THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 13, 1994 TAG: 9407120349
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DEROCHI, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Twenty years ago, Coast Guard yeoman Vonetta McKee arrived at her duty station in San Francisco, a nervous and shy teenager from upstate New York.
The stop was her first since signing up as one of the Coast Guard's first active-duty women. She wanted desperately to belong.
The men told her she wouldn't. She should be home, they said. Barefoot and pregnant.
``They would do things and say things; they didn't care if you didn't like it,'' McKee recalled. ``If you didn't like it, tough.
``We had to prove ourselves to them. We were there to stay.''
On July 1, McKee, 38, a yeoman with the rank of petty officer first class, ended her Coast Guard career in a retirement ceremony at the Coast Guard Support Center in Portsmouth.
At her side stood Veronica Sharpe, another yeoman first class, who was also retiring after 20 years.
The pair were lauded as groundbreakers.
``There are more women in now, the men respect us more now,'' McKee said in an interview from her Virginia Beach townhome.
``Someone told me that we built the milestone. That made me feel good.''
It was May 1974 when McKee went to a tiny office in downtown Rochester to speak to a recruiter. She wanted to join the Navy. She wanted to travel and see the world. She wanted a full-time job.
She took the test and was on her way out of the building when a Coast Guard recruiter called to her.
He told her the Coast Guard was looking to add active-duty women to its ranks. Would she want to be among the first?
McKee liked the idea.
Three weeks later she was in boot camp in Cape May, N.J.
``I wanted the challenge,'' she said.
In August, McKee graduated, along with Sharpe.
McKee was sent to San Francisco, where, as a yeoman, she did clerical work.
As the years passed, things changed in the Coast Guard, just as they did in the other services. Tensions between the men and women eased. In 1976 women were allowed on cutters for the first time.
After San Francisco, McKee was sent to Long Beach, Calif., Hawaii and Washington, before being stationed at the Support Center in Portsmouth.
She didn't go on her first sea assignment until July 1990, when she volunteered to serve aboard the cutter Legare to fill in as a yeoman. She stayed 49 days.
She was told she used too much water in the shower.
`You have to really want to be on a ship,'' McKee said. ``It's not cut out for everybody. It wasn't cut out for me.''
She returned to shore duty where she stayed until July 1, when she retired, ending her 20-year career.
Looking back, she said, she is proud of the advances women have made in the Coast Guard. There are new rates open to them - aviation, electronics and computers. And women are stationed on Coast Guard ships.
``The women are more career-minded now,'' McKee said. ``Back in 1974, women just wanted to come in to get pregnant or get married.
``You can see the changes. (The men) had to accept it. They stood back and let us do what we needed to do.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
BILL TIERNAN/Staff
Vonetta McKee and Veronica Sharpe retired from the Coast Guard after
20 years. The yeomen first class ended their careers July 1 in
Portsmouth.
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