SAN FRANCISCO -- Two Mendocino County women sued the U.S. Marine Corps in federal court Wednesday, claiming that two Marine officers raped them in a recruiting office in Ukiah last year when they were 17-year-old high school students.

The two women, identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe and Mary Roe to protect their privacy, were considering joining the Marines.

The lawsuit alleges that Staff Sgt. Joseph Dunzweiler told Jane Doe that she had to have sex with him in order to join the Marine Corps and raped her three times in January and February 2005.

The lawsuit also alleges that Dunzweiler gave a sexually transmitted disease, Chlamydia, to Jane Doe, who according to the lawsuit had never had sex before.

Mary Roe claims in the lawsuit that Sgt. Brian Fukushima raped her at the recruiting office on Feb. 18, 2005, at the same time that Dunzweiler was allegedly raping Jane Doe and a third recruiter was also allegedly having sex with a high school-age girl.

The lawsuit says that Mary Roe was extremely intoxicated and that her condition should have been apparent to Fukushima and the other recruiters present.

The lawsuit asks for an injunction requiring the Marine Corps to supervise recruiters properly and to protect the women's safety if they decide to join the Marines.

Michael Sorgen, an attorney for the women, said, "We want to find out how often this happens, who knows about it, and what they're doing to prevent it."

Sorgen said that in the alleged rape of Mary Roe, "What is most shocking is that there were other people who observed the condition of the woman and did nothing about it."

A Marine Corps spokesman referred questions to the public affairs office of the Marine Corps Recruiting Command, where a representative was not immediately available for comment.

Barry Vogel, another attorney for the plaintiffs, said the two recruiters were later court-martialed and given mild penalties.

Vogel said the two women are now 18 and are employed and going to college.

In addition to the Marine Corps, the defendants in the lawsuit are the Department of the Navy; Navy Secretary Donald Winter; Marine Corps Commandant Michael Hagee; and Dunzweiler and Fukushima.

Sorgen and Vogel said the two women filed an administrative claim in December seeking financial compensation for their alleged injuries. The government has six months to act on that claim. The attorneys said that if the claim is denied, they will amend the lawsuit to seek financial damages, in an amount to be determined at a trial.

Jane Doe, who was not present at a San Francisco news conference where the lawsuit was announced, issued a statement saying, "I have always dreamed about being a Marine. I thought they were the elite, the ones who stepped in when everyone else failed."

She said, "But since this happened they have done nothing but try to cover it up. I do not want this to happen to my younger sisters."