CCHS grad Bilharz can now call herself a Marine

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A Charles City women is among 53 females who can now call themselves Marines.

Mackenzy Bilharz, a 19-year-old Charles City High School graduate, is a member of the first female platoon to go through basic training at the previously all-male Marine Corps training facilities in San Diego.

Last Thursday, the new Marines — Lima Company’s female Platoon 3241, along with five male platoons — completed “the crucible,” a grueling three days worth of physical and psychological challenges required of the recruits that go through the West Coast boot camp.

They’ll have a couple of more weeks of training before officially graduating on May 6, but after cresting the final hill of the Reaper, the highest point at Camp Pendleton, each person was awarded the eagle, globe and anchor pin that is the symbol of the Corps and marks the end of being called a recruit and for the first time being called a Marine.

Members of Bilharz’s family said they were proud but not surprised.

“I didn’t have any doubts that she would make it,” said her father, Travis Bilharz, of Charles City. “It was pretty emotional for all of us after she finally completed it.”

Mackenzy’s mother, Jolene Goodwill, said she was “bawling.”

“I was crying a lot and so very proud,” she said.

And Mackenzy’s maternal grandmother, Sharon Miller, enthusiastically recounted what she knew of the three-day test, saying her granddaughter “has got a lot of determination for a 120-pound girl.”

“She made it to the Reaper — that 700-foot hill,” Miller said. “She made it through the crucible — I call it the crucifixion. Oh, my gosh, you would not believe all the stuff that they had to do at 36 stations with only, I think, they only got two or three hours of sleep, and they were hiking in the middle of the night — but it was a 700-foot hill!”

Travis Bilharz said COVID-19 restrictions had been relaxed a little at the Marine Corps Training Depot and Camp Pendleton, and family members would be allowed to attend graduation, but only two per recruit.

He said he and his oldest daughter, Alysha, were planning on going to San Diego for the ceremony.

Goodwill said she and her husband, Lyn Goodwill, were also likely going to San Diego and would meet up with Mackenzy after the official ceremony was over. “He’s a very proud step-father,” she said of her husband.

There have been women Marines for more than 100 years, but all who have gone through boot camp previously have done so at Parris Island, South Carolina. No women have been trained in San Diego until now.

In 2019, Congress ordered the San Diego boot camp to integrate women into its training battalions by 2028. Even at Parris Island, men and women have mostly trained separately, and there, too, the Corps is under directions to integrate.

Bilharz’s platoon won the final drill competition, said Capt. Martin Harris, a recruit depot spokesperson.

For the competition, drill instructors got a list of random tasks that the recruits must perform on the parade deck, where each platoon is judged by drill masters. Winning the competition requires good teamwork, efficiency and discipline, Harris said.

Platoon 3241 also had the highest physical and combat fitness test scores in their company throughout the 13-week camp, Harris said.

The female platoon “won all the physical events,” he said.

Marine officials have said coed companies perform on par with or better than all-male or all-female training companies.

Col. Matt Palma, the commanding officer of the recruit training regiment in San Diego, said the women of Lima Company went through the same training regimen as the men, including the crucible and the grueling “Reaper” hike.

The crucible includes obstacle courses, hand-to-hand combat, sleep deprivation and food deprivation, and culminates in a climb up steep hills for almost 10 miles while wearing packs that can weigh up to 70 pounds.

Lima Company will serve as a “proof of concept,” which means it will be used to demonstrate that San Diego can effectively train women alongside men, Palma said. The depot has requested to train another cohort of women this summer but is still waiting on a decision, he said.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.