Shannon Faulkner begins first day of cadet training at the citadel

Shannon Faulkner begins first day of cadet training at the citadel.

Shannon Faulkner, the first female cadet admitted to The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., Friday dropped out of the military academy after entering the school infirmary earlier in the week as a result of heat related illness. ‘I have no earthly idea what I’m going to do now,’ said Faulkner in an emotional press conference Friday afternoon at the academy. ‘I know that my life is going to be miserable right now for awhile. But I don’t know, I’ll just have to deal with the best I can.’ Faulkner, 20, fought a 2-year legal battle to become the first woman to join the previously all-male cadet corps at The Citadel, only to succumb to heat-related illness Monday evening after marching and drilling all day in 100-degree heat. She missed most of the first-week indoctrination, testing and drills considered imperative for a cadet to succeed at South Carolina’s state military college. Citadel officials acknowledged in a press conference earlier Friday that Faulkner would have had a difficult time catching up with the other fourth-classmen, but they expected her to get help from her classmates. Faulkner denied that anyone at the school wanted her to fail as a cadet. ‘Everyone here wanted me to succeed, including me most of all. I wanted to make it through this, but circumstances before hand have just made it really difficult for me.’ Citadel Spokesman Terry Leedom insisted the school and the other cadets did not want to see Faulkner fail.

‘We gain nothing when cadets drop out on medical discharge,’ he said. Leedom said several cadets each day had been felled by heat-related symptoms, but most had recovered the same day. ‘The nurses tell me this class is in the best overall shape of any we’ve ever had. They obviously heeded our warnings to get ready and take plenty of fluids before reporting,’ said Leedom. Women’s organizations defended Faulkner’s decision to leave the school. ‘I was very disappointed for Shannon, but considering what she’s been through over the past three years, I think she did the best she could,’ said Kim Gandy, executive vice president at the National Organization for Women. ‘You have to think that of all the cadets, she was the only one with the eyes of the nation on her,’ Gandy said. ‘The pressure on her was enormous.’ When asked by reporters how she felt dropping out after so much money was spent in legal battles to get her into the school Faulkner said ‘I don’t think this is dishonor. ‘I don’t’ think I’m quitting, quitting, like that. I’m taking my personal medical leave. This is my personal health that I have to worry about now. It’s not going to do my attorneys any good if I get in here and just have a mental breakdown or anything like that,’ she said. Gandy said NOW, which originally filed the case on Faulkner’s behalf, continued to consider her a winner and praised her for paving the way for other women to join the Citadel. Leedom could not confirm reports that as many as 20 cadets had dropped out of the program during the first week, but said that number was ‘about average’ for a class of nearly 600 and would not surprise him. ‘Every year we lose some cadets, either for physical reasons, or because they decide this isn’t for them. But most of them stick it out,’ Leedom said. He added that once classes begin Aug. 23 the outside training would be less intense, but that military indoctrination would continue throughout the year.