It was 37 years ago, but Caroline Fermin remembers her father’s reaction when she called from Washington, D.C., and told him she was joining the Marine Corps.
Her father, a career naval officer who served for 27 years, was not happy to hear it. He suggested she consider the Air Force or the Navy, saying the Marines’ training would be too tough for her. He told her to come home to Beaufort, South Carolina, where he forbade her from joining.
‘I said, ‘Dad, I’m 27. You can’t tell me I can’t join the Marine Corps,’” she says now with a laugh.
At the time, only 2 percent of the Marine officer corps were women. And Fermin, who earned her degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina in 1985, was 5-foot-3 and 94 pounds.
“They were less welcoming to have women in their ranks. And so literally every day you had to prove yourself. And I liked that,” she says. “I thought that was good for my personal development — to prove people wrong. The Marines have such high standards, such a proud history. That was very, very appealing to me.”
Her decision to join the Marines led to a successful 25 years in the military with high-level global postings and with numerous medals for meritorious service. She was just the second woman to graduate from the Marine Corps War College. She followed her military service with a thriving second career in public service, now as the director of Veterans Affairs for Beaufort County. USC’s Alumni Association honored her last fall with the Outstanding Veteran Alumni Award.
A military path
Growing up in a military family, Fermin moved every three years as a child. In 1979, her father was stationed in Beaufort, where she finished high school and earned her associate degree from USC Beaufort. She then transferred to Columbia to earn her bachelor’s degree from USC, planning a career as a therapist or counselor.
Before she was commissioned in the Marines in 1988, she worked in financial counselor and family advocacy counselor on Parris Island, and then took a job in Japan as the director of University of Maryland's graduate program in counseling and personal services. Three years later, she moved to Washington D.C., knowing the time was right to join the Marine Corps.
“I had a deep sense of service, and I wanted to serve my country, but it was conditional,” she says. “It had to be the Marine Corps.”
“Joining the Marine Corps was probably the best decision that I ever made in my life. It's really shaped me as a person and has given me what we call stick-to-itiveness."
Her plan was to do five years, come out with a master’s degree, get married, have children and start a civilian career. It didn’t exactly work out that way.
“I don't think I ever thought, ‘Well, I'm going to make this a career.’ It just kind of happened,” Fermin says.
She earned her first master’s degree in economics from Johns Hopkins University nine years after entering the Marines, using military education benefits. That same year, she had a high-risk pregnancy and gave birth to twin sons, while also serving in the Marine Corps Recruiting Command.
While Fermin says now that year was “a blur,” her commitment to the Marine Corps and its comradery and brotherhood continued to inspire her.
When the twins were 3 years old and the family was stationed in Japan, her husband left. “So now I’m a single mom. How can I stay in? But I just took it a day at a time.”
After 25 years of service, she retired from the Marine Corps with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
A civilian life of service
After leaving the Marines, Fermin and her 16-year-old sons came home to Beaufort, where her parents had retired and where her siblings lived. “I chose to come back to Beaufort because it’s home,” she says.
Along with her undergraduate degree from USC and her master’s from Johns Hopkins, Fermin also earned a master’s in military studies from Marine Corps Command and Staff College, a master’s in national security and strategic studies from the Marine Corps War College, and a doctorate in leadership and innovation from St Thomas University.
Her first step into civilian life in Beaufort was as an outreach specialist for a federally qualified health center. Her next position was as the executive director of the Parris Island Heritage Foundation, an organization whose mission is to promote and promulgate Marine Corps history. It was there she renewed her relationship with USC, helping to raise awareness and support for the U.S. Marine Corps Film Repository project that is part of University Libraries’ Moving Image Research Collection.
In her current job as director of Veterans Affairs for Beaufort County, she is the advocate and resource for Beaufort County veterans and their families, helping them access benefits, services and programs. A wounded warrior herself, Fermin is a peer mentor and warrior advocate leader for the Wounded Warrior Project, representing and championing wounded warriors while fostering community engagement, leadership development and peer support. She also participated in the first Women Warrior Summit in Washington last fall.
“Through personal stories and testimony, we try to win the hearts and minds" of members of Congress, says Fermin.
“Joining the Marine Corps was probably the best decision that I ever made in my life,” she says. “It's really shaped me as a person and has given me what we call stick-to-itiveness. I'm doggedly persistent. And I have a heart for veterans."