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Pvt. Opha May Johnson, first enlisted female Marine sometime after joining the Marine Corps. Johnson enlisted into the reserve in August of 1918, as a 40-year-old. (Courtesy of the Marine Corps History Division, Historical Reference Branch) - Pvt. Opha May Johnson, first enlisted female Marine sometime after joining the Marine Corps. Johnson enlisted into the reserve in August of 1918, as a 40-year-old. (Courtesy of the Marine Corps History Division, Historical Reference Branch)

The first woman Marine

Good timing, some luck, and a paradigm shift in history are often the graces which allow someone to be commemorated for important accomplishments. In the case of Opha May Johnson, the three above graces allowed her to be remembered as the first woman to join the United States Marine Corps.

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Pvt. Opha May Johnson, 40, first enlisted female Marine sometime after joining the Marine Corps. Johnson enlisted into the reserve in August of 1918. - Pvt. Opha May Johnson, 40, first enlisted female Marine sometime after joining the Marine Corps. Johnson enlisted into the reserve in August of 1918.

Female Marines celebrate 95 years in Corps

There it was, her name, Opha May Johnson, simply penned on the applicant line of a Marine Corps Reserve form. Although she typically signed her name Opha M., this was an official document and her middle name was necessary. Her decision to fill out that form entered her into an exclusively male world and would make her nothing less than a Marine

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