The Toughest Woman in America
How did a girl who loves shopping and never leaves the house without lip gloss become the meanest of the Marines?
By Christian Davenport
Photo Credit: Andrew Hetherington
Porter's husband knows this technique
well — Lieutenant Eugene Porter was a drill
instructor, too. Over the years, they've offered
each other support, nursed each other's vocal
cords. But work has also strained the marriage.
Both have felt at times like they were married
to the Corps.
They started dating while stationed at Camp
Pendleton a decade ago, where she'd been
attracted to his Marine body, he to the fact that
"she knows how to separate being a Marine
from her feminine side." Indeed, Porter gets
frustrated when she sees her fellow female
Marines subsuming themselves to some idea of
how they're supposed to look. "Just because it's a male-dominated
culture, it doesn't mean you can't wear lip gloss,"
she says. "Women wear suits and put on makeup to look
good for their jobs at IBM; I do the same thing for the
Marine Corps." Her brows are sculpted and her highlights
maintained. Her walk-in closet has 60-plus pairs of shoes,
arranged by season. She has balanced her drill instructor
duties with part-time work as a saleswoman at Benetton
(50 percent off!) and a Mary Kay rep — all of which has
earned the Gunnery Sergeant what has to be the most
unusual nickname in the Corps: Gunny Revlon. (Even
though, technically, she's more of a MAC girl.)
This winter, Porter receives a new assignment. Deployment
is an ever-present possibility — she's served in Iraq — and her
husband's orders for Afghanistan weren't exactly a surprise.
Now, with his departure looming, she tells herself that he'll
be OK — that they'll be OK — though war and distance aren't
always the best ingredients for a happy marriage.
"Stand up!" Porter barks at the former teacher. She isn't
going to stand for his blubbering, no matter how sorry he is.
She sends him back to his platoon with a wave of her hand.
No encouraging words. No sympathy. If he's not cut out for
the Corps, so be it.
A few days later, he's gone.
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