The Marine Corps is conducting a sweeping review of its military occupational specialty titles, Capt. Philip Kulczewski, a Marine spokesman at the Pentagon, told Marine Corps Times. The move follows a January directive from Navy Secretary Ray Mabus that Navy and Marine leaders ensure all job titles are gender neutral as ground combat jobs opened to women.
Mabus specifically wanted the word "man" dropped from all titles. That could mean that female Marines -- or even men -- heading to ground-combat jobs may not pick up traditional titles like rifleman or artilleryman.
Kulczewski declined to answer questions about how many titles could change, when the review would be complete or what the new job names could be, since the review is still ongoing.
Navy Capt. Patrick McNally, a spokesman for Mabus, also declined to comment on the status of the sea services' reviews.
"[The Navy secretary] has met with leadership from both services on the issue and we will have an announcement on a way ahead at the appropriate time," he said.
Initially, a Navy official told Marine Corps Times that Mabus didn't intend to change iconic titles like infantryman, rifleman or midshipman. Instead, the official said, he only wanted titles to change the titles if "man" stood alone as a separate word, as in reconnaissance man or field artillery sensor support man.
But a Marine official with knowledge of the review said "every single" title, billet and job description is being looked at.