THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 8, 1995 TAG: 9502080462
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
The Marines are looking for a few good women - good with guns, fearless in hand-to-hand combat, great in riot control and quick in academic subjects.
Their assignment: Security for VIPs and others, including, one day, the president.
The Marine Corps Security Force Training Company, a one-of-a-kind school located in Chesapeake, is running the first six female Marines through the rigors of its high-profile security training.
Two of the women said their showing in ``line training'' - hand-to-hand combat - surprised their male classmates at the Northwest Naval Security Group Activity base in Chesapeake.
Kathryn Morris, 18, and Patricia Jackson, 21, made a point of requesting exercise partners larger than they are.
``It's not martial arts training,'' said Morris, who at 5-foot-4 has earned the nickname ``Scrappy'' among classmates. ``It's a matter of getting control of the situation. But I'm feisty. If I got thrown, I'd get right back up and do it again. That's how I got my nickname.''
The women appear to have won respect among supervisors and classmates.
``At first, I think our attitudes went between skepticism and wanting to protect them,'' said class leader Lance Cpl. Garrison Mayberry, 19. ``But that changed the first time I saw little Morris knock the wind out of a 6-foot-2 guy in line training.''
Morris and Jackson graduate this week. They'll head to Washington to await orders, probably to the Naval Academy or the White House Communications Agency.
Eventually, they will serve alongside their male counterparts guarding the president whenever he visits the Camp David retreat in Maryland.
Their assignments demonstrate a gradual opening of new roles to women in the Marines.
``Congress has not yet approved armed combat for women,'' said company Gunnery Sgt. Bobby Davis, their supervisor, ``but about a year ago, all noncombat roles were opened to them - including security.''
Nearly 3,000 Marines a year have gone through the security school since it moved from the West Coast to Chesapeake in 1989. With 324 students in five rotating classes, the six women comprise only about 1 percent of the population.
They were chosen from 26 volunteers who had to pass rigid background checks and scrutinizing psychological tests.
Morris reflects the confidence that is a key requirement of all security school students. She even has her life after the Marines mapped out: Four years in the service, join a civilian police force, attend the FBI Academy and, eventually, become a Drug Enforcement Agency officer.
``My father was a police chief in New York and a graduate of the FBI Academy,'' Morris said. ``I always knew what I wanted, and being here just gives me more confidence.''
Jackson, 21, joined the Marines after two years majoring in social services in college. The youngest of seven children, she volunteered for security school because she was ``going for the job with the most challenge.''
The most challenging aspect of her training, she said, is ``getting the other students to accept the fact that we're here to do the same job they are.''
All the security school students go through the same training: 12 days firing shotguns and 9 mm pistols, six days of hand-to-hand combat and anti-terrorist tactics, six days of room clearance and riot control, and one day in the ``paint house,'' where - armed with paint guns - they learn the importance of surprise from instructor-actors and pop-up figures.
The school culminates in three 24-hour tactical exercises, where the students put together everything they've learned.
Once they've graduated, the women shouldn't have any trouble fitting in at their new assignments, Davis said. ``They have to meet the same qualifications as the men here; they don't get any special treatment.''
The male and female students generally agree that in one area, weapons training, the women even hold a slight advantage.
``Most of them don't have much experience with guns,'' Mayberry said. ``The guys have bad habits, they try to muscle the weapons, but the women hold them more loosely.''
Added Davis, ``They tend to try harder and concentrate more. They have something to prove.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
CARL CASON
Kathryn Morris, standing, and Patricia Jackson are to graduate this
week from the Marine Corps Security Force Training Company, a
one-of-a-kind school located in Chesapeake. The regimen includes
training with weapons, practicing hand-to-hand combat and learning
anti-terrorist tactics.
by CNB