A female Marine who made it past the Marine Special Operation Command’s second phase of the Assessment and Selection Course is now leaving the Marines and is hoping for a commission in the North Carolina National Guard.
An aviation maintenance controller with Marine Attack Squadron 542, Sergeant Bailey Weis passed both phases of training on her first try, but was ultimately not selected to go into MARSOC.
Now, after being passed over for selection to continue in MARSOC’s training pipeline to be a Marine Raider, she is opting to leave the Marines entirely.
“It feels good to be the first one because that way other females know it’s possible to do something like this,” Weis told Military.com. “If that makes them want to do it more or have more confidence, then I think it’s going to break a good barrier — especially for special operations.”
One of four women who have since tried -and failed- to make it into MARSOC, Weis has no hard feelings over not being selected, and trusts the Corps’ judgement.
“They have a lot of different ways that they analyze everyone and are extremely professional and on-point with everything they’re doing,” she said. “It sucks, but you’ve got to handle it the right way.”
Weis had previously attempted and graduated infantry training as part of an experiment by the Marine Corps. After being cleared to try for MARSOC, she hit the gym and worked on muscle groups that generally place women at a disadvantage.
“Just being a female… I knew I had my weaknesses, like my upper-body and other forms of strength,” she said. “So I started training about seven or eight months before I went to that course.”
Weis had the support of her mom, a personal trainer, and her husband, who was once a Reconnaissance Marine. By the time she was done training, she could swim and run with a 45-pound rucksack, ace pull-ups, deadlift 225 lbs and bench around 140.
Looking to advance and try new things, the Marine has now set her sights on finishing her master’s degree in international relations, and she hopes to earn a commission in the North Carolina National Guard.
“[MARSOC] would’ve been a nice option,” she said. “But there are a lot of other opportunities out there.
MARSOC Spokesman Maj. Nick Mannweiler told Military.com that while Weis made it through both phases, she “was not selected to continue on to the Individual Training Course.”
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