This female Marine says backlash against women in combat is due to ‘butt hurt’

Apr 2, 2018 9:40 AM PDT

1 minute read

SUMMARY

Corporal Angelique Preston is a marksmanship coach stationed at Camp Pendleton, California. She’s wanted to be in the infantry since she was a young girl, and she enlisted in the Marine Corps right out of high school. “I joined the Mari…

Corporal Angelique Preston is a marksmanship coach stationed at Camp Pendleton, California. She's wanted to be in the infantry since she was a young girl, and she enlisted in the Marine Corps right out of high school.

"I joined the Marines because I wanted to do Marine things," Preston told KPBS. ". . . like go to combat."

Her father was a U.S. Army artilleryman when she was young. Preston grew to love Howitzers but when she expressed an interest as a young girl, her father quipped, "Not in my lifetime." She recently submitted her application to be in USMC field artillery.

"I'm good at it and I can do it better than some of the men here," Preston said in a KPBS video. "A lot of times, they get kinda butt hurt, you know."

Butt-hurt Marines aside, Preston was part of the Marine Corps 2015 study on gender integration in combat units. She believes she has more than proved her capability, carrying artillery rounds more than 200 meters at a full run in the desert heat to fire Howitzers with her fellow Marines.

Cpl. Angelique Preston, field artillery cannoneer with Battery A, Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force, prepares a M795 High Explosive projectile before a fire mission at Gun Position Quackenbush, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Manuel R. Benavides)

"To be in these jobs, you have to be physically and emotionally strong," Preston, who is also an avid weightlifter, said. "You can't just be one or the other ... part of my drive comes from being defiant."

The KPBS story also tells the story of Capt. Brittney Boucher, a Naval Academy graduate who wants to be a tracker. She opted to sign up for a combat job as soon as Navy Secretary Ray Mabus opened the jobs to women. She previously commanded Marines in a motor vehicle platoon in 2013.

(KPBS c/o Capt. Brittney Boucher)

"If I were to be one of the first combat arms females, it's my standard and my internal challenge to be the most effective officer that I can be," Boucher told KPBS.