«It surfaced that there was an investigation into Germano’s leadership style and command climate that provided the groundwork for her firing. I requested that, too, from the Marine Corps — and got it so quickly it made my head spin.
Typically, when I make a Freedom of Information Act request for a command investigation, it takes weeks or months for officials to complete the process of locating the documents, redacting them, and sending them back.
In this case, I got a call from the office of the commandant of the Marine Corps, recommending I ask for expedited processing. It was unusual that the office of then-commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford would reach out to me at all regarding the firing of a lieutenant colonel at Parris Island, and stranger still when I received the documents less than 24 hours later.
I heard a rumor that someone was ordered to turn it over to me as fast as humanly possible — even if they had to stay up all night redacting privileged information from the 300 pages of documents.
I can only speculate why Germano’s ouster received such high-level handling. What I do know is this: It came amid a heated debate about the future of women in the armed forces and whether they deserved a role in combat, and Germano was then, and has been since, an outspoken advocate for equality and integration who isn’t afraid to break things to get her point across.
Never before or since have I received a command investigation so quickly. When Lt. Col. Joshua Kissoon, commander of Parris Island’s Third Recruit Training Battalion, was relieved of his post the following year amid a hazing scandal, documents of any kind related to his firing took months to surface.»
In ‘Fight Like a Girl,’ Ousted Recruit Commander Tells Her Own Story
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