minutes and 30 seconds; 44 crunches within 2 minutes; and 45 ammo can lifts within 2 minutes, said 1st Lt. Matt Rojo, a spokesman for Training and Education Command.
At recruit training, both men and women training for those fields MOSs will have to complete an MOS classification standard, which consists of six pullups; a 3-mile run within 24 minutes and 51 seconds; completing the maneuver under fire course within 3 minutes and 12 seconds; completing the movement to contact course within 3 minutes and 26 seconds; and 60 ammo lifts within 2 minutes, Rojo said.
