Women in the Military (Including Serving on Subs)

The novel LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS that I wrote with my husband features the first woman serving on a sub.

When Mitch and I originally wrote the story, women were not yet serving on subs in the U.S. Navy. So we came up with a story reason for LCDR Mollie Sanders to be the first woman.

On May 29, 2012, the White House's Council on Women and Girls posted Brad Cooper's article “Women Chart a New Course Onboard U.S. Navy Submarines”:

In 2009, U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced that for the first time in Navy history, women would be assigned to serve aboard Navy submarines.

Yesterday, the first contingent of 24 women who completed the Navy’s nuclear submarine program met with President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House. They were joined by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Mark Ferguson.

Now I understand that not everyone knows that women are now serving on U.S. subs. So when LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS was free for one day on Amazon thanks to the KDP Select program, I did not get overly upset when I got this message on Facebook from a man about the novel:

This really stretches reality. Women have made great advances in the military, but submarine duty isn't among them.

I sent back this Facebook message:

When Mitch and I wrote the story women weren't yet on U.S. subs and that is part of the point of the novel. BUT ... women are now on U.S. subs. See this article http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/05/29/women-chart-new-course-onboard-us-navy-submarines

And the man actually thanked me for “correcting” him.

He did go on to wonder how billeting would be arranged on the sub, which Mitch and I deal with in our fiction story. (Click here to buy LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS on Amazon now if you are interested in this story.)

On the same day I read the Military Times news story “Female military members sue to serve in combat” by Paul Elias of the Associated Press

To summarize the article, women are suing because, without access to certain combat positions, their chances for promotion are hindered.

[M]ore than 144 female troops have been killed and more than 860 have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan since the wars began, according to Pentagon statistics. Roughly 20,000 of the 205,000 service members currently serving in Afghanistan are women.

The article goes on to say that the lawsuit “alleges that women are already serving unofficially in combat units. Air National Guard Major Mary Jennings Hegar sustained shrapnel wounds in 2009 when she exchanged fire on the ground in Afghanistan after her Medevac helicopter was shot down.” (She received a Purple Heart medal for her injuries.)

Read the entire Military Times article (for which Associated Press writers Julie Watson and Lolita C. Baldor contributed).

In conclusion, it's a brave new world for women serving in the U.S. military.

---

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a former military spouse as well as the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including the military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A Sharon Gold Novel and the cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE with a subplot of non-combat trauma PTSD.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

Technical Skills of Women Needed on Submarines

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Barry Bruner, Commander Submarine Group Ten and lead for the Task Force for Women in Submarines, spoke to an online Blogger’s Roundtable on which I had the privilege to participate.

Admiral Bruner very articulately stated the case for women on submarines. And as a long-time feminist I was surprised to learn it has nothing to do with equality and everything to do with our submarine service having access to a top quality pool of future submariners.

He pointed out that over the last 40 years the percentage of men and women graduating from college with technical degrees has dramatically shifted. “Today women are actually gaining more technical degrees than men are. So we really need to open up the talent pool.”

The Navy has gone through the formal process required to make a policy change and female officer candidates are now entering the program. They will first serve on subs in late 2011 or early 2012. (For now only female officers will be assigned to subs.)

“There’ll be two female trained nuclear officers on each of the eight crews, and additional there’ll be a more senior supply officer on those crews that will serve both as a mentor for those new ensigns, the females, but she’ll also serve as the mentor to the male officers in the wardroom too.”

During the roundtable Admiral Bruner shared how he had presented the policy change to the wives of the current submariners. In a follow-up question that I emailed asking about how the submarines themselves have responded to the policy change, the admiral replied:

"When the male submarine officers are explained why the Navy is opening the aperture for female officers to serve aboard submarines, they understand the need for mission readiness and support the change. With any change, it will be a challenge, but these officers are true professionals and I believe that this change is the right thing for our submarine force.

“By nature, our submarine junior officers are very competitive and although females do not currently serve aboard submarines, the enthusiasm and performance of these new female submarine officers will bring a healthy competition to the environment."

Admiral Bruner stressed how carefully this step is being implemented. But he also stressed the need.

“What we see is that 10 or 15 or 20 years from now, if we don’t do something, we may have a tough time being able to man our submarines with the top quality people that we need. So I think it’s the submarine force leadership trying to get ahead of the problem.”

I personally applaud the forward-thinking of the submarine force leadership in being willing to move forward with opening the submarine service to capable females. And I am also pleased by the admiral’s appreciation of those of us participating on the roundtable:

“The only way we’re going to get out to the public and to people that seem to care that we are doing the right thing, that we are taking the right measures and we’re doing this in a very deliberate and careful fashion is through you – through folks that put it on their blogs and talk about it in the press and on TV.”

I hope all the readers of this blog will support this submarine service initiative to ensure our country has access to top quality people – men and women.

FYI – And if you want to read about how fiction precedes fact, see my website www.MollieSanders.com
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. Her newest project is www.FilmsThatSupportOurTroops.com.Phyllis' company MillerMosaicLLC.com does power marketing that combines traditional marketing principles and Internet marketing strategies to put power in your hands.