This is the story of that small band of women who wore U.S. Marine uniforms during the Korean War. These women are a lost generation of women Marines who stepped into the breach between two wars and preserved the opportunity to be a Marine for those who were as yet unborn. They were, in fact, a thin green line--and they stood fast, just like Marines are taught to do.

The nexus of this study lies in the recollections of 146 Women Reservists who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and who were surveyed by Peter Soderbergh in 1990 and 1991. Soderbergh's purposes were (1) to gather primary data before it was lost; (2) to cast the women's experiences in the social context of their time; (3) to contrast the role of women in the armed forces of the 1940s with the role they play today; (4) to give these female pioneers a voice that speaks to current generations about values, relationships with male counterparts, patriotism, and competence; and...