Marine Corps Cpl. Shannon Lilly, assigned to 2nd Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, talks about her work as an artillery chief during a live-fire range near Setermoen, Norway, March 4, 2020. Lilly is the first female artillery chief and the first female artillery chief to fire an M777 howitzer.
Transcript
At first, I was hesitant to go to Section Chiefs Course because I’m pretty hard on myself, and I always want to be perfect at everything before I take on any sort of leadership role. But I’m really glad I did. It pushed me and challenged me in a lot of ways. And, when I was the first one to graduate as being a female, I think that opened a path for more females to do this job and make it more normal for females to be in a combat MOS. I want this job to be more normalized for females to be in. So, that’s why I make sure to push myself even when I am not totally confident, to make sure I ensure that we can do this. [Uplifting music] To me, like, I don’t want me being a female section chief to take away from all the hard work that all my counterparts have done. We’re just all here doing this job, and it’s hard work. Personally, you can take motivation from people saying that they don’t believe in you, or you can take motivation from people believing in you. I take motivation from both. So, when I heard that people didn’t believe that I could do it, I took that as even more motivation to do it. And, I passed the course. I got good scores, and I’m here now. I’m doing it. I’m not perfect, but I’m doing the best I can just like anybody else. If you’re a female and you’re looking to join combat MOS, make sure that you come to work and really pave the way for the future females.