Because I have served my country as a United States Sailor, this is something that is close to my heart. I made a Facebook post a couple of days ago and it’s been shared quite a bit, so a friend suggested that I chat about it here.
For hundreds of years, women have served this country in the military. Black women have served this country in the US Navy for the last 75 years. How about a little history lesson on our historical value as it relates to the US Navy.
Taken from CHiPS:
”Black women were not permitted to join the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) until late 1944, according to Dr. Tina L. Ligon, Archivist at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. WAVES Director Mildred McAfee and Activist Mary McLeod Bethune encouraged Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal to push for the acceptance of black women into this program. As a result, the Navy trained roughly 1 black woman for every 36 white women enlisted in the WAVES, which was nearly 3 percent, she wrote in a blog written for the National Archives, “Pictorial History of Black Women in the US Navy during World War II and Beyond.”
In November 1944, Harriet Ida Pickens and Frances Wills graduated from the Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School (Women’s Reserve) at Northampton, Massachusetts, and became the first African American WAVES officers, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command.
Pickens had worked as a public health administrator, who was encouraged by her father, William Pickens, one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), to join the WAVES, according to Ligon.
Wills, a social worker, joined the WAVES because she did not have any brothers to serve in the war effort and decided it was her duty to enlist, Ligon wrote. As commissioned officers, Wills taught naval history and administered classification tests and Pickens led physical training sessions at the Hunter Naval Training Station in Bronx, New York, the main training facility for enlisted WAVES recruits.”
My Thoughts and A Few Feels…
I try my best to be honest ALL the time (save a few situations where I intentionally serve fallacies), so let me continue in that same energy here. My time in the service has been amazing overall, but there are quite a few things I would not have been subject to if it weren’t for this skin I’m in and these ovaries I have. Sometimes, both of those together have been the identified source of egregious closed-door conversations and interactions with other service members of varying ranks.
What I can’t do is discredit my own service or the service of the US Navy as a whole based upon a few stupid people. I am one of many service members, and one of the thousands of black female US Navy service members. If you speak with some of us, the story is the same; maltreatment, verbal disrespect, reduced/restrained opportunity to stand out, misquotation, perceived insubordination without actual proof, etc. On the converse, if you speak with some of us, the story is 100% different, and the Navy has been the best choice for us and we’ve met great people who treated us well and we were able to reach or exceed our goals.
My personal experience is one that includes both of these stories with the only common denominator being ME (as cute as I am, I know, I know). So how do I know that in all of those negative interactions, I wasn’t the problem? Often times it’s easier to let questions like that go play in the abyss of unanswered bull**** than to attempt to explain someone else’s stupidity and prejudices in defense of yourself. After a while, it makes you a bit hostile thinking of how it has affected you and, at some point, you’ll end up sounding stupid too. You have to let people harness their own negativity and harvest the fruit thereof. Don’t take that on! It’s not your burden to bear unless you MAKE IT yours. (That’s me being wise, you might wanna write that down!). Maybe one day, I’ll write a book detailing some of my experiences in the military (not today though, nah…). I bet it’ll sell lots of copies and people will love and hate it (and probably me) at the same time.
As for today, I will continue to love the women pictured below and tell ALL Sailors out there in the fleet, keep pushing yourself. Don’t wait for anyone to tell you to qualify, complete and achieve, you DO it because it’s got to be done. Why not let it be you? If they can do it, that makes it possible for everyone else to do it. IT IS DOABLE. These gorgeous ladies are proof.
Who The Kel? 
I really appreciate what you shared. I admire you.
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