This month, women in the Navy

June 2011 - Navy
by RADM Casey W. Coane, USN (Ret)

By now, most of you have caught on that we now have a theme for each issue of Navy. This month, the theme is Women in the Navy. We were very pleased to interview VADM Ann Rondeau, the senior three-star in the Navy today and, by virtue of that, the senior woman in the Navy. Helping us with the interview was the Sea Service Leadership Association, an organization whose goal is to foster leadership among women in the sea services (www.sea leader.org). Also in this issue is an article from RADM Wendi Carpenter a previous contributor to Navy. Admiral Carpenter is the first woman aviator to achieve flag rank. Find that on page 20. The current President of SSLA, LCDR Nicole Shue, has written a short piece about her experience starting out on a combatant fifteen years ago, on page 15. Our guest columnist is RADM Elizabeth Niemyer, Deputy Chief, Installation & Logistics and Director, Navy Nurse Corps, on page 7.

Regarding women, today’s Navy is certainly a different place than when many of us began. I vividly remember the first time I passed a female Sailor in the passageway of a carrier. It just seemed strange, a novelty. A few years earlier, as an instructor at VT-5 in Pensacola, I had soloed out one of the second group of female aviators to enter flight training, Chris Giza. That, too, seemed like a novelty. Well, the novelty has worn off and women are a part of every facet of the Navy today as the first group of submariners are now at nuclear power school.

Along the way, we’ve made mistakes and had growing pains. There are certainly old-timers who think it has all been a big social experiment that would have been better left untried. Certainly, introducing women into combat units at sea has complicated everyone’s life in terms of social interaction and rules of the road, so to speak. If one looks at the number of COs and CMCs fired over the last year for reasons of indiscretion, we’re still having trouble with those rules. That said, the Navy would be missing a lot of talent if we did not allow women to have successful career paths. Whether one agrees with that statement or not, here is a fact: With only about 30% of all high school seniors eligible for military service, we cannot man our Navy without qualified women!

As this issue heads to the presses, I have just returned from the annual Retired Aviation Flag Conference, held this year in Pensacola in conjunction with the Active Duty Aviation conference and the annual Naval Aviation Museum Foundation Symposium. Such events are always a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and get updated on programs. The symposium is a great event and a part of it this year was a tour of the newly constructed National Flight Academy that is due to begin training students next summer. This is not a flight school but an academic environment. The beautiful new building was constructed to be as much like a carrier inside as practicable. We will bring you a story on this great school when it opens.

It’s time for a reminder about our annual conference in New Orleans next month. Now is the time to register while our room block is still available. It will close out on 6 June 2011 and our $99 per night rate will no longer be guaranteed. The Southeast Region has provided us with great activities on Wednesday, including the President’s reception aboard the Natchez, and then a great dinner location for Thursday. These require advance sign-up to guarantee a spot so don’t miss movement. The Anchors also have several events that will be great for spouses, including the cooking school on Saturday. Remember what a great success they had at the San Diego cooking school. I look forward to seeing all of you in the Crescent City.

As always, enjoy the read.