"That’s when they came to me and said, 'Sergeant V, you’re going into Kuwait.'" (Video interview, 19:23)

Maria C. Villescas

Maria Villescas, detail from video interview [n.d.] War: Persian Gulf War, 1991 Branch: Marine Corps Unit: 1st Force Service Support Group Service Location: Camp Pendleton, California; Okinawa, Iwakuni, Japan; Saudi Arabia; Camp Lejeune, North Carolina Rank: Sergeant

To many of her Marine comrades, Sergeant Maria Connie Villescas seemed like an unlikely candidate for the role of truck driver, being female and 5’2” tall. Assigned to work in motor transport, she drove tractor-trailers and became certified to teach new Marines how to drive 16-wheeler vehicles—the first woman to do so—before deploying to Saudi Arabia to serve in the Persian Gulf War. Arriving in late October 1990, she helped transport food and supplies during the day, and weathered aerial bombings at night. Though women were banned from participating in combat operations, as the ground war picked up, she and the female drivers underneath her were instructed to take a forward unit into combat in Kuwait, driving through minefields to the front lines.