Marines test women for infantry role

General Amos has said he will use the Infantry Officer Course to study how women handle the rigors of infantry training, hoping to observe 92 volunteers by 2016, when the corps must make recommendations on whether women can join the infantry. (Reaching 92 may be hard, however: the corps produces only 156 female officers a year, and only about one in 10 have volunteered to attend the course, so far, though Marine Corps officials say they expect the number to rise.)

Last fall, the first two female volunteers failed to complete the course. One, a distance runner, was dropped on the first day, known as the Combat Endurance Test. The second, a soccer player, endured for over a week before instructors pulled her out because of a stress fracture in her foot. Both are now training for non-infantry jobs.

In Quantico, concerns run deep among some staff members that pressure to accommodate women will lead to a softening of the Marine Corps’ tough standards. Col. Todd S. Desgrosseilliers, commander of the Basic School, which includes the Infantry Officer School and the Basic Officer Course, said that would not happen.

“They are gender-neutral now,” he said of the standards. “They aren’t hard to be hard. These are the things they need to be able to do to be infantry officers.”