THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 2, 1994 TAG: 9410020053
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 276 lines
Entering a potential war zone off Haiti last week didn't put female crew members on edge nearly as much as their arrival for duty a few months back aboard the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The real tension was in the spring and early summer, when the first of 500 women began joining the 5,500 men on the floating air base.
Some, with 12 to 15 years of experience in the Navy, found themselves on their first ship, not knowing which way to go, what hatch to use. They were lost.
Others, including about 20 women right out of boot camp, hadn't asked to be on the Eisenhower and weren't happy they were. They would rather have kicked off their Navy careers with shore assignments.
But in the six months since then - including the 10 days the ``Ike'' steamed in the Caribbean, carrying 2,000 Army troops to Haiti - the women have become more at ease and an accepted part of the crew.
The off-duty volleyball and basketball games on the steel hangar deck at night usually include women. So do the card games, exercise rooms and an organized karate class.
The same colors of splashed paint dot the blue coveralls of the men and the women. The same oil covers their hands.
Integrated into nearly every division aboard, from flight deck crews to laundry services, from navigation duties to cooking, pilots to helmsmen, the Eisenhower's female crew members are excited about their new jobs and apparently comfortable at being in the forefront of the Navy's new policy of assigning women to its front-line ships.
There are issues to be resolved: the fears of some spouses back home and Navy policy toward female crew members when they become pregnant. But so far, it's been smooth sailing, those aboard the Eisenhower agree - in large part because of months and months of planning.
For one thing, the Navy spent $1.3 million to create separate berthing areas aboard ship for men and women. Main passageways that once ran past the bunks of enlisted members have been walled off for privacy.
``We knew there would be some environmental, societal, almost cultural hills for the women to climb when they first got here,'' said Capt. Mark Gemmill, the Ike's commanding officer. ``But it turns out that all those wonderful minds out there that spent 16 months putting this together came up with almost everything in the way of issues or potential problems, and ways to avoid them.
``We kind of marched right down the road that they built. It's worked well.''
The Eisenhower and its crew are back in Norfolk this week, preparing for a six-month Mediterranean Sea deployment scheduled to begin Oct. 20.
It will be the Navy's first full deployment of a combat ship with such large numbers of women assigned.
At sea last week, some of the women talked candidly about their new jobs on one of the Navy's most prestigious ships. They see no major problems ahead that they cannot manage.
For most, their male shipmates are just that: shipmates. Except for the tufts of hair that stick out beneath their Eisenhower ball caps, the women at work are scarcely distinguishable from their counterparts.
This new opportunity to serve on every type of Navy ship that men serve aboard - except submarines, for now - is a career-enhancing move they are not about to miss. DREAMS ANSWERED
Every ``dream sheet'' that Senior Chief Petty Officer Beth Blevins ever filled out when she was requesting new duty assignments always listed an aircraft carrier as her first choice.
She never got it. Instead, she was shipped off to Crete, Spain, the Philippines, or elsewhere overseas. But not to an aircraft carrier.
In those days men had sea and shore duty rotations. Women sailors were rotated between shore duty and overseas assignments - even a woman named the Navy's sailor of the year. Blevins won that honor in 1987, representing the ``shore'' side of the service. She was the first woman ever chosen.
``They always came back and said, `Why do you waste your first choice every time?' '' Blevins said. ``I said I just wanted you to know that I wanted a carrier. All my career I wanted to be on one of those.''
That was true as well for Petty Officer 1st Class Jodi Myers, a boatswain's mate with prior service aboard the destroyer tender Shenandoah.
``When I first came into the Navy, I used to come down to the carrier piers and I would always say to myself, `One day I will be the first woman on a carrier,' '' Myers said. ``Then I would walk to the air station side and watch the planes. This is a dream come true.''
Today, Myers helps to drive and maintain the 95,000-ton nuclear-powered Eisenhower. Shipmates call her ``Boats,'' and that's a real honor, she says.
At 27, she and her husband, Jacob, also a boatswain's mate second class, have a 5-year-old son, Jeremy. Her husband is working a shore assignment in Norfolk, caring for their son while she is at sea.
``At first he was really hesitant,'' Myers said. ``He had just come off a carrier and was real nervous because of the ratio between men and women. But I explained to him that this is my career. This is something I had to do. Something I want to do.
``He said just be the best you can be, and that is what I've done so far.
``This is definitely a career enhancement as far as going up in rank.''
Her next step is to get assigned to an amphibious ship, with its many auxiliary craft - a boatswain's ultimate goal, she said.
Airman Apprentice Julie Wilson, 21, of Nashville, Tenn., was not so thrilled at her assignment.
``At first I thought, `They are throwing us to the dogs,' '' Wilson said.
``I just got out of boot camp and didn't have any idea or clue about what Navy life was about. Here I am aboard a carrier. It was quite a shock.''
Katrina Johnson, a first class petty officer who works as a ship's serviceman - ``Maybe we can change that name'' - supervises laundry services and associated hotel-like chores aboard the Eisenhower.
``My first day here was overwhelming,'' Johnson said. ``But I've made some adjustments and I'm excited.''
A veteran of 11 years, she is finally being allowed to fully work in her rate, supervising more people and doing a better job, she says.
On her last ship, the Charleston, S.C.-based submarine tender Holland, that was not always the case, she said. LATE CAREERS
When Blevins' wish came true in August, the Eisenhower became her first ship in a naval career that already had spanned 15 years. As an aviation structural mechanic, she oversees men and women who are responsible for keeping the Navy's front-line jets repaired.
``Personally, I would have loved for it to have happened earlier in my career,'' Blevins said. ``I had a lot of apprehension about coming here - not that I wouldn't be accepted by my shipmates, but it is very difficult to walk on to your very first ship as a senior chief petty officer.
``I have airmen recruits who work for me who know more about shipboard routine and damage control and all the other things you learn as a very young seaman or airman going to sea that I don't know.''
Blevins is careful not to be offended when a junior enlisted man comes up to her and says, ``Chief, you can't open that door, or that hatch. You are not allowed to go through there. Don't walk on the blue tile, or that's not how you do that.''
The right attitude helps a lot, she found.
``I just had a couple of airmen who work for me help me pass the DC (damage control) test. They sat down there and taught me everything I know. I went today and I passed it.''
Blevins would have done it on her own, of course, but she admits it probably would have taken her quite a bit longer.
``That is very indicative of the mind-set of most of the men on this ship,'' she said. ``They are willing to turn to and help us come up to speed so we can truly sail this ship. I think that is very positive.''
Gone are the days when male sailors verbally abused a woman who came on their ship, adds Senior Chief Petty Officer Mindee Wolven.
``I see the young gals coming out of boot camp and they don't know what it was like in the early '80s. They don't have a clue about how hard it was, where it was commonplace to have verbal jabs thrown at you as you walked across the hangar deck, or if you went into the club to have a drink.
``Back then they didn't want you here and they made it perfectly open and there weren't any echelons set up where you could make complaints about that.
``You don't have to put up with that today.''
That was nearly two decades ago. In 1978, the Navy began assigning women to noncombat ships such as the tenders. Then, there were no senior female officers or senior enlisted aboard to serve as mentors or advisers. Today there are. PROBLEMS AHEAD?
The women aboard the Eisenhower talk about their growing independence, the added responsibilities they have now and in their futures.
They also are aware of potential problems ahead, such as dating among crew members, becoming pregnant during their sea duty tours and finding proper child care at home. To a lesser degree, they are aware of the crewmen's wives back home who see coed crews such as this as a bad thing.
``My wife is furious,'' said one commander aboard the Eisenhower. ``I really have a hard time explaining to her that this upcoming cruise will not be that different just because women are aboard.
``But she stays pretty mad over this issue. She simply doesn't like me going to sea with women aboard.''
A newlywed third class petty officer, whose wife is at home in Norfolk, said he will go to any extent to change the subject when it's brought up in front of his new bride.
``I just avoid it the best I can,'' he said. ``She thinks that just because I work with women, and some of them are quite cute, that I'm going to play around out here. I'm not.''
Airman Apprentice Julie Wilson, who was wrapped up in sorority life at Mississippi State University for three semesters before turning to the Navy, thinks people shortchange women who want to serve on ships such as the Eisenhower.
She has a boyfriend in the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He puts her on a pedestal, writes her every day and they are planning for the future.
``The guys here are very polite and well mannered,'' Wilson said. ``I don't tolerate bad talk. I tell them not to, and they don't do it around me.''
As far as dating among crew members, Capt. Gemmill doesn't allow it.
``You see the girls . . . and there is no time to have a relationship on this ship,'' Wilson said. ``I haven't seen anybody really having any sort of relationship. Most of the girls are married. They have husbands at home. Everything is on the up and up. I keep my eyes open and I watch what's going on around me.''
Wilson has let the few guys who appeared interested in her know that she has a boyfriend and is not interested in dating them.
``I have no problem with anybody trying to harass me, or come on to me,'' she said.
Actually, Wilson said, that surprised her when she first came aboard.
``I didn't know what it would be like having all these males around. I heard some horror stories about the way it used to be and that I would be changed and be one of these, well, I don't want to say it . . . ''
``Battle-ax?'' asked Senior Chief Wolven, helping Wilson through her thought.
``Yeah, maybe,'' she said. PREGNANCIES
Pregnancies among the crew have been another issue that those opposed to women on combat ships frequently cite. They say the crew's readiness will be hampered.
Taking the time and energy to train someone for a specific job, man or woman, is costly. To lose one for any reason forces the crew to work harder to make up for the loss.
The policy aboard ships such as the Eisenhower is that women are encouraged to plan so if they become pregnant, it is while on shore assignments, not at sea.
``The pregnancy issue is a real problem as far as manpower for the Navy,'' Katrina Johnson said.
``But I don't think it is a serious problem. Most of us out here are making a conscious effort. If we want to have a family, then we do it after this tour. I think we have a lot more responsible women here.''
Johnson, who is married to a former Marine and has no children, said the women aboard the Eisenhower realize their obligations to the Navy.
But most agree it is a tough question.
Blevins, the senior chief, is married to an aviation boatswain assigned to Croatia as fire chief for Fleet Hospital 5. They have a 9-year-old daughter, Cassandra, who is staying with a grandmother in Alabama.
The Blevinses have seen one another 23 days in the past 18 months. They don't know when they will be assigned to the same area again.
But the Eisenhower assignment is a career move she had to make and one she has wanted for some time. She knows the pregnancy issue is a difficult one to resolve.
``Some management is appropriate,'' Blevins said. ``But the bottom line is that the majority of the females aboard Ike are 18- to 23-year-old girls. Those are the years women fall in love, marry and bear children.''
Is it fair to ask Navy women aboard ships to postpone having children while Navy men can start families at any time in their careers?
``My personal opinion is that sea duty can be a commitment that is as long as five years,'' Blevins said. ``We take a 22-year-old young women who just got married six months ago and we station her aboard the Ike for five years. And we tell her, `You can't have a child for five years.' Is that fair? We're not telling the 22-year-old male he and his wife can't have a family.
``I am all for mission readiness and you won't find anyone aboard more committed to making this work than I am. But I think we also have to be realistic - that if you station someone aboard ship for four to five years there is a chance she will want to become pregnant.
``I think we have to be very careful about associating punitive thoughts to women who exercise that right. Other than abstinence, there is no birth control method in the world that is 99 percent effective.
``A young women who is using birth control, trying contraception and becomes pregnant - should we punish her? No.
``Will she fulfill her sea duty commitment to the military? Yes she will. She is taken off sea duty during the first weeks of pregnancy, goes ashore and six months after that she returns here and completes her sea duty. And life goes on.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN\Staff
Airman Recruit Traci Hartman of El Paso, Texas, and Marine Lance
Cpl. Shawn Wise of Cincinnati enjoy a game of catch during a ``steel
beach picnic'' on the deck of the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower as it
returned from Haiti. The picnic was a reward to the ship's crew for
a successful mission.
Photos by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/staff
Senior Chief Petty Officer Beth Blevins is an aviation structural
mechanic on the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower. She oversees men and
women who are responsible for keeping the Navy's front-line jets
repaired. Here she helps repair some duct work.
Petty Officer 1st Class Jodi Myers, who previously served aboard the
destroyer tender Shenandoah, stands in the Eisenhower's refueling
section. The nearby wall was in the process of being repainted.
KEYWORDS: WOMEN IN THE MILITARY AIRCRAFT CARRIERS HAITI by CNB