Creating Cultural Synergy

by Roger Witherspo

á Ahead: The Steady Rise of

Michelle Howard

'hen Russia sent txoops into the

Republic of Georgia and posted

warships outside its Black Sea

port lciEt Aufust, President Bush ordered

the US Navy to escort ships loaded with

humanitarian supplies through the block

ade. The resultânç naval brinksmanship ¡

between the nuclear fleets then trifçered

an evaluation of the rules of ençaçement

for American commanders. i

Donald C. Wititcr, the secretary of the Navy, gave the or- ders to the US admirals, delineating when to hold or open fire. Btir Winter's decision-making process was guided by Rear Ad- miral Michelle Howard, his senior tnilitary advisor. "It would be extremely difficult to do my job without her," he explains, because "how does somebody who is a civilian, who has never served in the Navy, really deal with the issues that the Navy is confronted with? Having somebody provide that interpretive and communicative liaison is absolutely critical to making this system of civilian control work."

Howard, a US Naval Academy graduate, is the blue water strategist for the job. Employing a non-aquatic metaphor, Admiral Howard says her job is to "keep the trains running" by providing the secretary with the information and perspective needed to make the appropriate decisions for the Navy and the country.

"The level of engagement he has is oiFthe scale," she says, "Somebody has to be the adjudicator of the day, managing all the crises and interruptions and making sure the appropriate contact happens and the secretary is prepared."

The decisions that fall to Secretary Wititer s desk — from going to war, to establishing a paternity leave policy for fathers — flow through the desk of a woman who imagined a career in the Navy long before the Navy wanted her.

As a 12-year old, in 1972, Michelle Howard's introduc- tion to adult restrictions came after she watched a movie about the Air Force Academy and began dreaming about a military career. She soon found out about sex discrimination: none of the service academies admitted women. "I was smart enough to ask my mother," Howard says, And Phillipa Howard, who had been a governess in England, told her about racism and sexism, but also advised, "if this is something you are interested in do- ing a few years from now. I'll encourage you to try."

Her mother continued, "If ¡the military schools] are not open, you will have to make a decision if you want to sue the government. The door may open then, but it may take so long that you may not be the one to get through. But you need to understand that if you go down this journey, if you win, you set a precedent. It is important that you open the door for others to go through."

A suit was not necessary. In 1976, President Gerald Ford signed a law banning sexual discrimination in admission to the nation's service academies. Howard joined the third Annapolis class to admit women. But the reception was hostile. Of the five women in her residence, one would drop out before the sum- mer orientation was over.

In her sophomore year, the Navy opened up shipboard opportunities to women, and Howard was on a midsummer cruise on board the USS Spruance, a destroyer. One night, she says, " t h e captain announced that if anyone wanted to come up and drive che ship to come on up, and die two of us women went. He let us drive that ship, and we had a hla.st. I said 'I can do this. I want to do this'. And, eventually, I did. '

Howard began moving up the ranks, serving on ammuni- tions and amphibious assault ships, but wondered if the Navy would ever completely welcome her.

"At the end of my second tour," she says, "I went to talk to women and minorities I knew in the outside world to see what

Rear Admiral Michelle Ho vard, center, poses with inembets ot tne Ibth Marins Expeditionary Unit. Photc by US Department of Defense

they thought. They s 11 thought I should stay in becatise I had an opportunity to grow up in the organization, and they didn't have that. None of them had equal pay with men. But I did."

That gave her tl"e idea that slie had ir better in the Navy, Howard says, "1 was 27 w!ien I made that decision, and never looked back."

As a 12-year oldy Michelle Howard first dreamed of a military career. Then she found out that the service academies did not admit women.

By 1993, when :he was executive officer of an amphibi- ous ship. Congress joined the debate over the role of women in combat. Questions nised included: How does one decide where the lines are or who .'hould be flying non-combat aircraft when ¡women] are flying a support helicopter doing Food re-supply and just as likely to get shot down? "1 was on a munitions ship," she says. "Mines don t care if you are a man or a woman. The risk of us hitting a mme was as great as that for anyone else. So what risk do we want women to have?" she ask;; rhetorically.

Then Congress passed a law declaring women could serve in all classes of ships. That, Howard .says, showed that US lead- ers had leveled the pi tying field for what women could do.

In 1999, Howarl took command of the USS Rusinnore, becoming the first bl ick woman to command a US Naval war- ship. Five years later, she commanded the Amphibious Squad- ron 7, conducting both tsunami relief operations in Indonesia, and maritime securit;' operations in the Arabian Culf. In 2006, she assumed her post with Secretary Winter, and became the first black wotiian gr; duate oPche Naval Academy to earn an admiral's stripes a year later. Admiral Howard will continue to assist the secretary of the Navy through the transition to the new administratinn of President Barack Obama. Then she will become the first \frican American woman lo ht-ad a Navy battle group when sh.' takes command of tlie l'S-ship Expedi- tionary Strike Force 2, based in Norfolk, Va.

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