Meeting the Standard

U.S. Marine Corps, Sgt. Tara-Lyn Baker, from Benton, Pennsylvania, talks about reaching her limits as a Marine during the Winter Mountain Leader Course aboard Mountain Warfare Training Center (MWTC), Bridgeport, Calif. January 9th, 2019. The WMLC trains Marine leaders to be able to survive and train Marines to survive in cold weather conditions. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Jennessa Davey)

The first female Marine graduated Tuesday from the Corps’ arduous and physically demanding Winter Mountain Leaders Course.

Sgt. Tara-Lyn Baker, a heavy equipment mechanic, graduated from the nearly six-week school based out of the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California.

The course hones Marines' skills in cold weather survival, skiing, snow mobility and mountain warfare.

“You learn how to survive, you learn how to deal with the cold,” Baker said in a video posted by the Marine Corps.

Baker went on to say she suffered from frostbite and hypothermia.

“We learn how to overcome it,” she said about dealing with the austere cold-weather environment of the mountains.

The Corps has been pushing to train the force in extreme cold-weather environments.

The Marines recently doubled the size of their rotations to Norway to nearly 700 Marines in an effort to train more Marines in the harsh cold Arctic environment.