Anderson Nancy P. The Very Few, The Proud: Women in the Marine Corps, 1977-2001

History Division United States Marine Corps, 2017. — 275 p.Many histories have been written about the U.S. Marine Corps, although few histories about women in the Marine Corps exist. The author hopes the text, sidebars, and other contextual information included in this volume will make this history of female Marines easier to follow for new members of the military and nonveteran readers to whom the ideas of gender restriction and exclusion are foreign.The Department of Defense (DOD) illustrates at a smaller scale the broader character of the United States as a melting pot. The Services are inherently diversified; members represent all races, cultures, and creeds, and as part of their service they regularly transfer among geographic locations, widely spreading the diversity of the Services. Marines, however, have a singularly distinctive identity within the DOD, because in addition to agreeing to follow the Uniform Code of Military Justice, they also adopt the unique ethos of the Corps. While the civilian image of the Marine as male warrior continues, the Marine Corps ethos is gender blind. The core values of honor, courage, and commitment apply to all Marines, male or female. The warrior ethos is a code of conduct guided by core values. It is as much about always doing what is right as it is about when to use a weapon. This history follows and examines both the expanding opportunities for women in the Marine Corps and the fading cultural gender distinctions in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The work is derived from official documents and personal files, interviews, conversations, letters, newspaper articles, internet access to research archives, and hundreds of email submissions from current and former Marines. The generation of women described in this history proved themselves in every clime and place, including in command and in combat. Women choose to be Marines for the same reasons as men: duty to country, opportunity, adventure, escaping hardship, or to grow as a person. This history takes us to the start of the twenty-first century.This book serves as an argument that meaningful military service does not rest upon gender homogeneity but rather upon the strength and defense of the United States through the most efficient use of personnel. Marines, male and female, know their stuff and have earned the right to wear the distinguishing Eagle, Globe, and Anchor emblem—and they carry the title “Marine” forever.