Published: September 10, 2006 12:38 am            

First woman at the academy

Since I haven’t yet received the story that I was going to feature, this week, I would like to give you a run-down on some facts about women in military service and what they have endured to become part of the military family.

This is not fiction or a made-up story; just pure simple facts, folks, and I know, because I experienced it firsthand.

I want to take you on a journey with Sharon Hanley Disher, as she recalls what it was like to be among the first females to attend the Naval Academy in Annapolis. She later wrote the book “First Class” about women’s experiences.

On a hot June day, she watched as her son and daughter, dressed in Navy whites, were being sworn in on the campus of the Naval Academy she attended 30 years earlier.

She was proud to be the first of the earliest female graduates, to be followed by a daughter into the Academy.

As she watched, she remembered what it was like for her when she entered the academy at the age of 17, and was about to make history as one of the first women graduates.

She recalls the words of an upper-classman, “ I don’t like women at my school, and so I am going to be on your butt, every waking minute. … If my plan works,you’re going to be long gone before I graduate. Is that clear?”

As a plebe, she was not allowed to object or even comment, so in her shock and confusion, all she could say was, “Yes, sir.”

The number of women attending The Naval Academy has greatly increased in the past 30 years from 6 percent to 22.4 percent, with women serving aboard destroyers and flying fighter planes.

The most recent study found that in the 2004-2005 school year 59 percent of female mid-shipmen and 14 percent of men reported sexual harassment, defined as crude and offensive behavior, unwanted sexual attention or sexual coercion. Sexist behavior, put-downs and offensive comments was reported by 93 percent of women and 60 percent of men.

Investigations were finally started, but the name of the game was survival to be able to graduate. The attitude was, “boys will be boys and you are coming to an all boys school, so what do you expect?”

This is just a small portion of the story, but the shame is this went on in all branches of the military, and for many years nothing was done. The facts that women were being harassed, insulted and, yes, even raped, were over looked.

For myself, in my experience of going into the Navy, so often I was told “The women in service are nothing but prostitutes, why do you want to go?”

Thank God, things have become better for women and yes, even men, that have suffered this degradation and humiliation, simply because we too, wanted to serve our country.

But so many suffers still the “night terrors” and nightmares, and probably will for the rest of theirr lives. But at least it is getting better now.

So now 30 years later, Disher the 1976 plebe, watched in pride as her son and daughter were being sworn in as plebes and, 2,770 female graduates later, she knows that it will be better for her daughter than it was for her.

This is a small grain of sand on a beach, compared to the overall picture of the battle women have fought to be a part of this mighty machine that protects and serves this great nation with dignity, pride and commitment.

        

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