When I became a Marine in 1978, it during a phase (which I hope has long ended) in which the Corps wanted WMs (Women Marines) not to appear so "butch." So in boot camp, we were taught how to properly apply make-up, sit with legs demurely together and crossed at the ankle and never got to go to the range, never had a rifle in hand. Our motto was, get this, "To Free a Man to Fight," meaning we were there to take over on the typewriters while the guys went out and confronted the enemy. That's not to say the physical training was easy. It most definitely was not. That's not to say the DIs didn't get in your face. Their jobs were to make you physically and mentally tough and this they did extremely well. Even after all these years, whenever and if necessary, I can very easily pull up the Marine Corps attitude I was taught in boot camp and gut my way through almost anything, Still, I wish, just once, I could have carried a gun like the women on the front lines get to do today. That would've been a blast. But I can't complain. I got to carry that gun when employed by the Washtenaw Sheriff's Department and Michigan Department of Corrections, where I was hired because I was, I am and I always will be a former Marine. By the way, the picture is of my three kids, David, a college graduate, along with Ralph Jr. and Brittany, both of whom will graduate from college in May of this year. All three are as tough and smart as they wanna be. Birthed by two Marines, it was never even possible for them to turn out to be anything else.

Janis C. Hunter-Paulk
Ypsilanti, MI