Did I live a sheltered life while I was in the Corp or was it normal?

My first duty base was Camp Geiger 8th Marines and then mainside 2nd Recon.

And in my eyes or my perspective Women Marines were actually as elite as Recon.

I only recall meeting one WM on the rifle range and she was an LT over seeing range operations while we were qualifying.

After that any female I ever met was wearing civilian clothes and I was not sure if it was someones wife or a WM.

To me at the time I served I felt not many of you existed, was it my perception or just maybe the Units I served with due to You served about the same time I did?

Well, I can only speak from my perspective, but there were a lot of women in Marine Corps Base units. During OUR time in the jobs that ladies could do was still pretty limited.

For instance, you could be in Motor T, but most women didn't go that way. We were mainly Admin, Cook, etc. Totally non-combat. There were some women who were attending the Marine Corps Enginer School, but the only MOS they were allowed to do was Heavy Junk Operator.

We went to the range for a week every year I was in. You snapped in at your unit and then had your qual week at the range.

I can only say to you that it must have been your unit. We were advised while at Admin School and then when we got to our first duty station, to steer clear of your part of the base, because you don't want to be "associated" with the like of grunts. We were told that they were hard charging, ground pounders that didn't play well with others.

Also, when I was in bootcamp they were putting through about 2200 ladies a year. After I graduated and they started using 4000 designations of their platoon number, the induction numbers dropped. They cut them in half to about 1100 per year. That may have gone back up since, but that is what we were told at the time.

Thank you for explaining it from your perception it definently makes sense.

I just always found it odd why I never seen them at that time.