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One of the First Women in the Infantry Will Be Discharged From the Marines

Marine Cpl. Remedios Cruz recited the oath of enlistment after being promoted at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam in 2013. CreditLance Cpl. Richard Currier/U.S. Marine Corps


By Thomas Gibbons-Neff | The New York Times


WASHINGTON — One of the first women to enter the Marine Corps infantry is being discharged from the service after admitting to having an intimate relationship with a subordinate — a fellow Marine she eventually married.

On their own, the legal charges against Cpl. Remedios Cruz, 26, are not uncommon in military investigations of American troops. But they highlight the struggle the Marine Corps has had in integrating women into jobs that were only open to men before 2015.

“The biggest mistakes I’ve made in the infantry were from my personal relationships,” Corporal Cruz said in an interview. “I really want to move on.”

As part of a deal to avoid going to trial, Corporal Cruz pleaded guilty to fraternization in July and decided to put the Marine Corps behind her. She is awaiting her final separation from the Marines.

Corporal Cruz was one of three women who joined First Battalion, Eighth Marines in January 2017. She was accused of three charges — fraternization, adultery and accessory to larceny — in separate investigations that would have been sent to court-martial in June.

The officer overseeing a pretrial hearing found no probable cause for the adultery and larceny charges, and recommended that Corporal Cruz be administratively punished for fraternizing with a man she had married before she was accused.

But her battalion commander, Lt. Col. Anthony C. Johnston, recommended that all three charges go to trial — giving her the choice of going to court and risking conviction, or admit to fraternization as part of a broader plea agreement.

Mike Berry, a reservist Marine Corps judge advocate, said it was rare for a commander to recommend a court-martial after a pretrial hearing had already concluded that there was no probable cause for multiple charges.

Over the years fraternization policies in the American military have changed but broadly prohibit “unduly familiar” relationships among service members of differing ranks.

After pleading guilty to the fraternization charge, Corporal Cruz was reduced in rank from sergeant to corporal and restricted to the base. She may also leave the Marine Corps with an other-than-honorable discharge, meaning she could be stripped of almost all Veterans Affairs benefits and jeopardize future employment in the civilian sector.

Corporal Cruz’s lawyer, Capt. Jacob R. Johnston, said the commanding general of the Second Marine Division will decide if she receives an honorable discharge. Her separation from the Marine Corps is still being processed, said Maj. Robert E. Shuford, a spokesman for the Second Marine Expeditionary Force.

“Regardless of the outcome of this case, Corporal Cruz has been a courageous pioneer for women in the military and she has earned a place in Marine Corps history,” Captain Johnston said in a statement.

Of the roughly 184,000 active-duty Marines, around 15,800 are women. As of July, 24 women were serving in infantry billets in the Marine Corps, according to military documents obtained by The New York Times.

The Army, with roughly 740 women who are serving in previously restricted combat roles, has encountered its own issues with integrating women into the jobs. Last week, the Army Times reported an investigation of a relationship between a senior noncommissioned officer and a junior female infantry soldier in the same unit.

Corporal Cruz, of Fleischmanns, N.Y., joined the Marines as a supply clerk in 2013 and completed infantry training in 2014. Two years later, she requested to transfer to an infantry unit after then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter ordered that women be allowed in all previously restricted combat roles. The Marine Corps vehemently opposed the change.

“I had a taste of what it was like to train to fight,” Corporal Cruz said. “And I felt like if I was going to say that I served my country, I wanted to be able to just do that — but not on the sidelines.”

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Days after she arrived at the battalion in January 2017, she was promoted to sergeant — a rank that probably ensured, as a Marine in an infantry platoon, that she would be considered for a leadership role.

She said she began a relationship with a lower-ranking Marine in her unit and married him shortly before the battalion deployed to Japan in August 2017. Not until she was overseas did senior commanders become aware of the relationship, and opened an investigation.

The investigating officer eventually found that “appropriate administrative or disciplinary” action was warranted, leaving the chain of command to decide whether to issue any punishment.

Mr. Berry, the Marine Corps lawyer, said that fraternization within the ranks is often heard about but rarely punished by court-martial.

Her battalion commander at the time, Lt. Col. Reginald McClam sought to punish Corporal Cruz for creating an “environment which compromised her professional reputation and ultimately the good order and discipline of the unit,” he wrote in his recommendation after the initial investigation.

Both the commanding officer of the Fourth Marine Regiment and the commanding general of the Third Marine division — two senior officers above Colonel McClam while his battalion was deployed to Okinawa — recommended no disciplinary action.

Despite the Pentagon’s directives on women in previously restricted combat roles, Colonel McClam wrote in his letter that “specific guidance on standards of conduct governing integrated infantry battalions is necessary, as this was, in hindsight, perhaps taken for granted.”

Col. Kevin A. Norton, then the commanding officer of the Fourth Marine Regiment, suggested counseling instead of court-martialing.

In his own recommendation, Colonel Norton wrote that from an “institutional point of view, we did not set up Sgt. Cruz for success” and said the fraternization was the result of an “inadequate knowledge of and guidance to young Marines from the battalion chain of command.”