As women’s profile in military combat positions have grown, the first female graduated Tuesday from the Marine Corps’ grueling Winter Mountain Leader Course.
Sgt. Tara-Lyn Baker, a heavy equipment mechanic in the Marines, graduated from the nearly six-week school based out of Bridgeport, California.
The school is designed to train Marine leaders in mountain warfare tactics and give them the education to train their units — the physically demanding course zeroes in on cold weather survival and combat tactics in a freezing and rugged environment.
Today, the first female Marine graduated from Winter Mountain Leaders Course.
Oorah, Marine. pic.twitter.com/qeFU4ADUfR
— U.S. Marines (@USMC) January 8, 2019
“You learn how to survive, you learn how to deal with the cold,” Baker said in a video posted on the service’s Twitter. The Marine sergeant also said she got hypothermia and frostbite during training, saying, “We learn to overcome it.”
Women have seen a string of firsts in recent years in the male-dominated military. In 2017, the first woman completed the Marine Corps’ Infantry Officer Course.
The U.S. military has been pushing more and more mountain warfare training, after two decades of focusing on desert fighting, in light of Russia and China beefing up their Arctic presence as the warming climate melts ice in the region allowing for exploitation of resources and easier passage for ships.
