A female Marine officer is expected to graduate the Corps' grueling infantry officer course

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September 21, 2017 5:46 PM

Since the course opened up, more than 30 women have attempted it.

A female Marine officer is expected to graduate from the Marine Corps' Infantry Officer Course on Monday, marking the first time a woman had made it through the grueling 13-week course.

Three military officials told Dan Lamothe of The Washington Post that the unnamed female lieutenant had, alongside her male colleagues, just completed the final graded exercise of the course — a three-week training evolution at the Marine base in Twentynine Palms, California.

All that stands between participants in the course and graduation day is administrative days and turning gear back into supply, the Post reported.

"This is such a huge deal," Kate Germano, a retired lieutenant colonel who previously commanded the all-female 4th Recruit Training Battalion, wrote on Twitter.

IOC was first opened to women in 2012 so that Marine leaders could research the feasibility of integrating all-male infantry units. Eventually, the Pentagon removed all restrictions on women in 2015.

Since the course opened up, more than 30 female officers have attempted it and failed. Meanwhile, a handful of enlisted female Marines have been able to graduate from the Corps' Infantry Training Battalion.

A Marine spokesman did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

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