Female Marines make history with howitzers

Two female Marine cannoneers are now howitzer section chiefs

Military Times
Phillip Athey
March 3, 2020

The two trailblazing cannon cockers join a long line of female Marines who continue to break barriers in jobs they were once barred from

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Two female Marines have passed the Corps’ howitzer section chief course ― accomplishing another milestone for female integration in the Marine Corps nearly four years after combat jobs were first opened to women.

Cannoneer Marine Cpl. Shannon Lilly is bitten by military working dog, Robby, during a bite demonstration on the flight deck of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship Kearsarge (LHD 3) in May 2019. (Sgt. Aaron Henson/Marine Corps)

A howitzer section chief is the artillery equivalent of a squad leader, responsible for maintaining, aiming and firing the Corps’ M777 155 mm howitzer along with leading a crew of eight to 10 Marines required to fire the gun.

The first female Marine to pass the demanding course was Cpl. Shannon Lilly with with Gulf Battery, 2nd Battalion, 10th Marines, based out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, a Marine Corps spokeswoman told Marine Corps Times on Monday.

Lilly passed the course in December 2019, according to 2nd Marine Division spokeswoman Sgt. Gloria Lepko.
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The most famous women you never knew

The most famous women you never knew
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 18, 2018

The title is a running joke in Point Man, since that is the way I usually get introduced.  Lots of people have heard of my work, my site but most cannot remember my name or even why they know me.

Putting this video together made me very proud to be a woman but ashamed I never knew about some of these women.

Sure, you heard about Paul Revere getting on his horse to warm about the British coming.

Paul Revere did not gain immediate fame for his April 1775"Midnight Ride." In fact, it wasn't until Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1861 poem, which greatly embellished Revere's role, that he became the folk hero we think of today.

But did you know Sybil Ludington also made a ride at the age of 16? Wonder how much fame she would have gotten if Longfellow paid her attention too?

On the night of April 26, 1777, Colonel Henry Ludington, father of 12, veteran of the French-Indian War, and commander of the militia in Duchess County, New York, (just across the state line from Danbury, Connecticut) received a messenger to his house. The British had entered Danbury and found some American military stores, stolen some, destroyed others and drank the whiskey. Drunk, they began ransacking the town, burning and looting.

His daughter got on her horse and rode for 40 miles.

You heard a lot about the men fighting for our freedom but did you know about these women?
Deborah Sampson, Nancy Morgan Hart or Margaret Corbin?

You heard a lot about heroic men with the Medal of Honor but did you know Dr. Mary Edwards Walker received one too? Actually, technically it was twice because Congress officially took it away from her, but she refused to return it. In 1977, she officially received it back, but she died in 1919. 

Those are just some of the women in this video. I hope you learn something watching it, because I learned a lot doing it.