Female Marines Pulled Their Weight Plus 220 Pound Dummy

They Survived Training, Now Female Marines Await Word On Ground Combat
NPR
Tom Bowman
JULY 07, 2015

Marine Lance Cpls. Julia Carroll (left) and Paula Pineda lift "Carl" — a 220-pound test dummy — during training in March in California. Female Marines have completed months of training and are now waiting to hear whether they will be allowed to serve in combat roles.
David Gilkey/NPR

Lance Cpl. Paula Pineda relaxes at a picnic table not far from her barracks in Camp LeJeune, N.C. She's in a crisp uniform and has a ready smile. It's one of the few breaks she's had in months — and she can finally laugh about Carl.

"Carl — our special, heavy, unique dummy," she says.

It was back in March, in the heat of the Mojave Desert in California, that Pineda — sweaty and grimy and just 5-foot-2 — struggled to help pull Carl the dummy out of her armored vehicle, along with another Marine, Julia Carroll. It was part of an exercise to rescue an injured crewman.

Carl weighed 220 pounds.
They also changed tires weighing 170 pounds on the armored vehicles, and hitched up heavy chains and hooks to simulate a towing operation.

The women proved something in their months of tough training, says Pineda, who wore a helmet with the words "Mad Max" taped on the back.

They're ready to serve in ground combat.

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