Trailblazing Marine Leads Girl Scouts, Shapes Next Generation of Women

“That moment in time is the transformation of an entire lifetime,” says Salinas. “We started off in a segregated environment. We were kind of like a separate corps within a corps. You’re doing makeup. How do you carry your purse wearing gloves? I mean, lipstick had to match the color of your cap cord.”

For Salinas’ first assignment, she was the only woman working as an administrative clerk with the Fourth Recon Battalion in San Antonio.

“I’m in my little skirt, and when I checked in, the Marines’ eyes like bugged out of their head,” she says. “There were no aspirations coming in to ever be a general. I always said if I could make it to corporal, that would be the apex of my career.”

A culture shift

“The Marine Corps began realizing it is no longer about gender. It is not about culture. It’s not about ethnicity. This is just about leadership,” says Salinas. “I was very blessed, because women were stepping up.”

That’s when, in 1978, Margaret Brewer became the first woman promoted to brigadier general in the Marines.

By 1985, Salinas herself had moved up to the rank of captain. She had also found a role model in Gail Reals, the Marines’ second female brigadier general and the first woman to command a Marine base.

“What was phenomenal about Gail Reals was she’d come up through the ranks and cracked the concrete ceiling,” says Salinas. “Not even a glass ceiling, but that was like rock-solid concrete. Everyone, enlisted and officers, saw her as a role model. She’s a rock star.”

Four years later, in 1989, Salinas got her turn as the first woman in the Marines to command a recruiting station. Then, in 2006, she became the first Hispanic woman promoted to brigadier general in the Marines.
 

Nelvin C. Cepeda/SDU-T/ZUMA Press

While serving as one of the first female commanding generals, Salinas remembers the time a congresswoman stopped by and asked a young corporal what they thought about a woman being in charge. The corporal responded, “We have a commanding general, and nothing has changed.”

“I think that’s the highest tribute you can say — when the Marine Corps chose the best qualified to be here, and that’s what we’ve got,” says Salinas.

After 39 years of service, Salinas retired in 2013, marking herself as the longest-serving woman in Marine Corps history.

Leading the next generation

While getting reacclimated to civilian life, Salinas received a call about an opportunity to become CEO of the Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas.

“I got excited, because it would be something that spoke to me,” she says. “People think that Girl Scouts is all about cookies, camps and crafts. But the reality is, our Girl Scouts is about character, confidence. This is about women and resilience.”

Today Salinas creates opportunities for girls every day by helping them grow and accomplish their dreams.

“You can’t change the status of women if you’re not addressing the challenges of girls,” she says. Salinas cited social media as one of the challenges girls face today because, in her opinion, it forces them to grow up too soon and denies them the chance to be themselves.

Salinas notes she works for an organization that’s known as the premier leadership group for girls.

“In the Marine Corps, it’s ‘Once a Marine, always a Marine,’” she says. “As soon as I walked in the building, on the wall was, ‘Once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout.’ So I said, ‘Well, I think I’m home.’”

This is an episode from AARP Studios’ new documentary series Reporting for Duty. Each month you can expect a new inspirational story about veterans and military families at YouTube.com/aarp.

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