Title	C.J. Scarlet with M16 rifle
Date	Undated
Subject headings	United States. Marine Corps--Women United States--History--1945-
Era	Post-Vietnam, Panama, Grenada (1975-1989)
Service branch	Marines
Item description	C.J. Scarlet holds an M16 while wearing camouflage fatigues.
Veteran's name	Scarlet, C.J. Gray Grafton
Veteran's biography	C.J. Gray Grafton Scarlet (b. 1961), of Camp Pendleton, California, served as a photojournalist in the United States Marine Corps from 1981-1986 . C.J. Gray Grafton Scarlet was born 13 April 1961 at Camp Pendleton in California. Her father was a career United States Marine and Scarlet's family lived in several places during her childhood, before settling in Mena, Arkansas . After graduating from high school in 1979, Scarlet joined the Young Adult Conservation Corps, a division of the U.S. Forest Service, where she worked building trails and planting trees and received training as a fire fighter. Scarlet attended Fort Smith Community College in Arkansas for a short time, but after experiencing a sexual assault and becoming very depressed, she decided to move back home to Mena . To pull herself out of depression, Scarlet was encouraged by her father to talk with a U.S. Marine Corps recruiter. After completing the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) she enlisted for six years as a photojournalist . On 13 April 1981, Scarlet began boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina. She was assigned to the first platoon to provide combat training for women, and was selected as Honor Graduate. Scarlet was then sent to Defense Information School (DINFOS) at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana for journalism training, after which she was assigned to Camp Pendleton, California, where she worked as a beat reporter for Marine Air Group 39 (MAG-39). Within eight months of being at Camp Pendleton, Scarlet received a meritorious promotion to sergeant. She also married her husband, another photojournalist in the Marines, and in late March 1984 her first son was born . In 1985, Scarlet and her husband received orders to Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Georgia. In January 1986, having been diagnosed with auto-immune diseases lupus and scleroderma, Scarlet was medically discharged from the Marine Corps. In January 1994, Scarlet moved to North Carolina and began work at a child advocacy center in Elizabeth City. In October 1995, she became Director of Victims Issues for the N.C. Attorney General's Office. In August 2016, Scarlet became President of the Board of Directors for Evidence Vault, Inc.
Type	Image
Original format	photographs
Original publisher	[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified]
Contributing institution	Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries
Source collection	WV0590 C.J. Gray Grafton Scarlet Papers
Collection summary	July 2015 oral history interview
Rights statement	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Additional rights information	IN COPYRIGHT. This item is subject to copyright. Contact the rights holder noted above for permission to reuse.
Object ID	WV0590.6.002
Digital publisher	The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304 -- http://library.uncg.edu/

C.J. Scarlet with M16 rifle

Page/Item Description