The USS Gladiator Leads the Way in MCM Gender Integration
By Lieutenant Commander Jon Paris, U.S. Navy | May 30, 2019
It was an early spring morning on the Arabian Gulf—under way on one of the Navy’s last remaining wooden ships, the seas a gentle 2–3 feet and the temperatures prematurely rising as they are notorious for in the region. As the sun crept up above the horizon and poked through the scattered clouds and dusty haze, some 15 sailors—dressed in rainbow float coats and hard hats—stood on the forecastle receiving a safety brief from their petty officer-in-charge. No watches, no rings, no dangly things. Head on a swivel. Hydrate. It was the standard pre-sweeping brief minemen had been giving, and listening to, for years. This brief was slightly different, though. As the sailors left their huddle and marched aft to “man the fantail,†one of them was breaking a glass ceiling along the way. At 0900 on that March morning, the first female mineman in the U.S. Navy’s history streamed a sweep.
https://blog.usni.org/posts/2019/05/29/the-uss-gladiator-leads-the-way-in-mcm-gender-integration
