Creating Cultural Synergy
ay Michael A. Fletcher mfletcher@.ccgmag. com
www.bl;1 6 USBE&IT I V W T F M — com
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V ic e C h ie f of N aval O p e ra tio n s A dm . M ic h e lle H ow ard and C m d r. K en dall B rid g e w ate r, co m m an din g o ffic e r o f th e litto ra l co m b a t ship USS F o rt W o rth (LC S 3 ), revie w th e sh ip ’s closed c irc u it te le v is io n system in th e b rid g e. Litto ral co m b at ships have th e a b ility to deplo y m an n ed and u n m ann ed ve h icles to e x e c u te m issions. (U. S. N avy photo by M ass C om m u nicatio n S p e c ia lis t 3 rd C lass B ra d le y J. G e e /R e le a s e d )
A d m ir a l m i c h e l l e j . H o w a r d
HAD NO IDEA THAT HER NAVY
CAREER WOULD EVEN BE POS-
SIBLE WHEN SHE WAS GROWING
UP. BACK THEN, THERE WERE
NO WOMEN COMMANDING SHIPS, N O WOMEN
LEADING COMBAT OPERATIONS, AND CERTAINLY
NO FEMALE FOUR-STAR ADMIRALS. IT WAS N O T
UNTIL 1976 THAT WOMEN WERE EVEN ADMITTED
TO THE NATION'S MILITARY ACADEMIES.
Despite that, Howard dared to dream, and she worked hard to persevere. And that is paying off in a career studded with spec tacular achievement. In 2014 she was named vice chief of naval operations and became the first female four-star in the Navy’s then 239-year history. She is also the highest-ranking African- American woman in the Navy.
Her career may be path-breaking, but do not ask Howard about the racial and gender obstacles she had to overcome. As she sees it, those hurdles were beside the point because they did not deter her. She prefers to talk about the abundant opportunities that allowed her to rise to the top of the Navy.
Howard says she has always been intrigued by the military. She likes it all: the pomp and circumstance, the teamwork, and selflessness that a military career demands. A military brat, she traveled widely while growing up before finishing high school in Aurora, Colorado, before attending the U.S. Naval Academy, where she graduated in 1982.
From there, she has gone on to a series of firsts: She was the first African-American woman to command a ship, the USS Rushmore. She became the first admiral selected from her An napolis graduating class when she was named rear admiral in 2006. She is the first female Navy Academy graduate selected for a flag rank, and now she is the first African American and first woman to serve as vice chief of naval operations, the No. 2 post overseeing the Navy’s vast operations.
The Navy is the featured service in U.S. Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine’s 2016 Stars and Stripes celebration. In advance of that event, the magazine interviewed Admiral Howard about her career. A lightly edited version of the conversation follows here: USBE&IT: What prompted you to pursue a Navy career, particularly given all the obstacles that existed to women serving when you were growing up?
Howard: Are you talking about the Navy specifically or so ciety? When I went to Annapolis in 1978, there was not a woman Supreme Court justice. 1 am not sure you should be singling out the Navy. I was interested in attending the Naval Academy growing up, and I was disappointed to find out it was closed to women by law. Then the law changed. So when I was looking at a specific service academy, I did some research on what women were allowed to do in each service and decided that the Navy of fered the broadest opportunities.
USBE&IT I WINTER 2015 17
USBE&IT: Did your parents encourage you? Howard: The conversation with my mother started before
they were open, and she definitely was very encouraging about me pursuing what 1 wanted to do. My father was very happy that I was going to go into a service. He was an Air Force master ser geant. His perspective was that all o f us kids were smart enough to be officers, and certainly getting an education was a big thing for him. He was disappointed that 1 picked Navy though.
USBE&IT: Did you face any obstacles on the w ay up related to your race and gender?
Howard: Yes, I did face obstacles related to race and gender. But I can't honestly say that they were a problem if 1 am sitting here as the vice chief.
USBE&IT: W hat w ere som e of the obstacles? Howard: At the time when you are looking at, particularly
the integration o f women in the services society, there were issues I had to deal with that revolve around the behavior of people who didn't want you in the organization.
USBE&IT: W hat do you think m ade your spectacular success possible?
Howard: One of the major things that happened was when the law was changed in the 1990s to allow women to serve on combat ships or ships flying combat aircraft. That opened up the mainstream occupations in the services to women. If you are prevented by law from serving in the core mission of an organi zation, and then the law is shaped so you have that opportunity, that is a big change. Literally, the playing field was leveled. The other big thing happened before I even joined the service. Until 1967 women were capped at 2 percent o f the military, and women were not allowed by law to become generals or admirals. And that changed too.
USBE&IT: So doors opened ahead of you as you made your journey.
Howard: I always give credit to my parents for birthing me in 1960 because if I had been bom a couple of years earlier, I would have missed out on a lot of opportunities.
USBE&IT: W hat are your responsibilities as vice chief of naval operations?
Howard: We have 272 ships, a 266,000 active force, 59,700 reservists, and a couple o f hundred thousand civilians. We are responsible for everything from the acceptance of aircraft and ships all the way up to the manning o f those ships, to the training that goes to those people, to the high-end integration and train ing that happens out in the fleet. Then all the policies that work
with that and the whole supply and operation and logistical train that goes into making a successful Unites States Navy.
USBE&IT: Gender diversity is a priority of yours. How is the Navy doing there?
Howard: I got more visibility on it as I came into this job. When I think about where we have come, it is really a wonder ful journey. You look at the number o f women in command in operational units, destroyers and cruisers, carrier strike groups, woman fighter pilots who have had command o f squadrons— it is pretty impressive. One o f things I think about is how long it takes to grow an admiral, which is 25 to 30 years. Then you look at what percentage of women we had 25 or 30 years; then you look at the fact that about 10 percent o f the admirals are women now; that is pretty exciting.
USBE&IT: Can w om en now serve as SEALS and in other special services?
Howard: No. The services are all going through a review. Recommendations have been made to the secretary o f defense, and he is going through his process.
USBE&IT: You w ere in com m and of the anti-piracy task force in the Gulf of Aden when the M aersk A labam a w as hijacked. W hat w as it like to lead the effort to free the ship, whose plight w as im m ortalized in the film Captain Phillips?
Howard: There were some aspects o f this that were very unique, and my role as taskforce commander was to synchronize all these assets and make the mission a success. It was very in teresting and challenging because most o f the hostage scenarios we had dealt with involved hostages being held on a large ship. Here we had something completely different: a hostage held on a life raft. We in training envisioned getting forces on board a large ship either by helicopter or otherwise. So this presented a unique challenge from the get-go. A lot o f getting people ramped up to understand what they needed to do knowing they had not been trained for this type of mission. So getting expertise to people quickly was a challenge.
USBE&IT: Did the movie do a good job of capturing w hat happened?
Howard: Some o f it is completely accurate. Some o f it is completely Hollywood.
USBE&IT: How is the Navy doing when it com es to a t tracting recruits with strong STEM backgrounds? And how do you com pete with other jobs that pay so much more and require people to sacrifice so much less?
Howard: About 65 percent o f the students in ROTC and the Naval Academy are enrolled in engineering or technical degree programs. We just have a phenomenal group o f Mid shipmen who are not only engineering smart but also in a lot o f cases minoring in things like studying Mandarin Chinese. We are just fortunate. Annapolis right now has the highest rates o f applications to the school, and recently it was named one of the top 10 liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report. We have competition right now for folks trying to get into the service. But in the end, whether you are in ROTC, Annapolis, or a recruit coming into boot camp, the No. 1 reason people come into the service is not about the money. It is about life purpose and teamwork. And we provide that in spades.
1 8 U S B E & IT I WINTER 2015 w w w .blackengineer.com
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