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Lisa Cordeiro, who wrote a book about her experiences as a woman in Marine Corps boot camp, sits at her laptop with son Nicholas. (Photo by John J Crookes) |
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Through boot camp on determination and will
By Josh Mrozinski / Tribune Correspondent
Monday, March 22, 2004WATERTOWN -- Lisa Cordeiro became indignant when the blonde-haired drill instructor barraged her with orders and insults as she was getting on the bus that would soon be leaving for Parris Island, S.C. -- the Marine Corps training depot.
Although the 19-year-old Waltham resident, then known as Lisa Minassian, resolutely decided to enter the Marine Corps, she was now having doubts as the instructor got in her face and called her stupid.
She sat terrified, listening to the instructor continue to obliterate her ego and pride. Her head was pounding because of a hangover that she now had from the prior night's binge. Without starting training, let alone stepping foot on Parris Island, she was already thinking about how much she wanted to go home.
Cordeiro wasn't prepared for the drill instructor's intense verbal beatings, despite watching dozens of war movies to prepare for the Marines, including "Full Metal Jacket," which she now says most resembles the realities of boot camp. What made things even more difficult for her was that most of what she had watched or read helped her prepare her for boot camp from a man's perspective.
"For the first few weeks, I just wanted to go home," said Cordeiro, now 30 and living in Watertown. "I thought I had made the biggest mistake of my life."
Through sheer determination and a strong will, though, Cordeiro completed the grueling 13-week training. Cordeiro is now one of the 10,000 women who can call themselves Marines.
About 5.7 percent of the 174,000 enlisted Marines were women in 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
And Cordeiro has written a 318-page book, "Parris Island: A Woman's Memoir of Marine Corps Boot Camp" (Whiskey Press, March 2004, www.whiskeycreekpress.com), about her experiences. Cordeiro said she tried to show the emotions from a woman's perspective -- something she had trouble finding before she left.
"I tried to capture the emotional turmoil that a person goes through in boot camp," Cordeiro said. "When I was looking to enlist in the military, I was looking for books from the woman's perspective...and I couldn't find anything out there."
Cordeiro said she decided to enlist in the Marine Corps in 1992, when she was a sophomore at UMass-Amherst, to gain confidence and find direction in her life.
"I was sort of floundering around in college, trying to figure out what to do with my life," Cordeiro said. "It (boot camp) seemed liked a good transition from wasting time in school and not knowing what to do with myself."
After serving active duty in the Marines, Cordeiro went back to UMass-Amherst, where she earned a bachelor's degree in comparative literature and psychology in 1995. She completed her junior and senior course requirements in one year.
Cordeiro is now a freelance writer and working on her master's thesis in English on Harry Potter at Harvard University's Extension School. She has a 2-year-old son, Nicholas, and a husband, Eric, a teacher at East Boston High School -- and she's nine months pregnant.
Cordeiro said that she would do boot camp again, even though she called it, "13 weeks of hell," because the arduous weeks made her a better person and gave her a direction in life.
She said she had to often prove to her drill instructors and the Marine Corps men that she, as a woman, could handle the rigors of boot camp. Most of the enlisted men did accept her over time, Cordeiro said. The female drill instructors would often push her hard, beyond what she thought to be her limits, so no one could claim she had to meet weaker standards because she was a woman.
"Most of the people that I worked with accepted me as one of the guys," Cordeiro said. "If you worked hard, they would accept you."
Even though Cordeiro thinks her fellow Marines accepted her as a woman, she also thinks the Marine Corps still has a reputation. "The Marines have a reputation of a few good men, not a few good women," Cordeiro said.
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