Michelle Howard

naval officer; commander

Personal Information

Born Michelle Janine Howard in 1960; daughter of Nick Howard (a retired Air Force master sergeant) and Phillipa; married Wayne K. Cowles (a retired Marine).
Education: United States Naval Academy, B.S. 1982; U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Masters in Military Arts and Sciences, 1998.
Military/Wartime Service: U.S. Navy.

Career

First division officer, planning and estimating officer, and auxiliaries officer, USS Hunley, 1982-1985; main engines officer, USS Lexington, 1986-87; instructor, steam engineering officer of the watch (EOOW) course, Coronado, CA, 1987; coordinator, steam EOOW course, 1989; chief engineer, USS Mount Hood, 1990; tactical action officer (during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm), 1991-92; first lieutenant, USS Flint, 1992; Navy liaison to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Military Service and action officer for the assignment of women in the Navy policy, 1993-96; executive officer, USS Tortuga, 1996; commanding officer, USS Rushmore, 1999-2000; with Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C., 2000-.

Life's Work

When aspiring sailor Michelle Howard learned, at the age of 12, that women weren't accepted at the U.S. Naval Academy, it made her all the more determined to go. The Academy opened its doors to women four years later, and in 1982 she graduated with one of its first coeducational classes. Over the next 10 years she rose through the ranks in the U.S. Navy, completing advanced qualifications in engineering and personnel training and serving in a variety of challenging posts both at home and abroad. Eager to ride the new wave of women moving from support ships to combat vessels--a development made possible by a change in military policy in 1993--Howard became the first female executive officer on an American warship, the USS Tortuga, in 1996. Three years later, in March of 1999, she was named commander of the USS Rushmore, a 15,000-ton amphibious assault vessel with a crew of close to 400 sailors and more than 350 battle-ready marines. The first female captain of the Rushmore and the first African-American woman to command a Navy combat vessel, Howard is clearly pleased with her accomplishments." It's tremendous," she said in an interview with Ebony."This is it! This is all I've ever wanted to do," she continued.

One of four children born to an American Air Force master sergeant and his British, Oxford-educated wife, Michelle Howard grew up in Aurora, Colorado, graduating from Gateway High School in 1978. From her earliest days, her parents instilled in her and her siblings a strong sense of purpose, a respect for education, and a commitment to justice and equality. She also learned to face problems and battle adversaries head on. One day, at the age of five, she came running home crying that someone had called her the "n"-word. "My father picked me up and shook me, (saying): 'You get used to this. You are going to have to deal with this. You stop that crying,'" she said in an interview with The Orange County Register. "He was right," she recalled. Howard was also an avid reader, devouring books by historical and inspirational figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Sojourner Truth, and Sammy Davis, Jr.

Set Her Sights on Annapolis

Attracted to the Navy's uniforms--her older brother, Michael, was an enlisted man--and the opportunity to lead, Howard set her sights on a place at the Naval Academy when she was in junior high school. Michael quickly dismissed the suggestion, for in 1972 no women were permitted at Annapolis. According to Howard, her mother, Phillipa, was not so quick to accept the ruling. "She said, 'If you still want to go when you're older and (the academy) is still closed, we sue the government,'" Howard told The Orange County Register. "'If we win, that's what's called setting a precedent.'" The tide turned anyway, and by 1978, the year she finished high school, two classes with women had already enrolled at Annapolis. Despite heckling and harassment from male students, Howard--and a handful of other females--endured, and in 1982 she graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics.

After completing Surface Warfare Officer's Basic School, Howard spent three years aboard the USS Hunley in Holyloch, Scotland, serving as first division officer in the deck department, planning and estimating officer in the repair area, and auxiliaries officer in the engineering department. She went on to obtain her Engineering Officer of the Watch qualification and complete a two-year tour of duty as main engines officer on the USS Lexington. In 1987 she received the Navy's Captain Winifred Collins award, presented each year to one female officer demonstrating outstanding leadership abilities. She spent the next two years as an instructor and then coordinator at the Steam Engineering Officer of the Watch course in Coronado, California.

Upon completion of Department Head School in September of 1990, Howard served briefly as chief engineer on the USS Mount Hood and then as a tactical action officer during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. From July of 1992 until December of 1993 she served as first lieutenant aboard the USS Flint, after which she moved to the Bureau of Naval Personnel to act as the Navy's liaison to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Military Service and action officer for the policy overseeing the assignment of women in the Navy.

As of 1998, women made up close to 13 percent of Navy personnel, with some 850 female officers and 8,100 enlisted women serving aboard both support and front line vessels. That same year, 57 of the Navy's 117 warships were served by female officers and another 14 ships included women sailors. In an interview with The Cincinnati Post, Ken de Graffenreid, a former naval aviator and member of President Ronald Reagan's National Security Council, argued in favor of promoting women to leadership positions aboard combat ships. "Women can fly airplanes, women can drive ships," he said. "If it is the nation's policy that women serve aboard combat ships, then the fundamental question has been decided. There is no reason why a woman cannot command a vessel," he continued.

Named Commander of USS Rushmore

In January of 1996 Howard was named executive officer of the USS Tortuga, becoming the first woman to serve in the number two position on an American warship. During her tour of duty, the Tortuga participated in Operation Joint Endeavor, a peacekeeping mission in the former Republic of Yugoslavia, as well as a West African training cruise, where both sailors and Marines worked with the navies of seven African nations. Howard completed her command qualifications during this period, graduating from the Army's Command and General Staff College in June of 1998 with a master's degree in military arts and sciences and a concentration in history.

Although tentatively slated to take command of the dock-landing ship Carter Hall in December of 1998, Howard received the assignment of her career in early 1999 when she was named commanding officer of the USS Rushmore. The Rushmore, designed to carry Marines and their equipment to battle on foreign shores, is a technologically advanced "Smart Ship," at the forefront of the Navy's efforts to test new computer-controlled manning procedures and other technologies in order to reduce crew levels and workloads on a new generation of amphibious warships.

Acknowledging that the strong U.S. economy has made military recruitment and retention difficult, meaning that key personnel on the bridge are often as young as 18 or 20, Howard outlined her simple standard of trust. "I think about my sleeping crew, and the 350 Marines. Am I comfortable letting that person drive while they sleep?" she told the Post. She added, "A lot of the time the captain is just there to bring that aura of confidence to the bridge. A lot of the time our job is just to say, ' You're doing fine.'" Crew members commended her for her dignity and fairness. "She treats men and women the same," Petty Officer Jill Cutter told The Orange County Register. "I was glad to see that. If she favored women, we'd have to work even harder to prove ourselves. There would have been a loss of respect," Cutter continued.

Shared Insights With Students

According to Howard, sweeping changes in the Navy over the last 20 years have made it possible for her to overcome all obstacles in her quest to command. "There were definitely ... individuals who didn't want me in a particular position," she said in an interview with Ebony. "And the issue either revolved around my gender or my race." She persevered, however, and came to realize, after discussions with female friends in civilian life, that her opportunities for advancement and fair compensation were better in the Navy than they were on the outside.

A diminutive figure in the commander's chair, the five-foot-two-inch Howard has a quick and lively sense of humor. "Join the Navy," she quipped in her interview with The Orange County Register. "You can grow up to be captain. You can keep your personality. You get equal pay," she recalled. She shares all of these insights with high school students on her frequent school visits and recruitment drives. Here, she is often reminded of her trailblazing role as an African-American woman naval commander. At sea, however, the only thing that matters, both to her crew and the crews of foreign vessels, is the number of her gold stripes. "... When I look at myself in the mirror, I don't think: African-American, woman, first this or that," she told the Denver Post. "I think: Captain!"

Awards

Secretary of the Navy/Navy League Captain Winifred Collins Award, 1987; Navy Commendation Medal (four awards); Navy Achievement Medal; National Defense Medal; Armed Forces Service Medal; NATO Medal; Kuwaiti Liberation Medal; Saudi Arabia Defense Medal.

Further Reading

Periodicals

• The Albuquerque Journal, March 26, 1998, p. D2.
• The Cincinnati Post, March 23, 1998, p. 1A.
• The Denver Post, February 22, 2000.
• Ebony, September 1999, p. 102.
• Essence, May 2000, p. 130.
• The Orange County Register, January 27, 2000, p. B1.

• Additional information for this profile was obtained from materials provided by the public affairs office of the USS Rushmore (LSD 47), Department of the Navy.

— Caroline B.D. Smith