Just out of high school in 1977, her personal life already a mess, Tracy Crow thought the Marines might straighten her out. And sure enough, in the Corps she became a respected public affairs officer and military journalist?one day covering tank maneuvers or beach assaults, the next interviewing the secretary of the navy. But success didn?t come without a price.

When Crow pledged herself to God, Corps, and Country, women Marines were still a rarity, and gender inequality and harassment were rampant. Determined to prove she belonged, Crow always put her career first?even when, after two miscarriages and a stillborn child, her marriage to another Marine officer began to deteriorate. And when her affair with a prominent general was exposed?and both were threatened with court-martial?Crow was forced to re-evaluate her loyalty to the Marines, her career, and her family.

Eyes Right is Crow?s story. A clear-eyed self-portrait of a troubled teen bootstrapping her way out of a world of alcoholism and domestic violence, it is also a rare inside look at the Marines from a woman?s perspective. Her memoir, which includes two Pushcart Prize?nominated essays, evokes the challenges of being a woman and a Marine with immediacy and clarity, and in the process reveals how much Crow?s generation did for today?s military women, and at what cost.