Women serving in the Navy

[sfc_darrel]

Women?s History Month
Story Number: NNS030319-10
Release Date: 3/19/2003 12:51:00 PM


From Chief of Naval Personnel Public Affairs

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Women have come full circle in 227 years of serving in the Navy, from working in ships during the War of 1812 to being an integral part of today?s sea services and continuing their pioneering spirit into the 21st century.

The first official record of women at sea is from a U.S. warship log showing women serving as contract nurses for the War of 1812.

Nearly a century and a half later in 1978, women began serving aboard support and non-support ships, putting the Women in Ships program into force. But women had been serving on ships long before Congress approved the change to the combat exclusion law, and today, women serve at sea in virtually every capacity.

Lt. Alyse Ambrose, a surface warfare officer (SWO) and operations officer aboard USS Spruance (DDG 963), said this is an interesting time for women. ?The number of duty assignments in which women cannot serve is decreasing all the time, but then that raises all new questions and decisions for women about where we do and do not want to serve. This in turn can affect decisions on retention.?

The eight-year veteran says it?s fine to recognize the contributions women have made but hopes someday there will no longer be a need for a women?s history month. ?I feel that by specifically calling out women, or any minority group for that matter, we continue to highlight the differences in people rather than being thought of as equals in the Navy.?

Shortly after demobilization in 1918, the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution gave women the right to vote, but it still did not establish them as equals in the military services. Women were still assigned traditional roles.

?When I joined the Navy in 1983, most of the women that I knew were in the administrative and supply communities. Sea duty opportunities were limited, meaning that most of us were assigned overseas for our sea duty,? remembered 19-year veteran Master Chief Storekeeper Kelly Williams, assistant head, Navy uniform matters.

Williams served on her first ship as a chief petty officer after 10 years of duty. ?It was a big adjustment. I didn?t grow up at sea in the ?real Navy.?? She had forgotten shipboard knowledge ? damage control settings, ship access, and it was the first time in 10 years that she?d had to share a small living space with other women. But she adapted well and remains grateful for the experience.

The Texarkana, Texas, native believes there have never been more opportunities for women to enjoy a diverse and challenging career in ?today?s Navy?.?

It?s all a far cry from the days when women in the Navy were called ?WAVES,? which stood for Women Accepted For Volunteer Emergency Service during World War II. But soon after the war, legislation approving the women?s Reserves followed. The women?s Reserves marked the first time women were ?in? the Navy, and not just ?with? the Navy.

Today, Navy women are more a part of the team than ever before, directly contributing to mission success - everyday - in the global war on terror.

For related news, visit the Chief of Naval Personnel Navy NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/cnp.

[sn-e3]

Man the Navy's came a long ways, when we were in the gulf of tonkin we had a very limited supply of fresh water and the Boilers had priority so we used to go threw a evening rain shower .about three hundred of us would soap up then they would turn the ship around and go threw the shower again so we could rince off. If things haven't changed too much it must be pretty interesting now.