Navy prepares submarines for 1st female officers

mlurp · #1 (**permalink**) 07-24-2011, 12:44 PM

IMHO this has come late, yet it is happening which is good. Maybe in time they will allow enlisted female members of the Navy to also become members of the submarine crews.

Quote:

Navy prepares submarines for 1st female officers

By MICHAEL MELIA - Associated Press | AP – 20 mins ago. 24 July 2011

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — For Ensign Peggy LeGrand, the biggest concern about serving on a submarine is not spending weeks at a time in tight quarters with an entirely male crew. What worries her is the scrutiny that comes with breaking one of the last gender barriers in the U.S. military.

"I have a feeling more people will be focused on us. Our mistakes and successes will be magnified more than they deserve," said LeGrand, a 25-year-old Naval Academy graduate from Amarillo, Texas.

LeGrand is among a small group of female officers who are training at sites including Groton, Conn., to join the elite submarine force beginning later this year. While the Navy says it is not treating them any differently from their male counterparts, officials have been working to prepare the submarine crews — and the sailors' wives — for one of the most dramatic changes in the 111-year history of the Navy's "silent service."

The initial class of 24 women will be divided among four submarines, where they will be outnumbered by men by a ratio of roughly 1 to 25. The enlisted ranks, which make up about 90 percent of a sub's 160-sailor crew, are not open to women although the Navy is exploring modifications to create separate bunks for men and women.

The female officers, many of them engineering graduates from Annapolis, are accustomed to being in the minority, and so far they say they hardly feel like outsiders. The nuclear power school that is part of their training, for example, has been open to women for years because the Navy in 1994 reversed a ban on females serving on its surface ships, including nuclear-powered vessels.

At the U.S. Navy's submarine school in Groton, where eight women were among dozens who recently completed the 10-week officer basic course, Ensign Kristin Lyles said the presence of the first class of females bound for submarine duty was not even remarked upon at this month's graduation ceremony.

"I understand the reason why. It was never explained but it was kind of implied that while we're going through training, as soon as they started calling attention to it in that way, it's singling us out," said Lyles, 23, of Fairfax Station, Va. "In my experience, I am no different from the guy sitting next to me in all my classes."

A submarine group spokesman, Lt. Brian Wierzbicki, said the Navy would not facilitate photographs or interviews with the female submariners because it does not want to distract them from training or make them feel different from their male peers.

The female officers will report to their submarines starting in late November or early December. All of the vessels are guided-missile attack submarines or ballistic-missile submarines, which are relatively large by submarine standards. They are the USS Wyoming and USS Georgia, based in Kings Bay, Ga., and the USS Maine and USS Ohio, with their home port in Bangor, Wash.

.................................................. Continued ..............................................

Navy prepares submarines for 1st female officers - Yahoo! News

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Calypso Jones · #2 (**permalink**) 07-24-2011, 01:23 PM

I just don't see this ending well.

mlurp · #3 (**permalink**) 07-24-2011, 01:35 PM

And just what don't seem to be well with this? CJ do you care to share or do we guess?
Which I am not about to do, myself.

WallyWager · #4 (**permalink**) 07-24-2011, 01:38 PM

Mebbe she thinks US Navymen are sex maniacs, Iunno lol.

Calypso Jones · #5 (**permalink**) 07-24-2011, 01:41 PM

navy women are sex maniacs.

alan · #6 (**permalink**) 07-24-2011, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WallyWager

Mebbe she thinks US Navymen are sex maniacs, Iunno lol.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calypso Jones

navy women are sex maniacs.

If I was a female sex maniac, what better place to be than a submarine?
After all, it's long, hard and full of seamen.

mlurp · #7 (**permalink**) 07-24-2011, 02:00 PM

If this is the issue I think it would be after they return from sea duty more than taking the risk on the sub.

And I

each for thinking so low of our service members. Even if it is a big joke, it doesn't bode well, period.

And I do understand young people have a drive in this area. But to risk all it takes to become one of the Navies best is at least to stupid to consider.

And both have to follow a code of honor, which you each don't seem to understand.

Or have I missed something?

Calypso Jones · #8 (**permalink**) 07-24-2011, 02:01 PM

I'm thinking of pregnancies, marriage breakups, extramarital sex, and women in charge of men in such close quarters......which does have it's upside in certain situations.

rivrrat · #9 (**permalink**) 07-24-2011, 05:29 PM

It's about ****ing time.

mlurp · #10 (**permalink**) 07-24-2011, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rivrrat

It's about ****ing time.

Errr okey.. At least one more for it..

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