Marine Mariah Klenke, 24, pictured, has become the first female officer to lead an assault amphibian vehicle platoon for the U.S. Marine Corp
A 24-year-old Marine based in California has become the first female officer to lead an assault amphibian vehicle platoon for the U.S. Marine Corp.
Second Lt. Mariah Klenke made history on Tuesday when she graduated from the Assault Amphibian Officer Course at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside as her parents watched.
‘She’s always been one to go above and beyond,’ said her father, Darrell Klenke.
‘We cannot overlook the historic nature of this day,’ Col. Dan Yaroslaski told the seven graduates and their family, friends and instructors at the ceremony.
‘We have set the standards every Marine has to pass. There has been no distinction between male and female,’ he said.
Klenke hugs her mother Tina after becoming the first female officer in the Marine Corps to graduate from the assault amphibian school in Camp Pendleton on Tuesday
Klenke is congratulated by Col. Dan Yaroslaski at Camp Pendleton during her graduation ceremony. ‘We cannot overlook the historic nature of this day,’ he said
Klenke, from Breese, Illinois, was the first woman to enter the course after the Pentagon lifted its ban on females in combat roles in 2015.
She says she was never treated any differently from her male counterparts during rigorous training on land and at sea.
The most difficult part of the 12-week course, she said, was a one-week training of amphibious operations at the Beach at Camp Pendleton. There, she and her classmates practiced ship-to-shore movement and inland operation doing four missions a day.
‘We operated on two hours of sleep,’ she said.
Klenke will be assigned to command a platoon in the next few days, according to the Orange County Register.
‘The Marine Corps is our job but it’s also our life,’ she said. ‘I want to make their job fun so they put their heart and soul into it.’
Klenke’s first duty station will be with the 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion with the 1st Marine Division.
She already was a high achiever in school — graduating from the University of Tennessee at Martin with a degree in accounting — when she told her parents that she planned to join the Marine Corps.
‘We went for a car ride and she looks at me and says, “What would you say if I said I’m joining the Marine Corps?”‘ her mother Tina Klenke said.
‘Do the best you can. There are so many opportunities for women,’ she said.
For the last year, the former collegiate soccer player has held her own with her male counterparts.
Klenke has been held to the same requirements as male Marines — first in Officer Candidates School, then in The Basic School and most recently in the Assault Amphibian Vehicle Officer Course.
She already was a high achiever in school — graduating from the University of Tennessee at Martin with a degree in accounting — when she told her parents that she planned to join the Marine Corps. She is pictured above with a boyfriend
Klenke will lead a platoon and supervise Marines in the 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion