Gats served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the US Marine Corps. Gats joined ROTC while a student at Penn State and earned her commission as a USMC lieutenant when she graduated in 1986. After her promotion to captain, Gats worked as a communications specialist and group leader of a paratroop squadron at El Toro Base in California. Throughout Desert Storm and Desert Shield, she worked within 22 miles of the front lines. An Orthodox Jew, Gats not only kept kosher, but organized daily religious services wherever she was stationed, laying tefillin and wearing a tallis and making a point of openly celebrating Shabbat and other Jewish holidays while stationed in Saudi Arabia.