RADM Deborah A. Loewer, USN Ret. Oral History Part 3

title:

RADM Deborah A. Loewer, USN Ret. Oral History Part 3

creator:

Loewer, Deborah Ann (1954 August 3 -

subject:

Navy

description:

Part 3 of 4. When the interview took place, Deborah Ann Loewer had been in the position of Vice Commander at Military Sealift Command for around 8 months. She describes Military Sealift Command as the "open ocean transportation company" for the entire military and a handful of non-military government agencies, an especially busy part of the Navy at the time, since they were constantly moving equipment for Operation Iraqi Freedom. She was born in August 1954 as the second of four children, and she grew up in Springfield, Ohio. Her father worked at Air Force Logistics Command and later in foreign military sales, and her mother was a nurse. When she graduated from Shawnee High School, her plan was to go to college, study mathematics, and become a math teacher in Springfield. As she was going to school, however, she decided she wanted to do something else before returning to Springfield and went to see an Air Force recruiter before graduating in 1976. This was a natural decision for her since her father and brother were both Air Force, but the recruiter told her they had already hit their quota, so she went to the Navy recruiter next door. She joined the Navy after graduating, and completed Officer Candidate School in December 1976. Since she couldn't fly, she initially wanted to go into something operational. The only operational pathway for women at the time was to be stationed at SOSUS (Sound Surveillance System) stations, which used passive sonar to track Soviet submarines. She graduated second in her class and selected a SOSUS station, but her orders were changed to work at the Bureau of Naval Personnel in financial management in Washington, DC, which she later found out happened because she had a math degree. She was there from the start of 1977 until March of 1979. While there, some limitations on the ships women were allowed to be stationed on were lifted, so she began applying for sea jobs in 1979 and was among the first women to be assigned to ship board duty. She and three other women were assigned to the USS Yosemite (AD-19), alongside 1,100 men. When they were first introduced to the ship's captain, he told the women that he didn't want them on his ship, but they should at least find something to do if they had to be there. In 1981, as she was looking for another ship to apply to, she found out the captain had written her a fitness report that gave her low grades across to board and said she was incompetent. She prepared to leave the Navy because of this fitness report, but luckily she was on a temporary assignment and this report was brought to the attention of the 3-star she was working under, who puched her to file a grievance with the Board of Corrections for Naval Records over it. Eventually, while she was waiting to finish her time on the Yoesmite and get out, the captain responsible for that fitness report is relieved for his coduct on several people's fitness reports. Soon after, they went to Guantanamo Bay for refresher training. While there one night, someone came into her room with a pipe wrench in an attempt to sexually assault her. She confronted him as he entered and she was hit in the head with the pipe, but she began screaming afterwards and he ran from the room as others woke up. After they stopped the initial bleeding, she was Medivaced to Norfolk, Virginia. After she recovered from her injuries, she was stationed in Washington, DC as a telecommunications design engineer. Again, she considered getting out due to limited shipboard opportunities, but she was awarded an Olmsted scholarship in 1984 and went to the Defense Language Institute in California and the Goethe Institute in Stuttgart, Germany. After graduating, she earned a PhD in international law from the University of Kiel in 1987. Luckily, this means she returned to the United States after women were allowed to attend Department Head School, so she went there and graduated at the top of her class about seven months later. She was then assigned to the USS Yosemite as Chief Engineer. The ship deployed to the Mediterranean in 1988, and while they were there Deborah found out the XO was marking down women on the ship who were suspected of being lesbians. While she pointed out that this hunt may be a legal problem, the XO ended up having those 10 to 20 women restricted and returned to the U.S. after they landed in the Mediterranean. Some of these women contacted the press immediately, and Deborah ended up fielding questions about the events since she had a law degree. Talk slowed down at one point, until she goes to her regular meeting with the captain and is told she is relieving the XO. In 1990, she went from the USS Yoesmite to the USS Monongahela, and this ship is where she learned how to coordinate Underway Replenishment (UNREP) since it was an oiler that refuled other ships. At the end of their deployment, the Monongahela supported three battle groups on their way to the Persian Gulf for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Her next station was in Washington, DC as a long-range strateigc planner with Op 513, where she mostly focused on science and technology projects and acted as the UN Action Officer. Right before she was stationed as the CO on the USS Mount Baker in Charleston, South Carolina, she pushed to have women from the NAval Academy be granted access to more combat-related roles, since the combat exclusions at the time essentially forced these women--some of the best and the brightest--into desk jobs regardless of their qualification for or interest in other fields. In 2003, Deborah becamse the first Navy woman promoted to a flag officer in the warfare communities. She served for four more years, leaving the service in 2007 with the rank of Rear Admiral. For her service, Deborah was awarded a Defense Distinguished Service Medal with a star, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal with a gold star, Navy Commendation Medal with two gold stars, Navy Achievement Medal with a gold star, Joint Meritorious Unit Award with a star, and Navy Unit Commendation Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Scott, Kate

date:

2004-03-13

type:

Moving Image

format:

Hi-8

identifier:

574.03; 2004.574

source:

OHP

language:

English

relation:

410171

coverage:

1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s

rights:

Unrestricted