You can take the man out of the Marines … and now you can do it twice over.
Following a precedent set by the Navy in January, the Marine Corps has announced plans to remove man from 19 job titles, replacing it in 15 of the instances with the word Marine.
As with the move by the Navy, this change is meant to make the branch of the service more gender-neutral.
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Among the changes, according to the Washington Post, is eliminating antitank missileman and field artillery operations man in favor of “antitank gunner” and “field artillery operations chief” respectively.
Some titles, the article notes, will stay the same, including rifleman and mortarman. The Post reporter interviewed Sgt. Geoff Heath, identified as a Marine rifleman with multiple combat deployments. “On one hand, the name changes from ‘man’ to ‘person’ or whatever they want to call it doesn’t really matter,” he is quoted as saying before adding, “But on the other, it’s a direct reflection on society’s crybaby political correctness.”
Here is a complete list of the proposed changes: