East Lyme — Marissa Henderson, who had spent the past several hours navigating a vast wooded area in the humidity in search for various markers, began discussing her career course forward.

If all goes well, Henderson hopes to serve as an infantry officer, just like her father.

"I definitely idolized him and the guys that he worked with," Henderson said during a recent interview. "It was always my dream. I know that sounds really cliché but I'm a daddy's girl through and through, so I really looked up to that."

Henderson, 25, who is originally from Philadelphia, was one of about 120 officer candidates from 12 states who came to Connecticut National Guard's Stones Ranch Military Reservation for the start of their Officer Candidate School training.

The Pentagon in December 2015 officially lifted its ban on women serving in combat roles, opening about 220,000 military jobs to women like Henderson. But Henderson said she's not aware of any other woman in her Guard unit in Pennsylvania who has chosen a combat role.

"Once I found out that females could go into combat arms, I really wanted to be able to be an example for the females coming in," Henderson said.

As a commissioned infantry officer, she could help lower-ranking females transition into combat roles and have some power to influence the way they're treated, she added.

Henderson is part of the accelerated OCS program, which only lasts eight weeks, so she's already been given a tentative assignment with a Pittsburgh-based infantry unit within the Pennsylvania National Guard. Provided she receives her commission as an officer in September, she'll next have to go through the Infantry Officer Basic Leadership Course.

"It's where I feel most comfortable," she said. "I'm not saying it'll be easy. The transition will definitely be hard. The training will be very intense, and I'll probably catch a lot of flak for it, but it's a challenge I'm definitely willing to take on."

In Connecticut, women enlisting in the National Guard or enrolled in local commissioning programs like Officer Candidate School have not expressed an interest in serving in combat roles.

"It's essential for them to start at the lowest level, meaning to enter as a private or as a brand new second lieutenant and work their way up. That will provide them credibility," said Cmdr. Alyssa Kelleher, commander of the Connecticut National Guard's OCS. "That ay be why it's taking so long because it's going to have to be new people getting assessed." 

Someone more established in their career has a lot of options, including performing in a role where they're involved in combat but don't have the designated military occupational specialty, said Kelleher, who has seen combat during two deployments to Afghanistan.

Kayla Fortin, 23, an officer candidate who lives in Norwich, said it's not that she's not interested in the infantry, she's just more interested in other fields, such as medical or military police. Carmen Valverde, 25, an officer candidate from Middletown, R.I., said she she's still exploring her options but wouldn't necessary rule out pursuing a combat position.

"I think that's great that that's an option but I don't know yet," Valverde said.

Following the Pentagon's 2015 announcement, the Connecticut National Guard announced it would be opening its 700-soldier infantry battalion that specializes in light, mountain warfare to women. The 1-102nd, up until that point, was the only unit in which women could not serve.

While more than 25 women now serve in the 1-102nd in positions such as human resource specialist or wheeled vehicle mechanic, none of them holds a Military Occupational Specialty, or MOS, of a combat arms soldier.

"That is not due to a lack of effort amongst recruiters, or any sort of resistance from leadership," said Maj. Michael Petersen, public affairs officer for the Connecticut National Guard.

Women, he added, always have been an "integral part" of combat operations in the National Guard. Though not technically combat troops, thousands of women have served alongside men in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Kelleher deployed twice to Afghanistan, both times with logistics units in support of the 1-102nd. While deployed, she carried out resupply convoys, recovery missions of a vehicle that was blown up or disabled, aerial resupply and other convoy escort missions.

"We were directly engaging the enemy on multiple occasions," she said.

j.bergman@theday.com