Female Marine Retires With Women Who Inspired Her To Join 20 Years Ago

Retiring Marine meets women who inspired her to join
Marine Corps Times
By Matthew L. Schehl, Staff writer
August 18, 2015

“These ladies inspired me to join the Marine Corps, and here they were after 20 years. That was full circle.”

Gunnery Sgt. Francine Jarrett is joined by the Marines, then noncommissioned officers, who inspired her to enlist: from left, Marialena Bridges, Suzanne Gemignani and Eborah Johnson.
(Photo: Courtesy John Bridges)

At her recent retirement ceremony, Gunnery Sgt. Francine Jarrett came face to face with the women who inspired her to join the Marine Corps 20 years ago, though they'd never met.

Fellow Marines presented Jarrett with a framed, signed copy of the recruitment poster that caught her eye, and her imagination, as a young woman during the July 17 ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia..

“Just seeing the poster, I was already emotional," Jarrett said. "Then I heard ‘and the ladies are here!’ … I was blown away.

“These ladies inspired me to join the Marine Corps, and here they were after 20 years. That was full circle.”

The 1994 recruitment poster featured three noncommissioned officers — Marialena Bridges, Suzanne Gemignani and Eborah Johnson — in dress blues with the caption “After years of fitting in, maybe it’s time to stand out.”

It was a first for the Marine Corps and the U.S. military as it showed successful, professional women in a male-dominated organization, said Master Sgt. Zachary Bourgeois, who worked with Jarrett at Enlisted Professional Military Education, Marine Corps University, at Marine Corps Base Quantico.
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