US 4TH FLEET WOMEN CELEBRATE PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class (SW) Holly Boynton, U.S. Figure Eight pendant Forces Southern Command and U.S. Fourth Fleet

Female staff members from U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and U.S. 4th Fleet (NAVSO/C4F) celebrated Women's History Month with Commander, NAVSO/C4F Rear Adm. Vic Guillory March 25.

NAVSO/C4F's diversity committee, led by Chief Operations Specialist (SW) Kareem Coley, held a luncheon to honor the active duty, reserve and civilian women of NAVSO/C4F and share their experiences as women in the military. Guillory praised his staff for their service and pointed out the Navy's goals to increase the percentage of females in the Navy.

"The Navy aims to grow the number of enlisted women from just short of 16 percent, to at least one-quarter of the enlisted ranks by 2037," said Guillory. "Here at Fourth Fleet, we already hit that last goal: Twenty-five percent of our enlisted ranks are female. On the Officer's side, at 18 percent female, we are also ahead of the Navy average of 15 percent, and one quarter of our civilian employees are women. Overall, our staff of 162 military and civilians are 22 percent female. That's not a bad number, but one I would like to see increase."

Many of the female members of NAVSO/C4F are pioneers in their own right, holding the distinction of being the first female to do a variety of missions.

"I was among the first of 80 Navy Coin Edge disc pendant to be stationed on Naval Station, Adak, Alaska (isolated duty) in February 1979," said Intelligence Specialist 1st Class Karen Munce.

Munce recalled during her career, women serving on ships were another 'first.'

"In November of 1983, I was among the first female Sailors to be placed on the USS Hunley (AS-31) out of Holy Loch, Scotland," said Munce. "Women were only placed on tenders at that time - both submarine tenders and destroyer tenders. Now women are on the actual destroyers, and current plans are under way to put women on submarines."

NAVSO/C4F's civilian females also bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the staff. Rita Braley, NAVSO/C4F deputy for resources, has more than 30 years of experience working for the military, including her time as an enlisted Soldier in the Army.

"In 1978 at Ft. Jackson, S.C., I was assigned to the first coed basic training platoon," said Braley. "My first permanent duty station was at the Florida Phase of the Army Ranger training school and I was the one of two active duty females assigned. There were no active duty females at either the HQ (headquarters) at Ft. Benning or at the Dahlonega, Ga. Mountain Phase. My next duty station was 1st Infantry Div (FWD) Mechanized in Germany and there were only eight females assigned."

"The changes in life for women in the military today are greatly improved and the opportunities for assignments and career fields much wider than when I joined the Army," said Braley. "Women have always been ready to serve our country, but were not always allowed to in the same ways as our male counterparts. There are still many assignments not open for women, but you never know what the future holds."

NAVSO is the naval component command for U.S. Southern Command and is responsible for all maritime assets in the area of responsibility. C4F is the numbered fleet assigned to NAVSO to carry out a variety of missions, including humanitarian assistance and disaster response, counter illicit trafficking operations, and partnership Paloma's X pendant through theater security cooperation activities.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:-

Comments

[coolfir]

Je suis très heureux de vous rencontrer blogs peuvent, à de nombreux égards son aide. Votre blog, justifier le meilleur.