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Male, Female Marines In The Infantry Will Have To Share The Same Tents

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Female Marines joining the infantry will have to share tents with their male counterparts while out in the field.

According to the Marine Corps, no gender accommodations will be made out in the field for female infantry Marines, as that could break unit cohesion, Marine Corps Times reports.

“We’re not changing any of our tactical posture or breaking unit cohesion or adjusting anything to accommodate mixed genders while we’re operating in a field environment replicating tactical conditions,” Maj. Charles Anklam III, executive officer of 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, said.

There are currently three female infantry Marines in the battalion as of Jan. 5. Their specializations are rifleman, machine gun and mortar. The identities of the women remain unknown, so they can easily acclimatize to their unit without extra public attention.

In a Jan. 20 interview with Marine Corps Times, Anklam said females will not be given any kind of separate quarters or special accommodations while out in the field, but when back at the barracks, it’s a different story.

The women will all have their own rooms with separate showers and bathrooms.

Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter opened all combat roles up to women in December 2015, and now these are the first females in the Marine Corps who have finally managed to join the infantry.

While it seems as though President Donald Trump will allow women to serve in the military based on an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo in August 2015, he also said he would get the military’s opinion on the matter.

In a tweet from May 2013, Trump delivered remarks that threw some amount of doubt on the idea that men and women should serve together: “26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?”

He later clarified to NBC he still believes in the comment, but doesn’t necessarily want to remove women from the military.

“But something has to happen,” Trump said. “Right now, part of the problem is nobody gets prosecuted. You have reported … you have the report of rape and nobody gets prosecuted.”

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