FIRST TO JOIN THE SERVICE…

The first women to enlist in the United States military joined the Navy and Marine Corps in World War I.

Cathy Williams (Army)

Only woman known to have served as a Buffalo Soldier. A former slave, she served as Private William Cathay for two years before she was discovered to be a woman.

FIRST TO FLY…

Lietenant Colonel Jacquelyn Susie Parker (Air Force)

In 1994, Lt Col Jacquelyn Susie Parker (Jackie) became the first woman in the Air Force to become combat qualified to fly the F-16 and be assigned to a fighter squadron.


Lietenant Colonel Nicole Malachowski (Air Force)

Lt Col Malachowski became the first woman pilot on the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Squadron. She served with the Thunderbirds from November 2005 until November 2007.

FIRST TO COMMAND…

Commander Darlene M. Iskra, USN (Ret.) (Navy)

Commander Iskra took command of the USS OPORTUNE (ARS 41) in Dec 1990 in Naples, Italy becoming the first woman commander of a commissioned naval vessel.

FIRST TO HOLD A NATIONAL POSITION…

Representative Heather Wilson (R-NM) (Air Force)

The first woman veteran to serve in Congress. She is an Air Force Academy graduate and a Rhodes Scholar.

FIRST TO RECEIVE AWARDS…

Sergeant Heather Lynn Johnsen

Was the first woman to earn the badge for guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns.

Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester (Army)

Was the first woman in history to be awarded the Silver Star for combat action. Leigh Ann Hester (born January 12, 1982) of the 617th Military Police Company, a National Guard unit out of Richmond, Kentucky, received the Silver Star for her actions on March 20, 2005 during an enemy ambush on a supply convoy near the town of Salman Pak, Iraq

FIRST TO WEAR RANKS…

Brigadier General Anna May Hays (Army)

Was the first female general officer. She was promoted June 11, 1970 becoming Chief, Army Nurse Corps. On November 8th, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Public Law 90-130 removing legal ceilings on women’s promotions that kept them out of the general and flag ranks.

Major General Jeanne M. Holm (Air Force)

Was the first woman to obtain the rank of Major General. Maj. Holm attained her rank on June 1st 1973.

Lieutenant General Carol A Mutter (Marine)

Was the first woman to obtain the rank of Lieutenant General. Lt Gen Mutter attained her rank on September 1st 1996.

General Ann E. Dunwoody (Army)

First female four star general. By law, women are excluded from combat jobs, the typical path to four star rank. Gen. Dunwoody was promoted on November 14th 2008.

NUMBER OF FEMALES SERVING ON ACTIVE DUTY
Numbers current as of 30 September 2009 *U.S. Department of Defense*



TOTAL ACTIVE: 203,375
* 34,300 women were officers, and 163,600 were enlisted.

14 percent Proportion of members of the armed forces who were women, as of Sept. 30, 2008. In 1950, women comprised less than 2 percent.

1.7 million The number of military veterans who were women in 2008.

This section is for comments about the military woman's viewpoint on what leadership skills and developmental tools are required to be effective and successful in the military environment. It is intended to be informational and educational. Book reviews are welcomed as well as personal experiences which will facilitate the learning of leadership skills.

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Leaning Into Business

By Donna Sturgess


Look closely at a team with good timing and you will find it is skilled at anticipation. The collective muscles seem to act and respond in such a way as to produce maximum impact at just the right moment. This stems from early cues and putting the information to work faster than others can. Anticipation is the action that puts more time on the competitive clock to give your team the advantage.

Businesses, just like the military, must move beyond hesitation to engage in new levels of achievement. For despite the economic slump, the world is racing along at breakneck speed! With global economies shifting daily and digital processes ramping up ever faster, companies now need to get their “eyes out” for ways to shake up their organizations to generate new insights and innovations.

As a veteran business leader from a multinational corporation, I had the opportunity to witness first-hand what people with military experience have to offer business. This “eyes out” perspective happened when I had the chance to immerse myself in the military experience during a short visit on the USS Stennis while it was underway off of the coast of San Diego. What might seem like a non-business experience provided not only a unique perspective into military operations but some fresh insights for business as well.

Whether military or civilian, groups that anticipate well and are nimble in their response gain more time to maneuver. Developing a competency in anticipation requires finding people who are capable of the task. You may already have people in your team with these skills of foresight. Anticipation requires people with strong perceptual skills - people who have high-definition sensitivity to changing patterns in the operating environment. Women in particular have strong intuitive skills and tend to be good at attending to subtle, changing patterns in their environment. Generally, these are people who are experienced enough, mature enough or sensitive enough to perceive the earliest signals and difference and have the leadership skills to act upon the emerging information. They know where to focus their attention.

Here are some simple actions you might take to foster anticipation:

1. Start asking around to find out who seems to be inherently good at this.

2. Include an assessment of anticipation skill into performance reviews to identify people with this ability in order to nurture the development of this leadership trait.

3. Once you find people with anticipation skills, look for opportunities to develop them further, just as business does.

4. If you are someone with good anticipation skills, let people know you have this fingertip sensitivity necessary to anticipate changes.


Anticipation comes from the perspective of doing more than. People have to leave their comfort zones and look at things from a vastly different perspective if they want to gain advantage. Lean forward, with an “eyeballs out” approach and go after your goals in new ways to create value.


Donna Sturgess is the President and Co-founder of Buyology Inc and former Global Head of Innovation for GlaxoSmithKline. Her new book, Eyeballs Out: How To Step Into Another World, Discover New Ideas, and Make Your Business Thrive is due out October, 2010.

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Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Can Women Reach the Top of America’s Largest Corporations?
By Ann M. Morrison and others, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1987 revised in 1992.

This book chronicles a careful study of 76 successful corporate executive women. They weren’t named, but might just as easily been flag grade officers or a command’s top enlisted member. The lessons imparted by this book will help military women chart their paths to the top. The authors asked these questions: what does it take for women to enter the executive (command) suite; what factors propel and derail women; are these factors the same for men and women;and finally, do women need the same opportunities for development as men? The authors found that generally, in corporate America, there is a glass ceiling at what the corporate world calls the general manager level. Women are penetrating this barrier, but it takes fortitude.

The authors found that women face three levels of pressure. The first of these is the routine pressure of the job itself. The next is the pressure associated with being a pioneer (a first or only). The last is facing the strain of managing two jobs, the office and the home. Men generally only face the first kind of pressure. Some women overcome all three pressures, some do not. Those who were successful shared these attributes: they had sponsors and help from senior managers that was earned by a solid track record of achievement; they really wanted to progress in their work; they managed subordinates well; they were willing to take reasonable risks, and finally, they knew how to be tough, decisive, and demanding. Those who were not so successful were unable to adapt to changing work environments and bosses, their expectations for perks and salary were unreasonable, or they simply didn’t perform well.

The authors explain important findings when comparing executive men and women. They note that women are not better at reducing interpersonal friction. They are not more understanding or humanitarian, they are not more focussed on presentation of themselves, and they were not more suspicious or touchy. Likewise, women were not less dominant in leadership situations. They were not less self-confident, optimistic, able to cope with stress or less self-disciplined. The successful women had mastered the ability to simultaneously exhibit certain characteristics associated with men and some typically associated with women. When to display either was the key. From this analysis, the authors recommend: take risks, but be consistently outstanding; be tough, but not macho; be ambitious, but don’t expect equal treatment (this is a startling assertion - but remember, it was just in July 1999 that the first woman was named to the senior position in a fortune 500 company); take responsibility, but follow others’ advice.

The authors distilled a number of lessons from their study:

1. Learn the ropes of your organization. Work in positions which have credibility, be nonthreatening, learn to trust your superiors and have realistic expectations for promotion.

2. Take control of your career. Don’t expect others to manage it for you or take care of you. Seek the right jobs and get the education, training, and experience necessary for promotions. Even if you don’t get the job you want, do the very best you can to show that you put the needs of the company first. That will be appreciated and may later be rewarded. This is especially true in the military.

3. Build your own self-confidence by being willing to take on new challenges to convince yourself of your abilities. Your skills will always be compared to others and the obviously better performers will stand out. Seek success in activities outside the organizations. These help relieve stress and can be another opportunity to build skills and self confidence.

4. Learn when to rely on others. Supervisors can create tickets to the top.

5. Focus on the "bottom line". What is your unit’s goal? Make it your focus. Take in the broader perspective, not just the narrow area of your specific job.

6. Integrate life and work. Keep both in balance.

The authors suggest that while today there is a glass ceiling that women will have to work especially hard to overcome, there is a bright future. More women are entering non-traditional careers and they will be viewed as less and less of a novelty. Younger men aren’t as biased as their fathers. Business is recognizing women as an untapped resource that will help them improve their bottomline. This is just as true in the military as it is in the civilian sector.


LEADERSHIP SKILLS TRANSLATE FROM MILITARY TO BUSINESS


By Lowell Tindell, Frontline Photography

A military mind-set helps these vets tackle small-business issues. Read the rest of the USA today article by Laura Petrecca here.

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"Cadets say the funniest things"
My unit trains ROTC Cadets every summer. This last summer I spent a grueling month at Ft. Lewis,WA. . Being instructors for an assault course our job was to teach them basic combat skills, i.e., shoot, move and communicate. The course itself consisted of some rather difficult obstacles including rope bridges, wire obstacles and so forth. One day we were given an especially unmotivated group of cadets. A particular member of this group was being very difficult. He was laying under one of the wire obstacles, just laying there. Finally, after a few minutes of watching him lay there I asked him what was wrong. His reply come back " Sergeant, I think that we should do job oriented training." Finding this rather humorous, being a clerk, I asked him what he was going to do for the Army. "Jag Corps, Sergeant". Unbelieving at what I had just heard I got down at ground level with this cadet and told him, " Cadet, I spent eight weeks at basic training learning this stuff and this is my third week of instructing it." He asked me what that had to do with him. I said " cadet, do you know what I do for the Army?" He said no, of course. I told him that I was a clerk. Staring at me like I had just killed his dog, he very hurriedly moved out.
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"The 1st Sgt and the Inspection"
I enlisted in the Army and attended basic training at Ft. Leonardwood, MO. At Ft. Leonardwood the females lived in rooms instead of bays like the males because there were so few of us. During the 7th week of basic training our platoon had a practice inspection before the Col. would actually do it. So at the time the 1st Sgt. Lee was pretending to be the Lt.Col. I had 2 room mates who feared this man very much....they called him BIG BIRD because he was soooooo tall and had a harsh voice. 1st Sgt. came in and inspected our room and of course fragile females that we were we could not get the dust behind our wall lockers. The 1st Sgt. very loudly pointed this out to us after he moved all of our wall lockers like they were nothing. Apparently this had scared Pvt. X. and Pvt. Z. They stood at attention until they knew that the 1st Sgt. was inspecting the males. After some time of the 1st Sgt. inspecting the males, all three of us had to go to the latrine really bad. So while the 1st Sgt. was inspecting the males, we snuck out of our quarters to go to the latrine. We were half way to the latrines when we heard the 1st Sgt's thunderous footsteps come our way so we ran back to our quarters. Pvt. X Pvt. Z. were so scared of getting caught that they hid in their wall lockers, leaving me there all by myself to explain to the first Sgt. why my battle buddies were not where he had left them when he inspected us. The 1st Sgt. asked me where they were and all I could do was point to the wall lockers Soon after the inspection, the 1st Sgt. wanted to talk to all the females in the company and wanted to tell them not to be intimidated by him just because he is a tall man and also stated that he will try to talk softer to the females from now on.(something that could not be achieved no matter how hard he tried.)
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"Kid's Eye View"
I was stationed in the Republic of Korea in the mid-Eighties and dating a fighter pilot. (Yes, I have since learned better...) We were at the O'Club for lunch with my four-year-old daughter--me in BDUs and him in the ever-present "green bag" flight-suit. After looking over the menu selections, my fly-boy said, "I feel like a sandwich." To which my daughter responded, "You LOOK like a pickle!"
Several weeks later, as the same child and I walked home from the base, there was a roar and shaking of windows which could only mean that one of the very "secret" planes was taking off--the ones nobody was supposed to know about. My preschooler pointed skyward and shouted, "Look! It's the picture-taking airplane!" "Quiet, Honey," I whispered, "We don't have any of those here." Right. But the kids in the child care center know what they are!

"The Package"
When I was stationed in Germany as an Army LT, I never thought of the humorous situations that could occur with simple mail. As a birthday surprise I had purchased an item from Fredericks of Hollywood for my boyfriend. Because he was another officer in the same battalion, we wanted to be discreet as much as possible. I handed him the box thinking he would open it later. I checked on a couple of things and when I met him in the parking lot in front of the Company HQ, about 15 troops were standing around my boyfriend's car and when I approached, one of them said "Have fun tonight" then they all gave me an exaggerated salute and left. I asked my boyfriend what that was all about and he said that he had opened the box in the car and they saw what it was. A red, men's rip away bikini!
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"Read My Lips"
Long before the phrase became famous, " READ MY LIPS" was a favorite of a Platoon Sgt. of ours, usually when he frustrated with us. One very unpleasant day, Sgt.F was extremely unhappy with the male members of the platoon and hollered out for the females to "COVER YOUR EARS"..... to which a woman beside me answered,..."That won't work anymore Sgt. F, you taught us to read lips.".
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"The Tootsie Pop"
In 1986, I was stationed at Ft. Hood, Texas. I had been trying to stop smoking as the new rules of no smoking in government buildings was about to go into affect. Being the rank of a mere PFC, I was low man on the totem pole! I tried the nicorette gum, but that wasn't enough,,, I decided to go with a "tootsie pop," -- the suckers with the tootsie roll inside. I was walking down the sidewalk back to the S-4 section, when an officer popped around the building,,,, I had papers in one hand, and a tootsie pop in the other..... without even thinking of what I was doing, I whipped out my salute and hit myself in the head with the tootsie pop! I was so embarrassed, thought for sure, I'm in trouble now!!! But amazingly the officer burst out laughing, causing me in turn to laugh, and I was then able to rearrange what I had in hand, whipped out a proper salute, apologize and head on my merry way,,,,,the officer returned the salute while he was still cracking up about me cracking myself in the head with a sucker! I decided to get rid of the suckers after that, and was never able to quit smoking!
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"More on Smoking"
I remember the timeframe (1986ish) when the new no-smoking rules were going to be implemented in government buildings. My boss, a brand new lieutenant colonel, smoked like a chimney. Neither I nor any of my counterparts who worked for the LtCol smoked. Naturally, we hated having meetings in our boss's office because we had to endure his smoking. One day, on the way out, one of the bolder lieutenants in our small group said: "What are you going to do when the military says you can't smoke in your office anymore?" The LtCol looked at us with a forlorn look and said: "I guess I'll have to quit." The four of us walked out and didn't say a word and we never knew if our boss meant he'd have to quit smoking or quit the military.

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"Bunny"
When I was in the Air Force during the 1970s, we were implementing the new security procedures for the terminals. My job was to hand search all carry on packages for concealed weapons, knives with blades over 3 inches, etc. I was stationed at Travis AFB, CA. The war in 'Nam was on the down swing but it was still there. I think anyone could imagine my surprise when I reached down into what I thought was a shaving kit, and felt the contents wiggle under my hand. The passenger had a live rabbit in his hand carry bag. I screamed but was trapped between two tables and two posts. He didn't take the rabbit on the plane but the guys in my section called me "Bunny" for a while.