Top female Marine dedicates statue honoring women on her final day of service

[ismnotwasm]

TRIANGLE, VA. — The highest ranking female Marine, who spent nearly four decades breaking gender barriers, began her final day of active-duty service by dedicating a statue honoring women who served in the Corps.

Maj. Gen. Angela Salinas, director of the Manpower Management Division, was the military guest of honor at the National Museum of the Marine Corps on Friday. She dedicated a replica of the Molly Marine statue, which stands in New Orleans and was the first to honor women serving during World War II. It was a fitting milestone at the end of Salinas’ 39-year career in the Corps, which began when she joined as an enlisted Marine in 1974.

Salinas told Marine Corps Times that dedicating the Molly Marine statue at the service’s national museum brings female service members into the fold. The statue sits just outside the museum in the Semper Fidelis Memorial Park, not far from the statue of Lt. Gen. Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller.

“People get to see her right down the walkway from ‘Chesty’ Puller and others from the legacy of our Corps,” Salinas said. “It really gives women the credibility I think they’ve been looking for for years.”

Salinas broke through several barriers during her career as a female Marine. In 1989, she became the first woman to command one of the Corps’ recruiting stations. In 2006, she was the first woman to be named commanding general of one of the Marine Corps’ fabled recruit depots.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/article/20130705/NEWS/307050029

[Little Star]

1. How cool is that!!!!!