Michelle Howard made history this year when she became the first female four-star admiral in the US Navys 239-year history. In July, Howard was promoted to Vice Chief of Naval Operations, making her second highest-ranking officer in the Navy. Howard was also the first African American woman to serve as a three-star officer in the U.S. military and became the first to command a U.S. Navy ship when she took over command of the U.S.S. Rushmore in 1999. Admiral Howard, who has served in the Navy for 32 years, became wider known to the public after she led the mission to rescue Captain Richard Phillips after he was captured by Somali pirates in 2009. The pirate attack and subsequent rescue of Phillips, the captain of the cargo ship Maersk Alabama, was told in a feature film starring Tom Hanks. A trailblazer for women in the Navy, Howard encountered various challenges during her career as she described in an interview with Forbes: “For those of us [women] who started in the service academies in those years, there were people who did not want us there. The men did not want us there. So there were physical challenges as well as mental challenges.” Howard, who was often the only woman on board a ship in her early years in the service, found this isolation challenging, There is not someone else there who has a shared experience set, or even a common way of communication... there is an additional set of pressures and stressors that come with that, that you have to figure out how to work your way through.” Reflecting on the progress that women have made, Howard remarked, Now I think about it all these years later, the combat exclusion law was repealed and women can serve on all classes of ships, all types of aircraft. And then the last couple of years, opening up the submarines to women -- its significant. To read more about Admiral Howards historic promotion and watch an interview with her, visit onforb.es/1sYYG1i
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 19:57:44 +0000