DATE: Friday, November 14, 1997             TAG: 9711140659

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, CORRESPONDENT 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   79 lines

RIDING ON AIR FIRST WOMAN JOINS NAVY CREW TO NAVIGATE LITTLE CREEK BASE AMPHIBIOUS CRAFT.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Kristina A. Mayros earns her paycheck navigating a cushion of air to shore in a frenzy of sea mist and sand, and unleashing the military goods on bad-guy beaches the world over.

She is the first woman on the East Coast to join the five-sailor crew of a Landing Craft Air Cushion, or LCAC, a Navy amphibious assault craft, which ferries Marines and their gear from ships to shore.

Another woman on the West Coast was qualified as a navigator, but dropped from the program for medical reasons - making Mayros the only woman in the world doing the job.

``It's one more step toward incorporating women into combat units,'' the 26-year-old Kentucky native said. ``Communications, navigation and mission planning,'' Mayros rattled off. ``It's getting into the thick of things.''

Mayros joined Assault Craft Unit 4 at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in January. She trained for months on simulators and in the classroom before securing her place as a navigator in July.

Navigators monitor radar, charts and communications in one of two cabins on opposite sides of the LCAC platform, which rests atop the cushion. The cushion looks like a black waterbed mattress. Power and steering are handled by two aft propellers.

Navigators share the compact starboard space on the right with the craft's boss, or craftmaster, and an engineer. Two other crew members work on the port, or left, side - the loadmaster, who serves as lookout while the LCAC is on the water, and a deck mechanic on the prowl for mechanical trouble.

All five aboard the $23 million LCAC are enlisted, including the craftmaster, a chief petty officer.

Though women have been integrating aircraft squadrons for years and have long been present aboard carriers, the LCAC community was slightly behind the push. The reason: amphibious ships, which carry LCACs to distant shores, lacked living quarters for female sailors, and had to be modified to accommodate them.

Some have been modified, and more modifications are on the way. Now that women are able to deploy with their units, LCAC crewmen believe there will be more female candidates.

The training is demanding, and it excludes those who are not flexible, capable of handling stress or thinking quickly. LCAC personnel describe the ability to handle the multi-task environment of their craft as a ``sixth sense.'' The ones who make it are the ones who are suited to this specific job.

``Safety is a big deal,'' explained Petty Officer 2nd Class Bill Cantwell. ``It's real dangerous out here.''

All sailors in this unit know the story of one man who lost his life in a 1990 prop accident, which prompted the installation of screening around the million-dollar blades. This is not even the biggest fear of a LCAC crew.

``Hitting things,'' Cantwell nodded.

The air cushion is vulnerable to collisions and heavy fire on a hot beach. The four-foot cushion of blowing air is not the stealthiest way ashore, so it is important for SEAL teams who scout landing locations to ensure that a potential landing zone is clear.

There are only two gun mounts for .50 caliber or M-60 machine guns, and another mount for a grenade launcher. But as each new LCAC rolls off the assembly line, several crewmen noted, they arrive with more armoring than the last.

For this potentially dangerous mission, training is constant, and quality personnel who can operate ``like a family'' are important.

``You don't want a dirtbag to do this job,'' one sailor noted.

For Mayros, the job is the thing. It's all about the teamwork. It's all about the mission. And eventually, she figures, all the ``first-woman'' stuff will be forgotten.

``I just happen to be the lucky one to be the first,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

FEMALE NAVIGATOR BREAKS GROUND

TAMARA VONINSKI/The Virginian-Pilot photos

Petty Officer 2nd Class Kristina A. Mayros inspects a Landing Air

Craft Cushion.

Mayros sees her new job as a step

to incorporate women into combat. KEYWORDS: WOMEN IN THE MILITARY

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