Marine would become first female on Plainfield’s force
By Alexi Friedman
The Star-Ledger
PLAINFIELD, N.J. — Selket Gregory wants no special treatment as she trains to become the first female firefighter in Plainfield history. Nor does she need any. Gregory, 28, is a Marine who has served two tours of duty in Iraq.
Cadet Gregory does have one request before stepping into Plainfield’s all-male department of 96 firefighters.
“The only accommodation I need is a bathroom,” she said with a smile, during an interview Thursday from fire department headquarters on Central Avenue. “Other than that, I don’t expect anything additional. If I’m not able to do the job, then I shouldn’t have the job.”
Getting that job will be the culmination of a lifelong goal. As a girl growing up in Plainfield, Gregory wanted to become a farmer, an astronaut and a firefighter.
After picking her first string bean, however, she knew farming was out. Somewhere along the way, the astronaut aspirations also faded from view, but the dreams of becoming a firefighter never did.
“I don’t think I do things that are easy,” she said. “I think I just go after stuff that mostly is a challenge.”
The fire department’s fitness exam can test any candidate’s mettle, but Gregory, 5-foot-4 with a thin but strong build, ranked in the top 10 of 40 candidates who tried out, Plainfield Fire Chief Cecil Allen said. In the written exam, she also excelled.
Gregory has more than held her own through a month of training; she will graduate next week alongside her nine male cadets, said Allen, a 36-year member of the department and himself a Marine who served in Vietnam.
“We’re proud to have her,” Allen said.
After she proved she could hack it, the next question became how she would fit in with the male population, Allen said. That, too, has been a smooth transition. Soft-spoken but determined, Gregory has bonded with her fellow cadets, and recently jumped at the chance to lead the crew during a recent exercise.
While she shrugs off the significance of her achievement, others aren’t so matter of fact. Kevin Smith, a cadet, said he was excited to hear a woman was entering the academy.
“I was like, ‘Yes!’ This is going to be history, I want to be a part of that,” he said.
After training with her, Smith said, he was impressed. “She’s an inspiration for me.”
David Damon, another fellow cadet, is also in her corner.
“It’s a diverse world, so I guess it’s good for everybody,” he said. “If she passed that test, she can be a part.”
But few women are career firefighters in New Jersey, according to a 2005 study by Women in the Fire Service, an advocacy organization. The Garden State, which has around 8 million residents, had 19 female career firefighters in 14 fire departments, the study found. That number put New Jersey below Rhode Island, which has only about 1 million people but 20 career female firefighters. North Carolina, which has almost 9 million people, had 133.
Numbers are growing in New Jersey, however, said Kathy O’Leary, immediate past president of Fire Service Women of New Jersey. “We’re definitely seeing a lot more young women,” she said.
There are also roughly 1,100 female volunteer firefighters in the state, according to Fire Service Women of New Jersey.
Before Gregory, the few women who have tried to become firefighters in Plainfield have failed the fitness exam, Chief Allen said.
What Gregory lacks in size, she makes up for in smarts, said Vernon Nelson, 34, who stands 6-foot-8 and was a linebacker at Plainfield High School.
“I’ve seen her think her way through things that she couldn’t do with brute force,” he said. “She’s been in tougher situations than I’ve been through. Being in the military gives her a different perspective.”
And while there may have been some grumbling early on from a few firefighters, Gregory’s arrival has been warmly accepted, said Lt. Gary Edwards.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said.
The road has been equally long for Gregory.
After high school, she spent a year at New Jersey Institute of Technology before dropping out. She enlisted in the Marines and has served twice in Iraq, most recently in Anbar province, helping to run convoys. Gregory, who is single, has been home for nearly three years, and doesn’t expect to be called back for at least a year. In between her tours, she has worked several jobs - as kitchen manager for Applebee’s, at the post office and for United Parcel Service.
Now, Gregory says, she has found her passion.
The fact that Plainfield never has had a female firefighter in its 180-year history didn’t provide any extra incentive.
“I didn’t take this job to put myself out there,” she said. “I took this job because it’s something I wanted to do. If there’s some little girl out there that wants to be a firefighter and it’s easier for her one day because of this, then that’s terrific.”
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