LT Adrienne M. Griffen Oral History

title:

LT Adrienne M. Griffen Oral History

creator:

Griffen, Adrienne M. (Marks) (1965 July 19 -

subject:

US Naval Academy (USNA) | Navy

description:

Adrienne M. Griffen (formerly Marks) was born in New York City, New York in 1965. Her parents grew up in the city, and although her father wanted to attend the Naval Academy, he couldn't due to his poor vision. Instead, he was an attorney, and her mother was a stay-at-home mom. She also had an older brother and two younger sisters. Her family moved upstate to Olean, New York so the family could get a small town experience, and she graduated from a small Catholic school there in 1983. Her father's brother had attended the Naval Academy, so she was already familiar with it by the time that the academies opened their doors to women in 1976. While visiting when she was younger, they joked that could now attend, and years later she chose to do so. In 1983 she became a midshipman at the Naval Academy, where she majored in computer science. Although in some ways she remembers being treated like any other plebe, she also felt that often she and the other women there were constantly under a microscope, with all of them sticking out because of their gender regardless of any efforts taken to blend in. Her class started with between 110 and 120 women, with 68 graduating in 1987. She decided to join the crew team despite never having rowed before, swam, and played battalion sports. She akso joined the Society of Women Enigineers. during the academic year, their days would start between 6am and 6:30am, they would finish classes around 3pm and extracurriculars around 6pm, and lights out was meant to be 11pm. Although some midshipmen would stay up much later, Adrienne tried her best to always go to bed by midnight. For their first summer, she went on a cruise acting as a junior enlisted person on the USS Lexington, an older aircraft carrier that ran flight training trips.For their third summer, she acted as a junior officer on the much newer aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, where she and her good friend and roommate were the only two women on the 5,000 person crew. Her findest memories at the academy have to do with spending time with her roommate and other female friends, who all did their best to help each other out. Her biggest challenge stemmed from being a woman in such a male-dominated space, especially as the only woman in her major. Although she had close male friends that treated her well one-on-one, she found that when the men would get together, a mob mentality would emerge and they would trat her much more unkindly. Her proudest achievements include getting stars to wear above the anchors on her lapels for her academic, athletic, and military excellence in her second semester, along with how far she was able to push herself physically participating in sports. The advice she'd offer to a young person thinking about attending an academy would be to gather as much information about the school specifically and service branch more generally before making a decision, because there are elements of the experience at the academy and in the service that are easy to overlook when you're only 17 or 18, since they feel so far away. After graduating in 1987, she spent the summerteaching plebes at the academy how to sail. then was assigned to a P-3 squadron in Brunswick, Maine. They deloyed to Keflvaik, Iceland to hunt for Soviet submarines. Her next assignment was at the Pentagon, on the staff of the Office of the Director of Naval Intelligence. Her final assignment was at the White House. As of the interview, Adrienne had left the service and was a full-time mom to her three children, who were 7, 4, and 2 years old. Adrienne left the service in 1994 having reached the rank of lieutenant. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Reborchick, Marcy

date:

2006-10-21

type:

Moving Image

format:

mini-DV

identifier:

374; 2006.374

source:

OHP | 3rd Annual Academy Women Symposium | IMES

language:

English

relation:

188751

coverage:

1980s | 1990s | 1983-1987 | 1987-1994

rights:

Unrestricted