“Corporal Nicolai, 6 Engineers Support Battalion,” says the US Marine from under a pitched camo cap, M16 rifle in hand. But this isn’t the GI Joe, Full Metal Jacket variety of Marine with lumberjack jawline and the build of a redwood.
“Corporal Nicolai, 6 Engineers Support Battalion,” says the US Marine from under a pitched camo cap, M16 rifle in hand. But this isn’t the GI Joe, Full Metal Jacket variety of Marine with lumberjack jawline and the build of a redwood.
Laura Nicolai (GI Jane to her boyfriend), from Tucson, Arizona, looks barely tall enough to reach the pedals of a Hummer, and she’s one of the few girls in her unit currently running exercises in Grahamstown with South African forces.
Nicolai had a “very, very upset” mom when she enlisted nearly six years ago, but her dad, a former military man himself, was supportive from the start, she says. She had several friends already in the unit she joined, which must have made the move easier. “Now everyone supports me,” she declares.
Which is good, because women don’t get much special treatment. “In the PFTs, physical fitness tests, females get a few extra minutes to finish,” she explains, “and we do hang-time in place of pull-ups. But that’s about it.”
She also talks with a hint of pride about her rifle-shooting from 500 metres and the gruelling hikes (“humps”, in the lingo) on rough terrain, lugging a 36-kilogram pack. Marines “are trained for pretty much every situation known to man… or woman,” she asserts.
However, the US military does limit the situations their women might see. Nicolai sounds a tad disappointed when outlining the rules on what women soldiers can’t do.
Essentially, they’re excluded from infantry, which means they tend not to see the dangerous frontline action. Nicolai, for example, is an electrician, responsible for setting up generators, repairing electrical faults and the like.
She found it “a big shock” to hear that women could do any job they wanted in the South African armed forces. “I’ve spoken to some who are mortar men – or mortar women, I guess,” she goes on. She does, however, seem hopeful that change is afoot or, as she puts it, “We’re coming up”.
Understandably the growth of women in the military raises tricky questions about what the rule book calls “fraternisation”. Nicolai has a simple approach: “I just wouldn’t date someone I work with – I see these guys as my brothers.”
But she’s fine with romance between soldiers in separate divisions. Indeed, her boyfriend serves in the air force. The official stance restricts relationships based on rank. “For example, a lance corporal couldn’t date a sergeant,” says Nicolai.
So, women are starting to make their mark on the revered US Marines but, in Nicolai’s words, “We still have to prove we’re just as good [as the men]and can do anything [they can]. We have to be a little more hardcore.” Nicolai hopes for a deployment to Afghanistan in January, and there’s nothing more hardcore than that.
