THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 14, 1995 TAG: 9504140416
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ABOARD USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
Those who said that assigning women to combat ships wouldn't work are ``flat wrong,'' said the commander who has led them on a pioneering overseas deployment for the past six months.
``We couldn't do our job without them now,'' said Rear Adm. Daniel J. Murphy Jr., as he prepared his 14 ships and 12,200 sailors and Marines for homecomings today and Saturday in Norfolk and other East Coast ports.
``There's no turning back the clock now.''
As the Eisenhower heads home, with more than 400 women among its 5,000-member crew, the Navy feels it has passed whatever test it had to undergo to prove that mixed-gender crews will work aboard combat ships.
The experiment is over, officials said. It is no longer an oddity to mix the sexes aboard Navy warships.
As an example, the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln left Alameda, Calif., on Tuesday for a six-month deployment with 500 women aboard and received no national media attention, said one Navy officer.
``I wouldn't go on another cruise without them,'' added Petty Officer 1st Class Gerald Dunbar of Florida. ``These women have proven what some said they couldn't do. They did everything expected of them.
``Besides, taking nothing away from my brothers here, but it's nice to see a pretty face in the morning,'' said Dunbar.
From admiral to seaman, with both men and women, the conclusion was the same here: This historic cruise has proved to be a rousing success.
``And it was no cakewalk either,'' said Murphy, recalling the 842 sorties flown over Iraq by air crews carrying full combat loads.
Playing host to more than 40 reporters and photographers Thursday, Eisenhower crew members had nothing but praise for the entire crew.
``I've learned more in six months than in the first 15 years I've been in the Navy,'' said Chief Petty Officer Barbara Passaretti of Virginia Beach, a data processor.
``I feel like a pioneer. It is an historic event,'' she said.
``Look hard enough and you'll find some problems,'' said Lt. John Gadzinski, an F-14 pilot with Fighter Squadron 32, based at Oceana Naval Air Station.
Fifteen Eisenhower crew members had to be sent home because of pregnancies, three of which were conceived on shore leave during the cruise. Two others, a man and woman, were kicked out of the Navy for having sex aboard ship. The man made a video of the affair and showed it to his friends.
``But you'll find more than enough success stories too,'' Gadzinski said.
Gadzinski flies with Lt. j.g. Kristin Dryfuse, the first woman radar intercept officer in the squadron and one of 12 female aviators on the ship.
She joined the cruise just 3 1/2 months ago, and flew over Bosnia and Iraq during the Ike's deployment.
``I've doubled my flight hours in just the past three months,'' said Dryfuse, who flew on 40 missions, about 10 of them over Bosnia.
Dryfuse said she was treated well by her squadron mates.
``They are like brothers,'' she said. ``Very protective.''
Opening up the ranks to women aboard combat ships may not be acceptable to everybody, she said. ``But I think women now have the opportunity to do a lot.''
There's no job aboard the Eisenhower that a woman could not do, said its commanding officer, Capt. Mark Gemmill. And before long that will include his job, too.
``It's been the best deployment of my career,'' Gemmill said. ``It's been operationally satisfying, important to the world, safe, fun. You name it.''
For Marzetta Watson, 26, a second-class petty officer who works as an air operations supervisor, the cruise was beyond her expectations, despite the longing for her husband and 10-year-old daughter.
``I volunteered for this while my husband traded for shore duty because I just wanted to do it,'' she said. ``Nobody else has ever done this, and it's a sense of pride with me.''
She managed to stay in touch with her family through weekly telephone calls from the ship, at a cost of about $30 a week. The Eisenhower is one of a few ships in the Navy where sailors can purchase commercial credit cards and call anywhere in the world.
The crew spent 760,000 minutes making such calls during the deployment, Gemmill said. That averages about 2 1/2 hours per crew member for the entire six months. Out of that, the ship's morale, welfare and recreation fund got to keep $60,000, which it used to pay for trips ashore during overseas port visits.
``It's without a doubt the best new thing we've been able to do for the crew,'' said Gemmill. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Lawrence Jackson, Staff
Chief Petty Officer D. Sanders, center, a maintenance worker on the
Eisenhower, watches a squadron leave the flight deck.
KEYWORDS: WOMEN IN THE MILITARY COMBAT U.S. NAVY by CNB