Col. Elizabeth Bergman Oral History Part 2

title:

Col. Elizabeth Bergman Oral History Part 2

creator:

Bergman, Elizabeth (1953 November 13 -

subject:

Marine Corps

description:

Part 2 of 2. Elizabeth Bergman was born as the youngest of six on November 13, 1953 in Geneva, New York. After graduating from high school, she attended State University of New York: Brockport and graduated with a degree in history in 1975. From there, she returned to Geneva and worked as an administrator for a small business for around a year before looking for other opportunities. Her godmother was a Marine at the time, and encouraged her to look into the military. She went to an Officer Selection Office, and ended up joining the Marines, starting Officer Candidate School in October 1977. Her training company was the first to be integrated, meaning the company had one platoon of women alongside three platoons of men in the company. As they got ready to graduate, the women were initially going to be made to wear their formal uniform while the men wore their utilities, but the women protested until they agreed to let everyone wear utilities. The men, however, were the only ones allowed to carry rifles during the ceremony, despite the fact that the women had the same weapons training and qualifications as the men. After completing basic training, everyone selected their MOS based on their rank in the company. She was able to get her first choice, which was to become an aircraft maintenance officer. She was in the second class of women to pursue this MOS, which trained in Millington, Tenneessee. Her first assignment after this training was with Marine Corps Combat Readiness Training Group in Yuma, Arizona. This was her toughest duty station because of a combination of factor: first, she was a 2nd lieutenant, which wasn't a rank in squadrons at the time. Second, she was an unrestricted maintenance officer rather than a limited duty one. Third, she was a woman in this position, integrating her unit without much of an implementation plan to speak of. Her next station, from March 1983 to March 1985, was with Headquarter and Maintenance Squadron 36 in Okinawa, Japan as a production control officer, quality assurance officer, and assistant maintenance officer. Her next deployment was in El Toro, California for two and a half years. She then spent some time at Marine Corps Headquarters working with the Man Power Section where, among other things, she helped establish the Marine Corps Combat Development Command. After working towards it for two years, Elizabeth was promoted to major and attended Command and Staff college in Quantico, Virginia. When she first got the curriculum, she was worried that she was in over her head, since her job up until that point had focused on intermediate organizational structure but her studies were now focused on a larger stratgeic scale, looking at operations of war. She graduated in 1991 and was assigned to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in Miramar, California in a billet that had been vacant around Operation Desert Storm. She essentially became a joint operational planner with the skills she had just graduated with. Her goal was to become a commanding officer in the Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron, and in November of 1993 she was able to become an XO at MALS 11 in El Toro, California, where she stayed until April 1996. She was then selected for command and was assinged to Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 31 in Beaufort, South Carolina. She was one of the first three women selected as MALS commanders, and the only one on the east coast. There, she had a thousand Marines in the squadron and at any given time, several hundred were being deployed on three different operations. This was a two year assignment, and when she completed it she attended the College of Naval Warfare in Newport, Rhode Island from August 1998 to June 1999. She got married while there, and her next station was in Stuttgart, Germany with United States European Command (EUCOM) from 1999 to 2001. She then found herself at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Barstow, California for a three-year tour, which was her first time as a base commander. This position started on August 15, 2001, so after 9/11 the base operations changed quite significantly. Although Barstow was more remote, security measures had to be increased, and many Marines who were MPs, dog handlers, morale and welfare workers, and hospital corpsmen deployed from Barstow. Her next assignment was in San Diego, working in a new billet to assist with the integration of Navy and Marine forces. After two years there, she was assigned to Marine Forces Atlantic/Command in Virginia, which is the tour she was on at the time of the interview, and she plans to retire from her last station of Hawaii when the tour is complete. As of the interview Elizabeth had reached the rank of colonel, and for her service she was awarded a Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation, National Defense Service Medal, and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Wilson, Eleanor M.

date:

2006-06-21

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

69.02; 2006.069

source:

MCHC | IMES

language:

English

relation:

606819

coverage:

1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 1977-interview

rights:

Unrestricted