A manly tradition is now womanly, too
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, May 19, 2001
By Chris Kahn
Associated Press
LEXINGTON, Va. – The first female cadets to survive four years at the Virginia Military Institute, the nation’s last public military school for men, received their diplomas on Saturday.
The women – 13 who graduated in May and one who graduated in December – were part of a class of 250, the most scrutinized in the school’s history.
“Our country watched for you to make mistakes,” VMI Superintendent Maj. Gen. Josiah Bunting III told the graduates. “And you made none.”
The women were the last of the 25 female freshmen who stepped into VMI’s barracks in fall 1997. Eleven dropped out because of the tough regimen. Five others came to the school as upperclassmen and graduated earlier.
“I’m so proud. At first I tried to talk her out of it, but she stuck with it,” Harry Mars, a police officer from Hopewell, Va., said of his daughter, 22-year-old Tamina Mars. “She said, ‘Dad, I’m going to finish what I started.’ “
Beginning in 1839, VMI was a place where boys came to be molded into “citizen soldiers.” Generals George Patton and George Marshall both learned to stand at attention here.
While other military schools began admitting women in the 1970s and ’80s, VMI resisted. Administrators finally changed the school’s policy under orders from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Commencement speaker Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., spoke of his years as a prisoner in Vietnam and advised the cadets to choose their careers and causes with care.
“I discovered that nothing is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself – something that encompasses you, but is not defined by your existence alone,” McCain told them.
The women shared space with about 1,300 men. Like their male counterparts, they were required to walk in straight lines and turn corners at right angles, and as freshmen their hair was shaved off. They marched with rifles and stared through the taunting that comes with being a “Rat” – what the cadets call freshmen.
Their graduation leaves 51 female cadets at VMI, about 10 expected in next year’s senior class.
Mars said after the ceremony that she had already traded addresses and phone numbers with her fellow female graduates.
“That’s what made VMI for me. I’ll definitely remember all of them and try to keep in touch,” she said, then added, “I feel so relieved.”
“I’m ecstatic,” said graduate Maria Vasile of Tucson, Ariz., who wants to work in Air Force intelligence. “I just want to get out of here.”
Others plan to be teachers or scientists.
Harry Mars likened his daughter to a pioneer.
“Being one of the first women to go to school here certainly wasn’t easy,” he said. “It probably still isn’t easy, but maybe she made it easier.”
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