The U.S. Marine Corps sponsors an event intended to give Marine spouses a better understanding of their loved ones’ life in uniform.
This one day oorah fest is called Jane Wayne Day, a title that’s catchy at best but degrading and patronizing to the little ladies who keep the home fires burning and the females who slog it out with their male counterparts at U.S bases and myriad hostile zones abroad. Though historians have cannot pin an exact date to the origin of this unofficial program, the event has spread to many Corps installations and includes wives, girlfriends and others. But we’re not seeing evidence of many male loved ones (of female Marines, that is). Even the most secure guy might just draw the line at anything called, “Jane Wayne.” And can anyone really blame him? We would think a number of women would be repulsed by the name, but what do we know?
Programs vary. Some are full of high-speed, adrenaline junkie, shoot ‘em up (simulated) and take ‘em down (also simulated) activities that are not what Buck and Rocco really do each day in the disbursing office. Others appear more realistic for stateside duties. It appears no one is being loaded into an MRAP and driving the streets of Bagdad (complete with simulated IEDs). Go figure.
Jane Wayne. What’s the message? Marine recruiters confirm their female mission is so small that plenty of female applicants seek them out. The Corps is now six percent female (gasp!) up from five a few years ago. One must wonder if the Boys’ Gun Club really needs its women— its uniformed women, that is. Lose some females? Fine, we’ll get more. Uncomfortable with the title of “Jane Wayne Day”? Tough. It works for us.
The program brings to mind another Jane doing her thing with the big guns in North Vietnam. Both scenarios are embarrassing.
Jane Wayne Must Die. Surely the Corps pays its M-ad-Men at J. Walter Thompson enough that JWT’s creative minds could come up with something current, catchy, and dare we say inclusive.
This is not about touchy-feely, hug-hug- I heart my Marine slop. Jane’s time has come. One would think more of God’s Corps.