Breaking with a tradition that spans more than half a century, the Navy is in the final planning stages to integrate female Sailors into its submarine fleet.
Long considered one of the most elite communities in the U.S. Navy, the small, secretive force has been comprised entirely of male officers and crew in large part because of the small living spaces and long endurance missions.
The service had examined assigning a small number of females on subs over the last ten years, but found the tight confines and lack of a well-defined career path for female submariners too daunting to change.
Until now.
"Having commanded a mixed gender surface combatant, I am very comfortable addressing integrating women into the submarine force," said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead in a statement to Military.com. "I am familiar with the issues as well as the value of diverse crews."
"This has had and will continue to have my personal attention as we work toward increasing the diversity of our Navy afloat and ashore," he added.
According to a senior commander in the Navy's submarine fleet who spoke to Military.com on condition of anonymity, incoming Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has charged the service with overcoming past objections and assigning females to subs -- breaking down one of the last barriers in the service to female assignments.
"We have now received a signal from the secretary of the Navy that he's ready to move out on this. We have never had that signal before," the senior sub commander said. "So now it's time to do some detailed planning to ensure that this is executable."
The official said the submarine fleet would likely not see female crewmembers for at least two years, but he said it was a change whose time had come.
"There is no job on a submarine that a woman can't do," the official said during a Sept. 25 phone interview. "We have a vast pool of very talented young women out there who want to serve on submarines."
The official agreed to speak with Military.com after reports indicated that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman -- and former Chief of Naval Operations -- Adm. Mike Mullen told lawmakers he was pushing the service to lift the ban on women in the so-called "silent service."
One of the biggest obstacles to the integration is technical -- how can the Navy make accommodations on such small vessels for female crew, such as separate heads and bunks? The official said integrating females into the ballistic missile submarine fleet would be less of a challenge than on the attack sub fleet, where he said "we really don't have much room to store the toilet paper much less make up a new bathroom" for female crew.
It's likely that the first female submariners will be officers and that they will be assigned to the larger, ballistic missile submarines, or "boomers." The officer accommodations on subs include two- and three-man staterooms and a shared head that could easily be made unisex, the official said.
"The plan for officers involves no physical changes to the ships," the official said, adding that rough estimates of changes for enlisted crew on ballistic missile subs and cruise missile subs run below $10 million per ship.
The official estimates assigning as many as five female officers per sub.
With the enlisted cadre, it's a much more difficult proposition. Not only is there the amount of physical space to consider, but also the career paths and non-commissioned officer leadership to build, the official said.
Navy officials agree that females must be at least 20 percent of the sub's crew -- meaning 20 women on an attack sub, for example -- so that the women don't feel isolated and have "mutual support" from Sailors of the same gender.
Sub fleet leaders also want to make sure there are enough qualified chief petty officers to lead and mentor those female crewmembers.
"Eventually [the Navy] will need to retain enough of the women coming in so that they can eventually provide that leadership," the Navy official said. "We need to have a program and a plan in place that is self-sustaining [and] not always dependent on the surface fleet to get petty officers and officers."
But perhaps the biggest challenge to integrating women into the submarine fleet is cultural.
For decades a male-dominated community whose long-endurance missions and distance from logistical support make living and working on a submarine a sometimes dirty job with little privacy (attack submarine crew share bunks when not on duty), the idea of placing women in such close confines worries both veteran submariners and spouses who fear distraction from the job or infidelity.
"The idea is likely to be unpopular with some traditionalist submariners, who long have believed that the lack of any physical and mental privacy whatsoever and the claustrophobic confines make the idea unworkable," said Joe Buff, a noted expert on submarine warfare, novelist, and Military.com contributor.
"Some wives of submariners have also expressed concern over fraternization, which has at times been an issue in the surface Navy and on diesel subs of other nations that have had co-ed crews."
No matter the rumblings within the fleet and from vets and spouses, SecNav Mabus told Military.com in a statement his service is "moving out aggressively on this."
"I believe women should have every opportunity to serve at sea, and that includes aboard submarines," he added.
Chesapeake woman to be one of first to serve on submarine
A HickoryHigh School graduate will make history as one of the first women to serve in the Navy’s submarine force, the service announced Thursday.
Midshipman Megan Bittner, 22, will receive her commission on May 14, one day prior to graduating magna cum laude from North CarolinaStateUniversity with a degree in chemical engineering
Bittner and classmate Karen Achtyl, 25, of Rochester, N.Y., are the first two women from the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps to be selected to serve aboard a sub.
Additional women have been chosen from the NavalAcademy.
“It has been a long journey, but it has definitely been worth it,” Bittner said. “Karen and I found out at the same time. We went through the process together. It’s a culmination of all our hard work and for me, it’s a relief. I’m very excited.”
Bittner said she consulted with her parents and older brother, Brian, a Naval Academy graduate, before undergoing the rigorous selection process, which included an extensive interview on Monday with the top Navy officer in the submarine force in Washington, Adm. Kirkland Donald.
Bittner’s father, Lawrence, is a retired Navy commander who served as a surface nuclear officer. Megan Bittner said her father’s military career and the cultural environment she grew up with, which included good table manners at an early age, influenced her decision to serve.
“My family has been 100 percent supportive,” she said. “Both my mother and father and older brother made sure it was something I wanted to do for myself. I wanted to do something for my country and do something that would challenge me. It’s definitely a great opportunity.”
Bittner graduated in 2006 from Hickory, where she was a member of the National Honor Society her junior and senior years, captain of the swimming team and president of the chemistry club. Kristen Kirkman, her swim coach, remembers her as a “strong person with a strong-willed personality.”
“It absolutely doesn’t surprise me that she’s doing this,” said Kirkman. “You can’t tell her no about not doing something because she’s a girl. You’re not going to stop her once she puts her mind to it.”
Robert Harrell, who teaches honors chemistry and biology at Hickory, said Bittner excelled as a student. “She took AP chemistry, which is the hardest AP subject taught,” he said. “She got a 5 on the AP exam.”
Lawrence Bittner said his daughter strives to do the best in whatever she does. “Megan is a very organized, amazing young woman who never accepts mediocre for herself,” he said.
Bittner attended N.C. State on a NROTC scholarship and was a top performer in the Wolfpack Battalion, eventually becoming the midshipman battalion commander.
After graduating, Bittner will attend NuclearPowerSchool in Charleston, S.C., followed by six months of hands-on operational training on a nuclear prototype. The final phase will be naval submarine school in Groton, Conn., meaning she would set foot on a submarine in either the fall of 2011 or the spring of 2012.
It was just a week ago that the Navy announced a policy change allowing women to serve on submarines. Supporters of the idea call it a matter of fairness and equal opportunity. But detractors, including some Navy wives, have expressed concerns about lack of privacy that would result from putting men and women together in tight quarters.
Submariners sleep nine to a bunk room, and as many as 40 can share one bathroom. The introduction of the larger Trident guided missile submarines paved the way for the Navy removing one of the final gender barriers in the service.
“As long as everyone is professional – like anybody would be at work – I don’t foresee any problems,” Bittner said.
Cmdr. Timothy Daseler, nuclear programs coordinator for the Naval ROTC program, said he anticipates a smooth transition for Bittner and Achtyl. “They are exceptional students,” he said. “I could not be more proud.”
