RDML Sandra E. Adams, USNR Ret. Oral History

title:

RDML Sandra E. Adams, USNR Ret. Oral History

creator:

Adams, Sandra "Sandy" E. (1956 August 14 -

subject:

Navy | Navy Reserve

description:

Sandra “Sandy” Adams was born at Ladd Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1956. After two years in Alaska, her family moved to Seattle, Washington and Oklahoma for a few years each before settling in Okemos, Michigan in 1964. She has one younger brother, her father was in the Air Force and later worked as a professor at Michigan State University, and her mother was also a professor at Michigan State University. After graduating high school in 1974, she enrolled at Michigan State University and graduated with a degree in journalism in 1978. She worked as a technical writer in South Carolina for three years before joining the Navy in 1981, hoping to gain leadership experience. She went to Newport, Rhode Island for Officer Candidate School in June 1981. Although she assumed she’d work in public affairs because of her degree, before they ranked billets an officer encouraged her to select a ship, so she ended up on the USS Puget Sound for her first duty station. Since she selected this ship, she was designated as a surface warfare officer and completed qualifications for that designation in four months, arriving to the USS Puget Sound in May 1982. The ship had a crew of 1,2000, and around 120 of them were women, including 5 women officers out of 100 total. With a crew that size, although the women were berthed together, most didn’t actually work together. The ship home ported in Gaeta, Italy, and once on their way to operations in Beirut a rumor spread that the women on board would be taken off the ship because it was too close to a combat area. The ship would go on to support those operations for a year and a half and the women were never removed, but they always felt a baseline level of uncertainty regarding their positions. When she was getting ready to transfer from the USS Puget Sound she was hoping to be put on another ship, but because there were still quotas for women on sea duty, she was told there were too many other women who were waiting for the first chance on a ship for her to be billeted on a second. Instead, she went to Norfolk, Virginia’s Readiness Support Group to help coordinate repairs, and put in her letter to be released from active duty. She left active duty at the end of 1985 and began working as a production supervisor at a pharmaceutical company in California. This job came with a large pay cut, so she was convinced to join the Reserves after finding out it pays. After a couple of years coordinating repairs, she joined a Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare Unit (now Naval Coastal Warfare Unit) in 1990. Soon after, they were deployed as part of Operation Desert Storm to protect the Army port in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. As of the interview, her deployment during Desert Storm was her only one, although she had mobilized many officers and enlisted to Iraq and Afghanistan. After two and a half years with her MIUW unit, Sandy went to the Naval Coastal Warfare Group, and when she became a commander she was assigned as the first woman CO for the Brooklyn U-Unit 203 for two years. As of the interview, she was stationed with U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii. Sandy retired in 2015 with the rank of rear admiral, and for her service she was awarded a Surface Warfare pin, Legion of Merit with a star, Defense Meritorious Service Medal with 2 oak leaf clusters, Meritorious Service Medal with a star, Navy Commendation Medal with 2 stars, Navy Achievement Medal with 2 stars, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, Navy Unit Commendation with 3 bronze stars, Surface Warfare Office Pin, Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation, Navy "E" Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal with a star, Southwest Asia Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Korean Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Navy Sea Service Deployment Ribbon with a star, Navy Overseas Service Ribbon with 2 stars, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia), Kuwait Liberation Medal (Emirate of Kuwait), Navy Expert Rifleman Medal, and Navy Expert Pistol Shot Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Unknown

date:

2007-11-08

type:

Moving Image

format:

Digital Video Cassette

identifier:

1049; 2007.1049

source:

OHP | IMES

language:

English

relation:

250612

coverage:

1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm—1990-1991 | Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan)—2001-2014 | 1981-1986 | 1986-2015

rights:

Unrestricted