LT Crystal Hudak Oral History

title:

LT Crystal Hudak Oral History

creator:

Hudak, Crystal Lynn (1985 January 5 -

subject:

US Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) | Coast Guard

description:

Crystal Lynn Hudak (married name Dooley) was born on January 5, 1985 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Growing up, her family moved every few years, following her father as he was hired for jobs around the world. Sher, her parents, and her one younger sister lived in Pennsylvania, New Zealand, Oregon, Alaska, Connecticut, and Missouri while she was growing up, graduating from high school in Jackson, Missouri in 2003. While they were living in Alaska, her mother worked as an environmental consultant on the Aleutian Islands. While working there, she suggested to Crystal (who wanted to work at the Forest Service at the time) that she join the Coast Guard. She wasn't completely committed to going to the Coast Guard Academy and didn't think she'd get in, but applied there for her parents' sake. After receiving her acceptance letter, her parents didn't talk to her about her decision, leaving it entirely up to her. Her grandfather had served in the Coast Guard and the Navy before and during World War II, but that was the only history of military service in her family before she and her sister both joined. There were around 330 people in her class when they began, and around a third of them were women. Crystal hated swab summer (the summer before freshmen officially begin their first academic year), mostly because of the yelling. She always felt like the people yelling at her--largely juniors at the academy--did not actually have enough experience to know much more about the real Coast Guard than the freshmen did. It did ultimately teach her how to let someone yell at her, then move on with her day once they were done. Although she didn't become good friends with her freshman year roommates, she and her roommates for the next three years would get in trouble for being too noisy while having fun together. Regarding sports, she ran cross coutry for two years, did one season of crew, participated in the marathon club, and spent three years on the Sandhurst team. Sandhurst was a competition at West Point that had small teams compete in tests of different army skills, so the Coast Guard teams' goal was always to at least beat the Naval Academy, since they were euqally clueless about army skills and practices. She also started the Coast Guard Sustainability Club with a close friend of hers, which helped the academy imporve thingns like recycling programs and lowering water waste. Academically, she struggled with the transition fromgetting A's in math and science in high school to hoping for a D or C in those subjects at the academy, but her parents always reminded her that it happens to everyone, and classes can be retaken. Over her second summer, she and a roommate went on the older USCGC Mackinaw in Cheboygan, Michigan for six weeks and the USCGC Eagle for another six weeks. In her third summer, they acted as drill sergeants for the incoming freshmen going through swab summer, and for her final summer she spent the full 12 weeks back aboard the Eagle. She enjoyed her second stint on the Eagle much more than the first since they were on longer, which helped her get closer to the permanent crew more and understand the functions of the ship better.One female mentor stood out to her: a meteorology professor who was very honest about the experience of being a woman in the Coast Guard, namely that they will never be around more women once they are commssioned than they were at the academy. On billet night, she was initally assigned to the USCGC Sycamore, but found out weeks later that her billet had been changed to the USCGC Munro. Although she was initially upset, the Munro was changing it's home port from Alameda, California to Kodiak, Alaska, so she was excited once again that her assignment was in Alaska. She was one of 30 women on the 130 person crew and served as a communcations officer, although since there were only 12 junior officers, she did a bit of everything. She had gotten engaged before graduation to a man a class below her at the academy and they got married after he graduated, so she extended her time on the Munro to three years so their rotation cycles would align. Although she sometimes encountered people who didn't think women should be in the military, whenever she'd challenge them, they would go quiet. Thinking about the experience of the first women to attend the service academies, she's not sure if the academies would have appealed to her at all given the challenges they faced. When she and her husband put in their dream sheet for their next assignments, Miami and San Diego were at the top of the list, but both she and her husband ended up at their (about) 32nd choice: Juneau, Alaska. Crystal was assigned to the District 17 Command Center there, which her XO said was the best assignment in the entire Coast Guard. There, her job was to direct non-emergency calls to the appropriate offices, and coordinate all the logistics and directions for search and rescue efforts when emergencies are called in. She emailed her previous XO, telling him he was right about this post. As of the interview, Crystal and her husband were both nearing the end of their service obligations, and still had to decide who was going to stay in or get out. With both of them serving in the Coast Guard, they face a unique struggle, not exclusively being military spouses or Coast Guard officers but a combination of the two. Crystal thinks the struggles of dual service couples are largely ignored and under-discussed, and that, given the high divorce rate of dual service couples, the military should have a greater interest in supporting couples and families like theirs. As of the interview, Crystal had reached the rank of lieutenant, and for her service she had been awarded a Coast Guard Achievement Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Fee, Robbie

date:

2011-12-16

type:

Moving Image

format:

mini-DV

identifier:

1283; 2011.1283

source:

OHP | IMES

language:

English

relation:

636079

coverage:

2000s | 2010s | 2003-2007 | 2007-interview

rights:

Unrestricted