Monday
Apr272009
Admiral Michelle Howard Fights Off Pirates
Monday, April 27, 2009 at 8:51AM The Blogmother
Speaking of "Arks" and whatnot, here is a Black woman commanding lots of boats, except they are warships :) From WAOD reader Linda.
Here is some background:
Here is Admiral Howard's Bio:
How cool is that? :) Thanks Linda.
Hello,
I thought you and other readers might be interested to read more about Rear Adm. Michelle Howard. Who knew an African American woman led the task force to fight off the pirates.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103054534
http://eurthisnthat.com/african-american-female-commander-thwarts-pirates/#more-4254
Here is some background:
While we were so focused on the captain of the U.S. cargo ship that was rescued from the Somali pirates, our attention was diverted from the very person that lead the charge to get him back to his family.
The Navy Times ran a story on Rear Admiral Michelle Howard who took command of the Navy’s counterpiracy task force only three days before the pirates attacked the U.S. cargo ship Maersk Alabama and snagged the captain as a hostage.
The U.S. Navy hadn’t seen this type of action in a very long time and piracy hasn’t been something the Navy has had to counter attack in over 100 years. Howard’s expertise and illustrious Navy career showed her to be the perfect person for this mission. She is the first female graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy to be promoted to Rear Admiral.
In the article, she said, ““Right now, the policy is, fight piracy, and I am all about that policy … We are quite capable of staying out here and doing this mission.” This N That
Here is Admiral Howard's Bio:
Rear Admiral Michelle Howard
Commander, Expeditionary Strike Group 2.
Rear Admiral Michelle Howard
Rear Admiral Michelle Howard is a 1978 graduate of Gateway High School in Aurora, Colo. She graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1982 and from the Army’s Command and General Staff College in 1998, with a master's degree in Military Arts and Sciences.
Howard’s initial sea tours were aboard USS Hunley (AS 31) and USS Lexington (AVT 16). While serving onboard Lexington, she received the Secretary of the Navy/Navy League Captain Winifred Collins award in May 1987. This award is given to one woman officer a year for outstanding leadership. She reported to USS Mount Hood (AE 29) as chief engineer in 1990 and served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. She assumed duties as first lieutenant onboard the USS Flint (AE 32) in July 1992. In January 1996, she became the executive officer of USS Tortuga (LSD 46) and deployed to the Adriatic in support of Operation Joint Endeavor, a peacekeeping effort in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. 60 days after returning from the Mediterranean deployment, Tortuga departed on a West African Training Cruise, where the ship’s Sailors, with embarked Marines and U.S. Coast Guard detachment, operated with the naval services of seven African nations.
She took command of USS Rushmore (LSD 47) on 12 March 1999, becoming the first African American woman to command a ship in the U.S. Navy. Howard was the Commander of Amphibious Squadron 7 from May 2004 to September 2005. Deploying with Expeditionary Strike Group 5, operations included tsunami relief efforts in Indonesia and maritime security operations in the North Persian Gulf.
Her shore assignments include: course coordinator/instructor for the Steam Engineering Officer of the Watch course; action officer and Navy’s liaison to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Military Services in the Bureau of Personnel; Action Officer J-3, Global Operations, Readiness on the Joint Staff from 2001-2003; executive assistant to the Joint Staff Director of Operations from February 2003 to February 2004; and deputy director N3 on the OPNAV Staff from December 2005 to July 2006; deputy director, Expeditionary Warfare Division, OPNAV staff from July 2006 to December 2006.
She was the senior military assistant to the Secretary of the Navy from January 2007 to January 2009 and currently serves as Commander, Expeditionary Strike Group 2. US Navy
How cool is that? :) Thanks Linda.
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Reader Comments (35)
Very cool. The coverage was on par as usual. White captain = hero. Black pirates = bad. Was Obama gonna punk out. Was it "fair" the pirates were killed. I'm fairly certain if it has been a white man in charge he would've gotten coverage.
If we had done some research we could've demanded that coverage be more inclusive instead of letting the corporate hacks shape the meme for the story.
That is really cool! I hope that she gets more media exposure.
As a black man, there was a time when I would have taken great pride in this woman as I did when I realized that college educated black women made more money on average than their white counterparts. I saw race over gender because I viewed the two genders as too intertwined to separate.
But now I find it more difficult since the increased influence of the “black female empowerment” bloggers due to their efforts at gender separation within the race and the fact that inevitably, such wonderful accomplishments will be referenced in their efforts to show how much ‘better’ black women are than black men.
Rear Admiral!!! Annapolis!! Cool. Nothing more to say.
:)
Warning: Do Not Feed the Troll.
Yeah it is cool!
I never heard of her and I thought I was up on all black black history folks. I hope she gets at least some black media coverage.
Thanks for posting this information!
She is very accomplished and wasn't in the mainstream media what a shame!
I'm checking out the links now!
Thanks for the hat tip Linda and thanks Gina for posting. I am joining the crusade to get the word out about this phenomenal woman. What a wonderful example of outstanding, hardwork, dedication and honor that Rear Adm. Michelle Howard personifies.
@Wanna Twinkie I love your name :) HAHA
Awe.Some. That is all.
Ha! Excellent!
At the end of the Day it's about doing your job- If you do your job and do it well you will get the credit you deserve. That is her nature and is what makes her a special person. It is nice that people are taking notice of her accomplishments. She is an inspiration to all people.
Love this story.
All I can say to Ms Michelle Howard is: You go, girl!
Terrific!!!!!
What great and important info to share. I love this. I like the modesty that she has shown, the respect for her role and her Commander in Chief.
Feeling very proud of Michelle Howard at this moment. I hope more people (particularly young black women and girls) get to hear about her numerous accomplishments. Ms. Howard is an inspiration.
Yay!
That's great!
So many times I feel abit bombarded when I read science books -its almost as if just as important it was to know the content, the books practically shoved down my throat that it was a guy from Germany or Sweden or some such place who came up with whatever the topic was.
As a woman, I am proud of her accomplishment, as a Black woman, even more so...but make no mistake...this planet we live on is besieged with ignorance and jealousies, so waiting for the media to recognize her and make her known to us as a populous, wasn't going to happen...afterall, it took a White man to screw this country up for a Black man to become president (no offense to Mr. Obama's qualifications - and those of us who are on a different wave length, knows that the tides of change are truly upon us) ...but I digress...As people of color starting furthering their roles in leadership, education, finance (yes, I said it...finance...lol), and business around the world...the nay-sayers are going to do everything in their power to quiet the truth...and the truth is...this planet has a decision to make...either we keep on acting like as thought WE created this world....or we start allowing room for all manifestations of life to help in saving this extraordinary planet....and part of that entails us growing up as a species...thanks for listening...Namaste'
OT: we always discuss movies here...how sick would it be to have Angela Bassett play her in a movie?
Indulge me for a minute...
Creative license is taken all the time...let the antagonist be played by Iman...
Silence of the Lambs + Black Hawk Down + Das Boot = movie gold
Where are all the industry ladies?
I love it, but brother's please don't hate on her.
This country is blessed with persons like President & first lady Obama and Rear Admiral Michelle Howard. History commands that we all accept that we have earned the moment and do whatever we can when the time comes to make known their accomplishments on our behalf. So, will we allow history to be silent by not telling our children and grandchildren? We can speak out loud and write it down in our own books. Lets get busy and help record history. Don't wait for someone else to do our job. It is the moment of every color to make history known in writing to strengthen our country. It does not matter if the Rear Admiral was a woman, but it is a strong show of power. She obviously is prepared to handle her career, and our President and First Lady have already demonstrated their preparedness. Dreams take us to extraordinary places. Our forefathers, Martin Luther King and those who walked with him already told us that. Now we need to live out the dream. It's just our time.
@Faith
I agree with your praise of Rear Admiral Michelle Howard for her excellent work and achievement.
I disagree with you on two points:
*A captain letting pirates capture him to save his crew is indeed heroic. So, Capt. Richard Phillips deserves all the praise he's received.
*Somali pirates have NO qualms robbing and killing everyone on this thread. They are the seafaring equivalent of the Black gangbangers, rapists, drug dealers, etc. who regularly rape and pillage our neighborhoods. Somali pirates are indeed the bad guys.
So, I applaud President Obama for ordering the Navy to shoot Capt. Phillips' pirate captors. Somali pirates are no "brothers" of mine no matter how Black they are.
LaJane, I hope we have some screenwriters who can turn Rear Admiral Michelle's story into a movie. You KNOW that Hollywood is already prepping the tv movies of this story and that Ms. Howard's story won't be a part of the Hollywood version.
Woo-hoo for Rear Adm. Howard!!
Hey Fred!
I don't think the Captain was heroic, he's the Captain. He goes down with the ship.
The piracy situation is more complicated than American MSM will have you believe. I'm actually planning to read some books on it this weekend. As Somalia has no government, they have noone to enforce their rights to their territorial sea. They have had toxic waste dumped and their fishing industry decimated by foreign ships. This is a breach of sovereignty and perhaps an act of war. Naturally, they will respond. Note, I.am.not.saying.they.are.good.guys. Bear in mind that ships are rarely flagged under the ship/captain/crew/goods nationality. Considering that piracy has been going on in the Gulf of Aden & surrounding waters for some 5000 years, this shouldn't be a surprise.
Also, where did they get the weapons & GPS? State actors. Better believe others have a hand in this. It is a way to make war...without declaring it. Our intervention was a show of force b/c the Maersk was actually flying under our flag and Obama is new. American goods are stolen all of the time all over the world.
They are more serious, focused and important than our local thugs :)
Rear Admiral Michelle Howard like Condoleeza Rice was selected by George W. Bush for her position of importance without regard to race or gender. She served in several important Navy positions and will go farther assuming politics doesn't intrude. As far as "Admiral Michelle Howard Fights Off Pirates" give the real credit to the Seal's skill, dedication and guts.
Much has been put forth about the decision making process/ability/ motivation of Obama to get the rescue job done. It certainly helped that she was a highly trained and skilled professional.Yes be proud of the Admiral but not just because she's black, but because she had parents who cared.
I think there is a little bit of confusion about the role the Rear Admiral played. Admirals DON'T captain ships. She is the overall commander of TF-151 for which the USS Boxer serves as the Flag ship (where the Rear Admiral is). The skipper of the USS Bainbridge is a dude. The Navy SEAL shooters were dudes, the USMC boarding team 0 dudes. Let's keep this in perspective now people - everyone did their job as they should have which reflects nicely up the chain of command to the Rear Admiral.
Hi Sandra. The ones in charge of the movie version will do her the same as what was done with the World Trade Center movie...."conveniently miss" the fact that the hero is a Black person, and then apologize profusely for the oversight. I just learned of Adm Howard last night, from an email sent by a friend. If this had been a white woman 'instant media darling.'
I am greatly awed at Ms. Howard's achievements. It goes to show that we women are just as capable of handling brute force situations.. YOU GO GIRL!!!!, With Love
Always tried to look at the person as how they handle it rather than are they black/white, or male/female. Trying to put that all that aside.....
We are all in this together!
Bravo Zulu to the Admiral!!
Kudos to her for ALL her achievements. A 'D' grade for the racist, mainstream media for the "invisible" and "unequal" coverage she received.
I just happened to be on my computer at home while studying for the navywide exam. I took a break and click on to google website and typed up admirals in the US Navy and noticed African Americans in the US Navy who were admirals and I was surprised to see rear admiral Michelle Howard as the US Navy's first female African American to command a ship. It's a shame to know how very few sailors know who she is, that an African American female would command such a ship at anytime. This also show us how little we know who are superiors are in general and others like ADM Paul J Reason, first african American four star Admiral, and RADM Lillian E Fisburne, first african American female Admiral who has served. Particularly with RADM Howard, commanding a US Navy ship. I personally find this interesting and inspirational.
Michelle J. Howard was my Division Officer when we both served at Surface Warfare Officers School (SWOS) in Coronado (88 & 89). She is one of the top officers I ever served under in my 26 years in the Navy. She was not only a brilliant engineer, she was the epitome of the standard for an officer. She always took time too discuss strategies, tactics, problems, etc. with the Chiefs and the other instructors at SWOS. She always made sure that everyone felt involved. Ms Howard had the true gift of leadership which many, many junior officers never achieve. I think all of us at SWOS knew that if Ms Howard decided to make the Navy a career, there were no limits to what she could achieve. I think her career speaks for itself. It was/is a distinct pleasure and privilege to have served with Ms. Howard and to call her my friend. Fair winds and following seas, Admiral!
Larry Goulet, Senior Chief Petty Officer(SW), United States Navy (ret)