Marine says inequality was more than
a perception in her early days in Corps
By Carlos Bongioanni,
Okinawa bureau
CAMP LESTER, Okinawa – Ann Gossage didn’t expect to become a Marine when she
stepped into a recruiting office 23 years ago.
It "astonished" her to learn the Marine Corps took women; she joined only
after a recruiter convinced her they had a niche for her.
Soon afterward she realized the life of a female Marine wasn’t exactly the way the
recruiter’s video portrayed it.
"Back then, it was very difficult being a minority in the military," recalled
Gossage, now a master gunnery sergeant assigned to the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force at
Camp Courtney, Okinawa.
Women were not always accepted as Marines, and the system promoted a distinction of the
sexes, she said.
Part of the training she received in boot camp consisted of learning to wear makeup
correctly and to show proper etiquette. Unlike her male counterparts, she never touched a
weapon or learned war-fighting tactics.
In those days, female Marines wore light-green pinstriped uniforms.
"That alone drew attention to us. … I was mistaken for a Girl Scouts leader
more times than I could tell you," Gossage said, during a recent visit of the Defense
Department’s Advisory Committee on Women in the Services.
The DACOWITS group came to Okinawa last week as it wrapped up a two-week tour of
overseas military installations in the Pacific.
Had she encountered a DACOWITS group during her early years of military service,
Gossage would have told its members of the unequal treatment women faced.
It was more than just a perception of inequality, she said. The training women received
was detrimental and set them up for failure because it did not prepare them to perform
their Marine duties. Male Marines who argued that females were not qualified for certain
jobs were correct, said Gossage – they hadn’t received the proper training.
"I would have said [to a DACOWITS group], ‘Give me a fighting chance. Give me
the training … the knowledge … the opportunities that my male counterparts have,
so that I’m working and starting on an even keel with them.’"
Up until the last year of her first enlistment, the Woodbury, Conn., native had planned
to leave the Marine Corps because of the way she was treated.
But then a commander gave her a job in a Nuclear, Biological and Chemical unit that
traditionally didn’t look favorably on having females in its ranks. The NBC unit is
the only combat arms unit with female Marines.
"He had full faith in me and my abilities. … He didn’t look at my sex.
He looked at my abilities and my performance in the past," Gossage said of her former
commander.
That was a turning point for Gossage, who previously thought it was impossible others
would look at her potential without thinking she was a liability. She decided to stick
around and has become the highest-ranking enlisted female in the field.
During the past two decades, the Marine Corps has made significant changes to eliminate
the disparity between male and female Marines, Gossage said.
Marine uniforms have become standardized with slight variations. No longer are female
Marines excluded from going to medical clinics once reserved for males. Gossage said she
used to have to board a bus and travel long distances to get routine medical treatment at
Naval hospitals.
Job opportunities have vastly increased, too, Gossage said.
While she believes there is always room for improvement, Gossage believes the Marine
Corps has virtually arrived at an ideal state of equality for male and female Marines.
"In my mind, as far as I can see, we’ve moved mountains in society, the
military, in Congress and with our leaders."
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