Frosted Windows, Shower Signs: What It Took to Get the Marines San Diego Boot Camp Ready for Female Recruits
New Marines in Platoon 3241 complete tasks in their squad bay before boot camp graduation in April 2021 at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California. (Hope Hodge Seck/Staff)
22 May 2021
MCRD San Diego When Marine leaders defend the Corps historic resistance to further gender integration of recruit training, they often bring up infrastructure as a major challenge. The two Marine Corps boot camps, built in the 1910s, are simply not built to accommodate companies integrated by gender.
Gen. David Berger, commandant of the Marine Corps, even suggested last year that the service would have to close down its existing training bases and build new ones to carry out a congressional integration mandate.