When former 1st. Lt. Colleen Farrell joined the USMC in 2008, becoming a trailblazer was the furthest thing from her mind. But by the time she left active duty four years later, she'd become part of two historic turning points for women in the military.
Starting out all she wanted was to serve her country, an ideal that resonated with her Quaker upbringing. In 2009, she left her MOS as an Air Support Control Officer to join the newly-created Marine Corps Female Engagement Teams, a program...
When former 1st. Lt. Colleen Farrell joined the USMC in 2008, becoming a trailblazer was the furthest thing from her mind. But by the time she left active duty four years later, she'd become part of two historic turning points for women in the military.
Starting out all she wanted was to serve her country, an ideal that resonated with her Quaker upbringing. In 2009, she left her MOS as an Air Support Control Officer to join the newly-created Marine Corps Female Engagement Teams, a program that sent female Marines out with infantry units to engage with Afghan women, assess their needs and collect life-saving intelligence in a way male Marines could not. “It was,” Farrell said, “a once in a lifetime chance to work at the tip of the spear.” She deployed in 2010 to Helmand Province as an FET Platoon Commander. During that time she and her teams worked to build girls' schools, conduct hygiene training, set up vocational training centers for women, collect intelligence and at times saw combat. They did all this despite having to return to their main base every 45 days. A logistical charade created to appease DoD's combat exclusion policy for women. Worse, when she and her FETs returned home in 2011, they were disbanded in three days, unlike the male infantry Marines who were given weeks to get the post-deployment help they needed.
Having experienced the military's gender inequities first hand and believing they hurt overall readiness, Colleen made the courageous decision in 2012 to become a plaintiff in the ACLU's lawsuit against the DoD's female combat exclusion policy. In 2013, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta rescinded the policy, paving the way for true gender equity in the services to occur. Ten years after the first Lioness missions in Iraq in 2003, FET Leader and 1st. Lt. Colleen Farrell stepped up, along with three other servicewomen plaintiffs, to help make the military a more equitable workplace for every citizen who wants to serve.
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