US Marine Corps Emblem, Author Institute of Heraldry (PD)
- As of 2011, there were 203,000 women on active duty in the military; another 129,960 in the National Guard and Reserve [1A].
- Men and women in the Marine Corps must meet the same standards for combat jobs [2].
- Though the vast majority of casualties have been men, at least 33 women have been killed in action in Afghanistan and 66 in Iraq. Over 900 women have been wounded in combat [1B].
The Marine Corps has admitted to Congress it is at a loss how to protect female Marines against social media predators [3].
Secretive groups like Marines United and Just the Tip of the Spear have obtained and shared nude photos of female Marines and recruits online [4A]. Other branches of the service are not immune [7]. Hundreds of women are known to have been victimized.
Diminishing Women
This is a way of diminishing women. Some argue there a culture of misogyny in the Marines.
A Slow Response
Marine veteran and Purple Heart recipient, Thomas Brennan, who runs the nonprofit news organization The War Horse, first drew attention to the problem in January of this year [4B].
The approach by the Marine Corps has been slow, deliberate, and outdated. Meanwhile, Marines United (which claims some 30,000 members) has repeatedly traded one Facebook page for another.
Fighting Back
Now Marine veterans like James LaPorta, Shawn Wylde, and others are fighting such predators in a way the Marine Corps has not been able [5A]. On their own initiative, they are actively using social media to track down and expose the members of these groups.
A Sense of Brotherhood
“…Marines develop a ‘sense of brotherhood, interdependence, and determination to triumph.’ ”
-Leading Marines, Chapter 1, Our Ethos [6]
Brennan, LaPorta, and Wylde have been described as “traitors” and threatened with violence by other Marines. Women who have protested the use of their photos without permission have been harassed. But one female Marine said it all:
“You are single-handedly restoring my faith in my brothers. I’ve seen so many of those troll pages, I was starting to believe maybe that’s what our brothers really thought of us [5B].”
—
[1A][1B] CNN, “By the numbers: Women in the US military”, 1/24/13, http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/24/us/military-women-glance/.
[2] Marine Corps Times, “Marine Corps: Men and women must meet same standards for combat jobs” by Jeff Schogol, 4/12/16, https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/military/careers/marine-corps/2016/04/12/marine-corps-men-and-women-must-meet-same-standards-combat-jobs/82934800/.
[3] Newsweek, “Nude Photo Scandal Exposes Marines’ Culture of Misogyny” by Jared Keller, 3/16/17, http://www.newsweek.com/nude-photo-scandal-exposes-marines-culture-misogyny-569104?rx=us.
[4A][4B] New York Post, “Marines shared photos of naked female recruits on secret Facebook page” by Chris Perez, 3/5/17, http://nypost.com/2017/03/05/marines-shared-photos-of-naked-female-recruits-on-secret-facebook-page-report/.
[5A][5B] New York Times, “With Their Leaders at a Loss, Marine Veterans Fight Abusers” by Dave Philipps, 3/17/17, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/us/with-their-leaders-at-a-loss-marine-veterans-fight-abusers.html.
[6] Official Website of US Marines, Publications, “Leading Marines” (MCWP 6-11, formerly FMFM 1-0), http://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Publications/MCWP%206-11%20Leading%20Marine.pdf.
[7] CNN, “Nude photo scandal widens as military looks into more websites” by Barbara Starr and Steve Almasy, 3/10/17, http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/10/us/military-nude-photos-scandal/.
ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse 
I pray their combat strategy will be successful.. Jeremiah 23:24
Thank you for sharing.
When life has so little value Anna so does Integrity and Respect. We can see here the harm that comes to Woman by those who claim they are no different from Men, so they are than treated as useable commodities without the Respect and Care due to them.
God tells us Woman are to be Cherished and Protected and that their roles in life are not the same as Mens but that neither Role is Superior or Inferior, they are just different and both are to be Valued Highly.
Thanks for sharing Anna, although it has saddened me to hear such evil perpetrated by those who are upheld in our Countries but are they any different to those who promote Porn using very young girls to do so, it’s all evil through and through.
Christian Love and Blessings – Anne.
I found it stunning that so many men would feel entitled to use unauthorized images of the women they should respect. You’re absolutely right, Anne: evil has infected even these men who cherish their “honor”. Self-oriented though we are, life has no value in our culture.
With love,
A. ❤
Me too I pray that their combat will have more success
Thank you for good sharing
kisses
Thank you for stopping by, Voulaah. Kisses to you, too. ❤
Anna,
I was horrified when I first heard about this. Then to find that it extended beyond the Marines. Sickening.
The military really needs to get its act together when it comes to adjudicating cases of abuse (sexual or otherwise). All of this protecting the brotherhood is BS!
Thanks [for] sharing this.
I completely agree.
In the Spanish army there are females serving as infantry, and actually I had a liutenant that was a female. It if very hard for civilians to understand that maybe some women can perform the exact same duties of men, but one thing is training the other is combat. And at least in the infantry it is mostly a bunch of macho guy, a bit crazy, testing each other like peing on me once, getting into fights and when you are deployed you might not like all the other guys but you know they will perform the job as a cohesive unit. That is the word, cohesive, and when you add a female into that factor it destroys in many cases that cohesion of unit. Plus the two girls we had in our company when bullets started flying they where extremely addamant to use the tool that they are suppose to use in those situations, their rifles, they just didn’t perform well in a highly streesed environment. Actually it was us guys that basically had to protect them. And there we where shouting insults at the enemy pumping us up, laughing with each other when the thing got a bit slow, telling dirty jockes and cruel jokes about dead bodies. And that is the reality. You have to cope with all that craziness in some way so that is what we did. The girls on the other hand just didn’t do that, and we pretty much ignore them. You have to think your a tough mother fucker able to do that job. So some women can go through the same practices while in the safety of a home base, like these two girls, but the brotherly bonding was just not there, and you do have in most cases part of that group mentality of each of us are the best and toughest and we prove it to each other.Plus after spending months and months in a very difficult environment, you basically want to fuck any girl as ugly as it might be. Specially when you are 18 or twenty something year old guy put in those situations, and the girls ….. well they just do actually got in the way. Hard for civilians to understand though.
Thank you for the insights, Charly. Combat is so far outside the experience of civilians, we have difficulty understanding the stresses it puts on troops.
Reblogged this on Bum's Landing & Restart – Andrè Michael Pietroschek and commented:
Those who allow or commit the craven crimes did say goodbye humanity, welcome monstrosity. I can’t forgive GOD that a single one of them is still alive.
I think that crimes of omission have been propagated as harmless for much too long. Looking away, making excuses for the villains. No, each one of us can EITHER side with humanity, or with monstrosity. No human being will ever achieve BOTH without being a pest to all other lifeforms on this godforsaken planet.
I agree completely that there is an ongoing struggle between good and evil. It takes many forms. Every generation faces its own challenge. In the the 19th Century that was slavery. In the 30s, it was the Depression; in the 40s, Nazism; in the 50s and 60s, McCarthyism and civil rights.
Each man and woman must make a choice. As John F. Kennedy and others before him observed: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
The capitalist overlooking of pollution’s effects deserves a mentioning, too. Carbon monoxide alone is already a ‘mass-murderer’ going completely unpunished…
I agree that we have a stewardship obligation to the earth. If I understand correctly, however, China is the largest source of such emissions on the planet.
Dear Anna….what you doing is very well wishing for the whole world from all sides….Wish you a very blissful life…Keep it up!!! 😊
How very kind of you! I wish you the same. ❤