Breaking precedent, 59 women were among 400 recruits who entered boot camp at the previously all-male Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego this week.

The female recruits form one platoon in the six-platoon Lima Company, which was organized on Monday for a two-week quarantine period before their rigorous, 13-week training program begins. Integrated training began two years ago at the Marines' Parris Island, S.C., facility, but it is a first for the San Diego facility in its 98-year history of training recruits.

"We are all very proud to be part of it, and we're proud to help move our service forward," Capt. Martin Harris, depot communications director, told CBS San Diego. "The training is actually the same and the standards are exactly the same. Females showed up and we will train any recruits that show up that want to be Marines and we'll make Marines out of them."

The female recruits -- among around 20,000 who pass through boot camp at San Diego annually -- will have separate quarters, female drill instructors and a female series commander. The training is a head start on an order, part of the National Defense Authorization Act, mandating integration of women into training battalions by 2028.

"We can highlight what changes need to happen in either construction or personnel to be able to execute those before having todo it full time," added Harris.

Capt. Ashley Sands will serve as lead series commander.

"It's no different," sands said. "We're going to be training essentially the same ways that we have been for years, but I think it really is just a big moment in terms of being able to do this for the very first time."

The other U.S. services branches integrated their recruit training in the 1990s. About eight percent of current Marine personnel is female.

Col. Matt Palma, commanding officer of the Recruit Training Regiment at the base, said the new order is an opportunity for the Marine Corps.

"Female Marines have been serving in combat for years," Palma told NBC San Diego. "This is going to better prepare the Marines, for the reality of the Marine Corps. We may be able to recruit more young capable female recruits to come here."

Navy chief calls for measures to combat extremism after incidents on ships
Washington DC (UPI) Feb 10, 2021 - Additional measures must be instituted to combat political and racial extremism in the Navy, Adm. Mike Gilday said in a message to the fleet.

"I am certain the vast majority of men and women in the United States Navy serve with honor, character, and integrity," the Chief of Naval Operations' statement said on Tuesday. "But we cannot be under any illusions that extremist behaviors do not exist in our Navy."

Although he did not identify them, Gilday referred to "two separate incidents where symbols of hate and violence were anonymously left in living areas aboard ships in our fleet."

The comment is an apparent reference to the discovery in January of a noose above the bunk of a Black sailor aboard the USS Lake Champlain guided-missile cruiser, leading to the confession and removal from the ship of another sailor, and another incident in which hate speech graffiti was discovered in a bathroom aboard the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier within the past week.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has examined both incidents.

Gilday ordered a stand-down of each Navy command, by April, to address the issue of extremism within the ranks, noting that "No doubt, this is a leadership issue...this stand-down is another in our efforts to listen, to learn, and to improve."

Gilday's statement came after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a military-wide stand down on Feb. 3, to deal with extremism in the military's ranks after active and former military personnel participated in the insurrectionist mob that stormed the Capitol building in January.

"The DOD Instruction expressly prohibits military personnel from actively advocating for and participating in supremacist, extremist or criminal gang doctrine, ideology or causes," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a Feb. 3 statement announcing Austin's order.

A stand-down order indicates an off-duty status and a temporary relaxation from a state of readiness. The first came on Tuesday, when leaders of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet addressed San Diego-area commands while aboard the USS Carl Vinson.

U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. John Aquilino and Fleet Master Chief James Honea met with crews aboard several ships for what a Navy statement termed "candid discussions with sailors, focused on eliminating extremist ideologies in the military."

"I have policies in the Pacific Fleet that we do not care what race you are, what creed you are, what god you pray to, what sexual orientation you are, or what gender you are," said Aquilino. "We are all sailors, we are all shipmates, and we are here to serve our nation and defend the Constitution. I owe you a safe place to work so that you can execute your mission and fulfill your oath."

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