A female Marine officer who was dropped from the Infantry Officer Course in April has failed the course on her second try.
"At this time, there are no female officers enrolled or slated to attend IOC," Capt. Joshua Pena, a spokesman for Training and Education Command, said.
TECOM is not identifying the woman, who has been given a new military occupational specialty, Pena told Marine Corps Times.
The woman began the 84-day course on July 6 and failed to complete two conditioning hikes on July 18, Pena said. Marines trying to complete the course may not fall out of more than one hike during the entire course.
She and 33 male officers, out of an initial class of 97 Marines, have failed to complete the course so far, Pena said. That class is slated to finish the course on Sept. 20.
The woman was dropped during her first attempt to get through IOC class on April 21 after 11 training days. At the time, she was the 30th woman to give it a try. Military.com first reported on Friday that she had failed the course again.
Like the other services, the Marine Corps has opened all jobs to women, but service leaders initially asked that some combat jobs remain restricted to men only. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter ultimately overruled the service.
Male Marines have still voiced reservations that female Marines will not be strong enough to drag them if they are wounded in combat, or perform other life-and-death tasks under fire.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus sought to assuage those concerns when he told Marines in April that he will never lower the demanding physical standards that Marines have to pass in order to serve in combat jobs.
"Let me repeat that: Standards will not be lowered for any group to get through " Mabus told Marines and sailors on April 12 at Camp Pendleton, California. "Standards may be changed as circumstances in the world change, but they'll be changed for everybody."
Mabus also said that when visited IOC, he was asked what would happen if no woman has been able to pass the course five years from now.
"My response was: No woman made it through IOC," he said. "Standards aren't going to change."
