Already the top woman in the U.S. military, Marine Maj. Gen. Carol Mutter now stands on the brink of becoming the highest ranking female officer in American history.
President Clinton this week nominated Mutter, 49, to ascend to the rank of lieutenant general. The Senate is expected to confirm her promotion.If confirmed, the Greeley, Colo., native, whose specialties are logistics and technology, also will take charge of all Marine Corps personnel matters by assuming the post of deputy chief of staff for manpower and reserve affairs.
The 28-year Leatherneck, who is the only woman Marine Corps general, now is the commander of Corps' Systems Command at Quantico, Va. She calls the shots on all research, development and acquisition of new Marine equipment and systems, everything from rifles, tanks, trucks, sleeping bags and tents. Only aircraft is outside her scope.
Raised on a farm near Eaton, Colo., Mutter joined the Marines as second lieutenant during the height of the Vietnam War. Her first duty was in data processing at Quantico.
As she worked her way up the ranks, she did a stint with the U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs, Colo., and commanded the 3rd Force Service Support Group in Okinawa.
Clinton described Mutter as "a disciplined, motivated, dedicated Marine" who is "superbly" prepared "for helping to shape our forces for the 21st century."
Mutter has said she experienced few problems being a woman in a corps in which only 1 percent of the troops were female at the time she joined. (Now, 4.5 percent of Marines are women.)
"I just always kind of took it as though I belonged there as much as (the men) did, and acted that way, and that's the way I was treated and people did not make me feel like I didn't belong," Mutter said in a July 1994 interview with the Rocky Mountain News.
And she believes women Marines do not belong in traditional combat roles.
"I don't think we're ready as a nation to have women in front-line units with rifles and fixed bayonets," she said in 1994.
But as the nature of combat changes with the use of high-tech weapons, a place for women could evolve, she said.