Military: One Good Woman

The familiar advertisement calls for "a few good men," but the Marine Corps manages to lure some pretty good women as well. Last week a Marine promotion board recommended the advancement of Colonel Gail Reals to brigadier general. A career officer with 30 years' experience, Reals, 49, is the first woman Marine to reach the one-star rank since the corps integrated its male and female ranks in 1981. After Senate confirmation, she will join eleven other female generals and admirals serving in the armed forces.

Reals joined the Marines as a stenographer, but graduated from Women's Officer Candidate School in 1961 and advanced through a series of training and management commands, most recently as chief of staff at the Marine education and development center in Quantico, Va. Her new responsibilities have not yet been designated. Although a general, she is barred by law from assignments that might lead to combat. For that the Marines need men. Hence their slogan. But Reals is not offended. "For obvious reasons," she says, "this is primarily a male organization."