---
title: "The Marine Corps Is About To Graduate Its First Female Infantry Officer"
date: "2017-09-21"
modified: "2017-09-21"
authors:
  - name: "Jared Keller"
    job_title: "Former Managing Editor"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/female-marine-infantry-officer-graduate/"
categories:
  - "Around the World"
  - "Marine Corps"
  - "Military Branches"
  - "News"
  - "Tactics"
  - "Tech & Tactics"
  - "Training"
  - "United States"
tags:
  - "Leadership"
  - "women in military"
---

# The Marine Corps Is About To Graduate Its First Female Infantry Officer

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/19042848-1.jpg>)

The Marine Corps is on track to graduate its first female Marine infantry officer from its notoriously intense 13-week course, several Marine Corps officials told Task & Purpose, a historic first for the service branch.

The news was first [reported](<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/09/21/for-the-first-time-the-marine-corps-expects-to-have-a-female-infantry-officer-among-its-ranks/?utm_term=.7318f2acb062>) by the Washington Post.

The unidentified Marine lieutenant, the 31st female candidate for the branch’s grueling Infantry Officer Course, has officially completed [PALMFEX](<https://www.29palms.marines.mil/News/News-Article-Display/Article/500060/infantry-officers-course-marine-leaders-conduct-exercise-talon-reach-iv/>), the three-week live-fire exercise conducted at Twentynine Palms in California that marks a “culminating event” for all aspiring infantry officers, alongside her male colleagues. She is expected to graduate on Sept. 25.

As of early September, the candidate overcame the obstacles that had weeded out her predecessors, including the course's six graded tactical-movement exercises that, as Task & Purpose previously reported, include brutal slogs of between 6.4 and 9.3 miles with weight loads of up to 152 pounds — significantly more intense requirements than other officer candidate schools throughout the armed forces.

Photo via DoD

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/image-placeholder-title-2322.jpg>)

As the Washington Post [notes](<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/09/21/for-the-first-time-the-marine-corps-expects-to-have-a-female-infantry-officer-among-its-ranks/?utm_term=.7318f2acb062>), the 86-day IOC is [considered](<https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/us/grueling-course-for-marine-officers-will-open-its-doors-to-women.html?mcubz=3>) one of the most grueling training course in the Corps and among the most challenging for U.S. infantry troops, boasting a 25% washout rate.

“It’s essentially \[The Basic School\], but on steroids,” an active-duty Marine and recent IOC graduate who declined to be identified told Task & Purpose in early September. “It’s the varsity level for a lot of skill sets, techniques and procedures that are refined through the most mentally, physically, psychologically and emotionally challenging situations you’ll ever experience.”

*This is a developing story. Check back for new updates.*

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## Author
Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications.

### Author social links  
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