The Marine Corps policy toward marriages between officers and enlisted persons is, in some respects, contradictory.
There is no requirement that a Marine must report to supervisors that he or she has gotten married. But not including that information on certain annual forms can be seen as duplicity.
The fraternization policy forbids "dating, cohabitating and intimate or sexual relations between officers and enlisted members." Such conduct is seen as a "detriment to good order and discipline resulting in the erosion of respect for authority inherent in an unduly familiar senior-subordinate relationship."
Still, according to Marine Corps documents, there are at least 60 couples in the Marine Corps with one spouse an officer and the other an enlisted person, and no punitive action is being taken.
The Marine Corps does not prohibit or discourage marriages in which both partners are officers or both are enlisted persons, and, in fact, tries to accommodate those marriages by assigning couples to the same base.
Scott believes that the colonel's demand that she divulge the name of the father of her unborn child was improper. A recent order from the secretary of the Navy said that pregnancy is a "natural occurrence" and that pregnant sailors, even if unmarried, are not to be hassled.
The walls of their home in Encinitas are decorated with the pictures and mementos of their careers. On the dresser of the baby's room is a miniature statue of a Marine drill instructor and a set of Williams' service ribbons.
Although they feel that they have been dealt with harshly and unfairly, neither Scott nor Williams has anything but high regard for the Marine Corps.
"I have nothing bad to say about the Marine Corps," Williams said. "The Corps is known for taking care of its people. But the Corps is not taking care of us in this case."
