USMC Sending Its First Females to the Infantry

The Marine Corps is sending its first females into the infantry, approving requests for one woman to become a rifleman and another to be a machine gunner, Marine Corps Times reports.

Their names, or the units they'll join, are not being released yet.

"The Corps applauds the time and efforts of those Marines who volunteered," Capt. Philip Kulczewski, a Marine spokesman at the Pentagon, tells the newspaper.

Since no women have graduated from the service's Infantry Officer Course, female Marines or Navy officers assigned to infantry battalions will serve in support roles, the Marine Corps Times reports.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter last December announced a sweeping directive to open all military occupations to women this year, including front-line combat roles, and in April okayed the Marine Corps' plan to integrate women in military specialty training.

But the newspaper reports so far, not many prospective female Marines have shown interest in training to join the infantry after boot camp.

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