A Sea Change

The Women's Military Memorial has just opened a new exhibit: "A Sea Change: Navy Women On Combatant Ships"

I had the distinct honor of being invited to document the opening ceremonies.

The guest list was inspiring and included opening remarks by the Memorial's President, Phyllis Wilson; special remarks from the Honorable John Dalton, the 70th Secretary of the Navy; and keynote remarks from the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Lisa Franchetti.

The 1948 Women’s Armed Services Integration Act (PL 625) prohibited women from being “assigned to duty on vessels of the Navy except hospital ships and naval transports”—to which only a handful of women were actually assigned.

Nearly 25 years later, in 1972, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. first chipped away at the “at-sea” discrimination when he issued “Z-Gram 116.”

In 1978, a more permanent barrier was removed when U.S. District Court Judge John J. Sirica ruled “unconstitutional” the law banning women from nearly all Navy ships.

Finally, after 15 more years of wrangling, the law prohibiting women on combatant ships was repealed.

The Military Women’s Memorial exhibit seeks to present the extraordinary, hard-fought story of Navy women’s journey to serve aboard combatant ships and examine the challenges and accomplishments of a three-decades-plus statutory blockade to their full participation.

I couldn't think of anywhere else I would rather be than to document a celebration of my own Naval history, to include meeting, a legend from my first Navy Diving community, Commander (Ret) Darlene M Iskra, the Navy's first woman to command a Navy vessel.

Go Navy!