Transcripts For CSPAN2 Women In The Military Discussion At Sea Service Leadership Association 20240714

[cheering] [applause] last panel of the day. You know what they say, certainly not the least. This is always one of the more popular panels we have. I would say to you that when i was a young lieutenant captain major, i did not know about any think like jewels. Im in my 33rd gear, i didnt know until i was colonel and ive tried hard because it can be an incredibly powerful day. Somewhere out there, looking up and saying i didnt know that was possible for me, certainly when i was lieutenant, i did not know this was possible for me. Im still here because i didnt think i could do anything else. But this panel you will have available to you, i counted it up, its probably 170, 180 years of experience. Do the math, think about all of the individuals these women have impacted in their careers, the people they have mentored. Think about the impact this experienced panel has had in their careers. Take advantage of this. Leading the panel is someone who has been my battle buddy multiple times, we have deploy deployed, one of the finest marines. She does a ton more than most of you marines know. Bring the panel up, enjoy this last panel. [cheering] how we doing . [cheering] let me start off by saying hi. We save the best for last. A whole lot more than that, weve got nacho tacos after this. [laughter] we will back that up a little more. I dont have a whole lot of time. A lot of good information. We going to get a bit louder. This is the last day for our joint service date until we break up tomorrow. At the end, we will learn a whole lot. Hopefully today has already been energized. We are here to bring that home. Be bold or go home. We going to be bold. How we doing . [cheering] much better. I want you to feel relaxed. I can see people sitting up tight, everyone always asks questions. So i wont ask a whole lot of questions. If you dont ask questions, ive got plenty for you. Wherever you are in your career right now, these ladies appear, powerful dynamic leaders. They will tell you to take this to the next level. Take advantage of off the experience. Lets get some information out. Lets know who the panel is. Give the ladies a little time. Youve got to know who is appear and what they bring to the table. Introduce yourself. I feel like i am on a dating show or something. My name is joe, i have been in the army 37 and a half years. I use a lot of oil. [laughter] i was a private, 17 years old in the Army National guard. I was one of two women passed to a selfpropelled hollister unit. I was a personal record specialist. I got my Commission Six years later. I was originally an adt officer. I was an agent officer because i was a personal record speciali specialist. I did not want to be that officer, im sorry. I transferred to medical servi service. Spent the remainder of my career, i am a career Army National guard officer. Ive been traditional base shoulder where ive had other locations and did this one weekend a month, 15 days in the summer and a whole bunch of other days. My dual status technician, agr, currently im sorry the Army National Deputy Surgeon but for the past year, ive been detailed and the privilege to work for army g3, leads to operational planning team. The army pled medical form. When i walked into the room, people have two reactions. Paid its medical freeform and its hard. Never in my wildest dreams i got in, did i think i would be leading the army medical reform. Im a firm believer, every day trying to move forward everything. [applause] let me say thank you for allowing me to share this with you. Being in this room is very powerful because you women are fierce and fearless. A bit about me, i joined the marine corps at 17. Why did i doing . My mom told my brothers to sign me up and he said it was too hard. So i signed up. Right now i have the privilege of working for general in her shop as the director of c4, we are all about getting after the marine corps and information environment. Started out as listed, went to operator school, almost three months after coming to the u. S. , while i was at school, they realized i wasnt a citizen. So they had to find something for me to do. They asked me to go to north carolina, i went to Ford Food Service score. So its a story about opportunities. Leaving north carolina, going to my first duty station where i met an incredible dude, a love story id be happy to tell you but again, great leadership. Opportunities there. I went to college in the midwest and my husband said if i go to college in wisconsin, i would love it. I was convinced of this, im from jamaica, remember. [laughter] i got a degree in broadcast journalism. I got there and im like, air Traffic Control is probably the way to go. Again being an officer in the marine corps during aviation command and control, deploying to iraq several times as a commander and then having the opportunity to work with the affairs, theres a broad portfolio. Commanded overseas in okinawa so overly great experience. Im here because ive met some awesome men and women out there. It is a great opportunity to spend this time with you. If theres anything i can offer, i think i will get a lot more than you will. Thank you. [applause] good afternoon, everybody. Thank you all for your service. I joined the navy from puerto rico. [cheering] twenty years ago, i joined because i was looking for more opportunity, my parents and grandparents did not have this. They didnt finish school, my parents did not finish high school. They first think they wanted me to do was finish high school, which i did. They didnt want me to go to the navy. They cried and begged me not to drink. Being in puerto rico, i didnt have opportunities that i wanted and i felt i needed to leave so i could make my parents proud. What they didnt get to accomplish and what i didnt have available to them. I joined and i dont regret it. I love the navy. I want to do however long they will keep me in the navy. I appreciate everything and my parents are proud. Im the only one in my family and im talking about decades that have joined the military. They dont understand what is being in the military. They appreciate me but they dont understand. Im married to my loving husband, weve been married 16 years. Hes also active duty in the navy. He was enlisted and weve been happily married, we have two kids. An 11yearold and a 9yearold. They are the reason i keep going. We did a deployment, south america and i learned a lot about that culture. I really appreciate that. I went through different seek commands throughout the navy and then i joined orf was selected for the Program Three years ago. It has been one of the highlights of my career. I love it. I will do it again, i would do anything. One thing i will always take back my two brothers who joined the navy after i did, i was the first one, my brothers enlisted after. Im proud of them if they are proud of me. Im just happy to be here. [applause] she has a cute story. She has not stopped smiling since you came. She needs a geography lesson. [laughter] we are on tv now, right . [laughter] forever captured. [laughter] i grew up in florida, there was a high school program, go work with explosives and im like im in. That started my career. I went to new orleans, you can imagine the education i got. [laughter] then they sent me to the east coast. Then npc and i had an Additional Reading of the white house, if any of you were single, its a great additional duty. I met my husband there. At that time, i became a reservist. Theres not a lot of places we can be together. I followed and i work on the deputy chief of staff for isr. Cyber effect is a new addition. If youre here tomorrow, you can see this. I do the money for them and work with people who are wealthy in their knowledge base. I think that is pretty much it. [laughter] good afternoon, thank you for having me. Straight out of high school, i decided college was probably the best route for me so i went to college and 9 11 happened my sophomore year of college. I thought it was time to probably give a Little Something back to my country and i found the best way was to join the coast guard reserves. I took a semester off college and went to boot camp. As soon as i graduated, i joined the unit 309 in ohio. As soon as i got there, i was placed on active duty orders and got sent to kuwait for our gear. I served your overseas where i met my husband was also active duty in the coast guard. Hes still active duty today. Once we came back, he got orders to san diego, we were not married at the time. I followed him to san diego and as soon as i walked into my new station, i was immediately put on active duty again. Walked into the door and she said hey, welcome aboard, congrats, here are your active duty orders. I was shocked. I just got off active and i want to go back to college. So another year in active duty and after two years, i decided probably the plan would be to stay on active duty. I endued what i was doing. From there i transferred to a couple of other units as active duty, i had my daughter. Shes 12 now and i took advantage of a new program back then, newborn separation progr program, i did a twoyear temporary separation and went back to the reserves. I spent some time at home with my daughter while she was in her first two years growing up. Then i came back to active duty and continued my career. From there, as xt o in michigan. Down in Virginia Beach and fan became a warrant officer, made it and currently on the Commanding Officer of marblehead, ohio which is my dream job. Very happy to be here. Thanks for having me. [applause] i work in the navys office, id be happy to answer questions afterward. Ill be here all day tomorrow as well. On that note. Im going to ask a more broad question. Hopefully it will incite some thought. I want to give you all the time to ask your questions. I would like to be an audience based questionnaire versus my prepared questions. Ive covered a lot of different areas so we had a lot of topics covered. Be frank, open and real with the audience. They really want to know true answers. We talked about culture and every different service. Hence why we are here today. One of my things is building stock bridges and changing the culture. I want you to go back a bit in your own experience, a lot of times women face different challenges. Time management and where you are placed in your most prepared and what you are most deserving of. Talk about the challenges you faced throughout your career and in your careers, think about how the institution changed in those challenges. Long time ago when i was lieutenant, i was assigned to division. An institute. The position came open as commander and i said i want to do that. What a great way to understand the division. Move around, figure out what i want to do next. Where the organization could use me. So i applied. The interview process went through the chief of staff and i believe i was the only one who interviewed for that job. After i got it, lieutenant, im dominating you to be the next. I said great. I said well when will i find out . And they said a week. I was doing my masters degree and i got a phone call so im getting myself ready and what did he say . Lieutenant, we are sorry but you were not selected for the position. So i swallowed a big swallow and what is a good lieutenant do . You get out a pen and paper insects are, what do i need to do to work on for next time i put myself out there like that . He paused and he had some choices. He decided to be truthful with me. He said, theres nothing you could have done. Im like why . He said no, you were not selected because you are a woman. He couldnt get over the fact of having a woman speak with him. He was older, from a different generation of our service. So i was really hurt. I said his loss is somebody elses gain. A year went by. , i was an ambulance platoon leader and we were doing some really high training. We work getting used to this great training will be filled raft and we went across waters from everyone was in. They heard, i want to come out and visit. He didnt know who i was. So he came and hes looking at this, the aide was with him and if you seek the handcuff like this, that means a coin is going in. I watched the transaction happen and he checked my hand and gave me a coin. I had him twice. I said thank you. I could have said something, so i said something. [laughter] you have to be genuine. You are who you are and i have always been genuine. I said sir, i will accept this. On behalf of my soldiers and figure out a way we can all share in this. I appreciate you taking the time to visit us. I certainly hope i could have been on the other side of that coin. I saluted and moved out slightly and my First Sergeant was still better because i went to be with my soldiers. And its like, when you figure something out in a light bulb goes off, he realized i was the person who applied to be his aide. He realized from that moment that he made a mistake. He judged the cover of a book and thats what was in the book. I think you can learn from that. Have we changed . Absolutely. I see men and women working together all the time. That would have been about 1989. It just wasnt going to happen. [applause] from my perspective, session. That a compliment . [laughter] thirtyfour years we are going to be best friends. [laughter] i was talking to my boss the other day, we have to find a good and celebrate, over the last 34 years, i think we can find the good and celebrating. The challenge was talent and diversity and raising the rich, brilliant young people, men, women, wherever you come from. It continues to be a challenge for the organization because i think, in society, we value these architects for a lawyer to be lethal, so we finally have that. The culture and artifacts of the organization, the things we do, value the folks. What are services are challenged to do, think about it in a different way. How do you think about delivering lethality in a positive way . In a logical way. So how do you begin to value that . Sometimes the guy or gal is more lethal than, he doesnt look or act like that type. I would offer for our service, we are coming to that realization, for the marines in the room, youve got one foreman was at the seat of the table, fear, fierce and trying to drive our organization. Also, there are a lot of Senior Leaders in our organization who have what many black. We are seeing them with Emotional Intelligence echo okay, i just want to live. Its all about living. How do i put in the right pool, we have things we are doing in the marine corps. From the bottom up, i see a lot of young women, these blogs you will have the articles you are writing, the article about uniform change, its making folks think. We are also doing things the organization like Talent Management executive council. We are forcing the issues at a high level of discussion. Discussions about what is it we need to change about the organization . Is it pregnancy order . Uniforms . How we retain young women men and women . There really smart young men and women out there and cant get better without bringing them but we also thing about the idea that the more senior, youve got more wisdom. We need that intellect. Im just saying, im not that smart. Im bringing them as part of the team. Thats what we are doing. They say look, we will poke them up work from the bottom and if youre talented, we will put you at the head of the line for promotion. We are doing a lot of things for the enterprise that we probably its never done. The work is never done. We are not there at all. Theres so much work to be done. The guys and gals at the bottom, they are excellent and not waiting for us to come up with a solution. You are uniquely empowered to make the change when we came up, realized okay, that happened. Say something. How do we stand out . But you are bold. Keep doing that, how do we do it positively . Force positive change. Im so proud to see you all helping us. Also, some of the things i will tell this pregnancy story. I really am. Ive got a 24yearold 21yearold and a 5yearold. You all heard that, right . Heres the story though about Talent Management and retaining people. It is by the story is, i got elected for colonel and i was sitting, i was like, what happens now . Just put my head down, somebody has to ask you to go somewhere. I dont know anybody. So i sent an email and i said, right need to know somebody . I dont know what happened after that but i was in the pentagon and doing work and they showed up when i was pregnant. Im not doing it, im pregnant. Im getting out, i dont want anybody to know im pregnant. She was like, okay. Can we talk . [laughter] was like, she goes okay, you need to tell your boss. Give the institution chance. So i went into top my boss was an infantry officer who had a huge level information. You couldnt tell. I went in, here it is. Hes like oh my gosh, this is awesome. [laughter] mike sir, i dont want to tell anybody. Three people knew for like seven and a half months. So my boss and the other general who knew, they were like, when are you going to come out of the closet . Its how we go about our career. So here you are a colonel in the pentagon and like okay, i have to put that lives on and i finally came out. There are people who would look at me like i lost my brain but i see young women look around now, this was five years ago. They are like senior women and pregnant and im like i own this. Its change happens. It takes a ripple of people. Men in the organization, largely as a man fled organization. Theres a lot of good men in the organization. Another question, the question is, its been tough for me finding a woman mentor. You have to find men in the organization. There are a lot of good ones out there and you see that one foreman, you have to be that one foreman for everybody. Thank you. [applause] what to say, the challenge, it doesnt matter what your q joint but the challenges were always there. Challenges will continue to be fair. I think we made big progress, what women in the military worth doing. Cooks, nurses, look what we are doing now. Im honored to be a woman in the military because of the things you are doing in the military. Im so honored. I look back in just like there was a male mentorship when i first joined, i didnt have any female leaders so my mentors were males. I look back and appreciate that mentorship they gave me. Its because of the mentorship i continued and went to another ship and stayed in the navy. I really appreciate that. We have to remember we all bring something to the table. We still have challenges but i feel as an active duty dual military couple that when i first joined and had my daughter, i didnt have a lot of opportunities that we have now. Thats because voices have been heard and Senior Leadership is doing something about it. Do we have things to work on . Yes. We have challenges we need to work on and it will continue to work and advocate for everybody but i feel the changes there and has been happening. I always appreciate leadership. One example, i work in the office, we get input from sailors, its not just sailors, it is service members. Just their feedback and we take their feedback seriously can we push it up and we are your advocates. Thats not just maybe, thats a lot of branches. Continue to give us that feedback we will work and speak for you. [applause] was just telling my friend, our new development category. I think of all the services, the things they typically bring, we dont hold land, we dont have iron to the fight, the air force has always been this technological forward leaning services. We also have the most women. 20 [laughter] i think we have some skills that are maybe different. We solve problems a little better and we made a cake better. If you see anything going on, those are the tools that will enable your success in the world. The air force has just gone to the navy. I feel like i have a few challenges, i have the drop, i saw amazon out there so we have troubles keeping people and keeping women. The air force has just done studies find ways to keep women and professionals in the service. Are you getting out something . [laughter] in uniform. [laughter] [applause] the coast guard recently did a study on womens retention and whats affecting retention with women. I think that the Great Program we did and i think we found a lot of issues that are affecting women. With that program, anybody who maybe was a part of the week had a couple of failures with that program. That reach wasnt big enough. We had a lot of women who are currently in the coast guard reserves for prior active duty. A lot of the issues that affected those women and why they got out of the coast guard were not hurt. We didnt go to the reserves and say, why did you get out of the coast guard . What kept you from staying in the coast guard . We need to go back to another organization and ask those questions, if we really want to see. We ask all these women, why are women not in the coast guard . This is a hypothetical. Were not really asking the people who got out. Why did you get out . Its a Great Program, we got a new, on the coast guard and hes in a lot of what he calls early action items. He took the results of that study and made a lot of great changes. Not just women in the coast guard but everybody across the board. Its a lot of positive change for everybody in the coast guard. Back to the mentorship thing, mentoring people is very important. For me, as a female, very early in the coast guard, i was an e6 before i ever saw in ee six or higher in the coast guard. That is my rating, same thing as an mos. I never saw somebody doing my job as a female. That was very hard for me to say this is possible but i take that now to find those juniors and say, you can do this. I was personally trying to mentor them, especially females and say, this is how you do this. These are the steps you need to take early. [applause] i want to get to some of your questions. You are the first one to the mic. Thank you. My question is, the retention side, its not necessarily a question or opinion, but what are the chances of getting Something Like this on a Facebook Live event with those who are doing the job that everybody keep saying, i wish i could have seen somebody doing this. I think i would be a phenomenal event, i think we have big forum here to get started. Your thoughts on getting that started. Theres something in the army for Army Surgeons in april, we do a flag panel from their doctors. That one thing resonates, theres something profound that so many in the audience were able to retain. That person talks to another person in fact how you get that going. Im altman, ill sign up. Im happy to do so. I dont relate to everybody. Somebody will relate to those expenses ive had. I had my children at 39 and 41 and i was like what are they doing . So i did it. We do have a lot of things. We were all in your shoes at your time, we just were ugly close because it was the 80s and 90s. [laughter] within the coast guard, facebook realm, theres a lot of facebook pages out there that we utilize. A great resource, people go on there and pose questions like, i have a question about this maternity policy and anyone who has access to the page can answer those questions. It doesnt even have to be maternity question but usually its very oriented toward women issues are things related to that. Theres also once more like other study groups in the coast guard for people going to the review board and things like that. Facebook is a 12. You can start any group you want and have your own mentorship page. We have something similar, we have twitter and youtube. You have the avenue you can ask those questions. You are talking more about the joint . What im saying is, this is phenomenal. Seeing you complete this up here, its inspiring to say the least. It will benefit every woman and man to do this together, more often than once a year maybe. I know we do it other times but i think it would be a phenomenal thing to do when we have forms such as Facebook Live and stuff like that. Im sure we could easily find women to be up there. I think what youre saying is like talk exactly. To see the interaction, it is removing some of that. Without this and whatever else, its about what it is we want to get off our trust. We need to take that back as well. I will go to you. Along the same lines, its such a focus especially within the navy and marine corps, careers i worked with most, what recommendations do you have for us as leaders to help combat some of the toxic culture issues among the services . For generals, what would your recommendation for i speak as leaders to help the retention effort and fix some of these toxic issues we have . From my perspective, he came out and said look, we are going to value our talent and that is probably women and depending on the community, aviation and in terms of the workforce but your point is whether, what do we do as individuals to battle those things in the environment . Really, you dont allow folks to rent space in your head. Going to be able to change him or her, right or is there something in there that i need to fix about myself and if i can i will but im not going to let that into my head and highway do that with others around me . I think what we have to do is recognized there bad actors out there. You are just giving it to me now. If it was a year ago, right . So its about you now, so im pretty simple. Like i said i grew up their foot everything that you do is an opportunity. Its what you do with it. This guy is an environment and you do it any standup and you speak your piece and you create the environment that you want. You cant give up your power. [applause] yes. Sully did i answer your question . Mostly there are a lot of leaders doing really great things and we are trying to do the right thing. But the task is made that much harder by the reports of the things that come out at work in direct opposition for all the good we are trying to do whether we speak up or not. I re. Just kind of be like water go under, over around, just go, just go. If youre not inspired these people then you just need to shame them. [laughter] inspire or shame. Make sure you put your name down. Let me just add this because there are probably a lot of different answers to that question. What is striking about that is we have 21 years. Maybe its easier said than done and thats why you were Still Standing out that mike. We cant do that right now or im having a hard time doing that. So keep that question. I think thats a oneonone because every situation may be a little bit different and everybodys faith and where you are in your own leadership style is also different. The woman who said not too long ago said she found her voice. That would be me. Shes not the one who said it but thats a common theme. Thats not uncommon to have that feeling. Here we are asking the questions because we know it works but it doesnt mean its easy to do so we recognize that. Its not going to be easy. We dont have a lot of time so stay on a question but i think as we go into tomorrow ladies in your own services dont let the conversation stop. Good afternoon everyone. Reserve command master chief coast guard. Add a question for each of you as seasoned Senior Leaders in your organization. Seasons, i like that word. You by the state gained a lot century been in your organization and learned a lot as the women. His is there anything you can tell a new person coming in that maybe you wish you had known prior to coming in and what might that be . Thats a great question. It is a great great question. Can we hold your question for just a second. I want to get a few more because that may take a little bit of time and i want to and on that note. Im going to ask you to step back but we will come back to that. Good afternoon. I am a big advocate for managing worklife balance so i would ask you to speak on that but my main question is as women and your experience have you ever felt like youve had set Unrealistic Expectations of yourself or just really High Expectations because you are a woman whenever you take on a new position or anything of that nature . I know i felt i would challenge myself all the time whenever anyone would tell me i couldnt do it. That made me work harder, harder and harder but it got to the point where i wanted to do everything just so i could prove that i could do it and when you say worklife balance that was a little, i was spending more time at work to cut someone to prove that i could do everything in they said i couldnt do and not only did i continue to do it but i did over such a long time that i ended up hindering my Work Life Balance and i did take a step back and say hey i know i can do it. You have to prove to everybody for a single time i can do it collects that was definitely one thing i learned about worklife balance. Somebody recently said to me i suffer missing out. I dont know if thats diagnostic but you just have to know yourself and every now and then take a tip from people around you because you they will tell you if youre working too hard. You have to make choices. I have two beautiful children my 15yearold son and my 13yearold daughter. They are very active and i cant be there all the time. Im a duel military family. My husband is getting ready to retire after 28 years in the air force. So we had to make choices. To be duel military operation symbols 101. The main effort and if youve ever looked in any kind of Successful Operation if youve ever had two main efforts, no. My husband and i had to sit down together and we had a conversation. He said someone said the main effort that we both cant be and we have to be up to support the other people so i has been said you were the main which was very selfless of him. And its the same thing with my family and my kids. No matter what i do in the military it paled in comparison to being a mother and being a wife and being a daughter and a sister and all those kinds of things but its choices so you have to learn how to make those choices. What i will share with you is if my daughter has a game and ive got a meeting and they want me to be there is a playoff . No im not, nor can your dad be there, yes and sometimes the military im sorry sir he needs an opportunity to be all he can be and i need to go. And support my son. [applause] you just have to be willing to be genuine, be yourself and sometimes taking risks is waiting until you are 39 to have a the kid for the first time, oh my god. Youve got to do it. You got to take this step. Whats the worst thing thats going to happen . You are going to fall down and your new found friend is going to pick you up. We are all going to pick each other up. [applause] how can you top that . That was going to be my close out and i dont know if you want to close yet but at the end of the day we all struggle with it. You cant have it all. You cant have it all but way you can have is a really solid support team. For me its a dude and his name is mike in your mind to the everyday. Ill tell you i was telling kelly last night running out of the pentagon catching it before the door closes and the bus stop and theres a guy a fiveyear a guy a fiveyear old and a dog waiting for me to get off the bus. Its about somebody. Youve got to have a support system. Some of those are bent in a different way. We are like okay we have got to be able to be perfect all the time you go home and youre like why is this not cooked perfectly . Its like, okay. Because you didnt cook it. Right, right . So how you do it though for me its been a whole career of im just not getting it right. I dont know she knows how much i appreciate this but that first day of school. She told everybody at school time, just go. Go take care of your kids. So youve got to have, support system is not just at home. At work. You have to have that staff than we do and thats how we have made it. Having your teammates go okay i got your back read nobodys going to know you were gone. Just go. So it takes a team. Thats how you get it done. Youve got to have a support system whether your boss knows are not. Ill tell you ive had the support of bosses. Men across the organization which is the marine corps that enable you. I would offer that. You cant do it all but with the team you can certainly move forward and feel good about yourself. Thank you. Thats good. Anyone else or do you want to move on . Eyes want to say that supports network whether its her family or your supervisor or up the chain of command making sure they know what your needs are and what your situation is. The first few years of the Current Situation in the current job im in right now my husband was not colocated with me so i made sure my supervisor was well read that and i knew when i accepted warrant officer there was no way wed be colocated so i chose my billet knowing i had a Family Network where i was going to be stationed. I think thats a big part of it. Can i also had something . We have got to pay it forward, right . As women when you are not pregnant or have an aging parent you got to have empathy. You are go, go, going. You have to have a lot of empathy for the people around you. Youve got to look around and go okay and sometimes as you try to move up the Organization Look over here and look over there. We have just got to help each other out. Thank you ladies. Lets get to the next question. Joyce owens at the air force academy. I would ask you something that isnt always easy to do so my question is what characteristics and or skills they will believe in because that makes good leaders. Would the if we can do this with one word, gesture words. I am audacious. There we go, there we go. [applause] i am who i am. Im pretty driven. I am very caring. Im an enthusiastic communicator. Sin i am determined. Thats awesome. [applause] one question and then we are going to the come back for that closeout. My name is chief warrant officer williams in mayport. My question is more a guess for because the Facebook Group we have. Its not a new thing in the navy but we have to fill in concentrated areas or special order our uniforms. Is anything being done because we are required to make the changes and keep up with the constant uniform changes in the navy well keeping up with the requirement that we have to have for myself. Me being promoted to adobe max three i had to convince the ladies on the phone that i was a female warrant officer and that there are female warrant officers. There may be only five of us but we are here and we are not going anywhere. So i felt it was kind of ridiculous to have to wait two months. [applause] thats a great point. When you say about the uniforms not being available did you say three times and stationary . The question from my Facebook Group was ahead might issue in norfolk and i also had an issue when i was based in san diego when i was commissioned. Thats great feedback or thats the kind of feedback that we really want to get in our office. Whenever we get that we are quick to notify and make sure that gets corrected. Now that i know that im going to definitely get with you so i can continue to work with you. Once you get that feedback we have had issues with the warrant pay grade when it comes to females that we have corrected that. We are all on it so im going to continue to correct that. What is it, maternity . I will be happel happy to stay after and again im here tomorrow so get mail that feedback. Its maternity acrosstheboard. Its the marine corps two. Im going to use it but still. Please repeat your question one more time in ladies this is the closeout. As a seasoned Senior Leader in your organization and your service if you could give advice to a new incoming female in your branch of service what is something that you would like for them to know that you wish you had known coming in . We all want to answer this. I would start by saying the coast guard is a wonderful organization. The coast guard gives you every opportunity that you want to take or they give you every pass to succeed in its up to you to take those opportunities. The coast guard is not put in a behringers on anybody no matter what diversity you bring to the table. There are no barriers to work growth. You can become a fourstar, you can become a commandant. Which i think is a great thing. You just have to want it. There is nothing thats going to stop you. You have to decide what it is that you want to do and find a mentor and asked them very early in your career how do i get there . What do i need to do to get there and then as you grow a little bit we need to find another mentor and say okay im here in my next step is to get here so what do i need to do to get there . You need to continue to do that throughout your career and if you find the right people that are willing to invest in you and the can continue to get all then continued to go elsewhere, you will get there and that would be my advice. I think theres a little more flexibility today than there used to be so i would advise you not do something you are not interested in. If you are in a job and you dont like that work and the environment then find another one. Find a mentor that will help you get another one. Just read and find a way into something that you do love to do once you find that thing dont get caught up in something else. My advice would be to make sure you ask for help. Sometimes we get set in their ways and we think we know everything. Ask for help. That is a personal thing that ive been successful in because ive asked for help. I will ask the most senior servicemembers of i dont know something and they know it. Be humble enough to ask for help. The other thing i know that i have done that has helped me with building relationships is finding the good in the positive in every person that i am direct with. If you find that youre going to have a Good Relationship with that person. Id have learned how to do that and i think its gone a long way. Ive learned a lot from doing that with whoever ive made contact with so find that positive, something good about each person that you interact with. Over 34 years the thing that i keep trying to do is get out of my own head. Especially if you are a woman in the military you go to that place in your head and start questioning who you are and your value and your selfworth and you take yourself down that spiral. Then you show up the next day. Really i am making light of it but know your job. Nobody can take that away from you. If you know, thats all you have to bring to the table. Want to bring that and you bring it every day, know yourself. I think you can own your power if you are intimately familiar with your strength and your weaknesses and you find others and youd know that you have to work as a team and you find others around you to make it better. These are just some of my thoughts. Im a high functioning introvert. Im not one to put myself out there but when you are leading n with the team. They have got to know, youve got to be real. You have to tell them upfront no matter what rank you are still thats a part of knowing yourself. And to your point youve got to build a network. Thats something that i keep having to if you are not a huge outgoing person and a Large Organization its an organization to move forward if youve got to build a Lateral Network and one of the things that you will find that all goes back to knowing your job and knowing who you are, there is a network hide you that you have that you didnt know theres an invisible hand to people move you are long because you know your job so back to knowing your job. And then dont limit yourself. There are are magnificent, these women are these but so were you. Dont self limit. You come come off the banana vote and you can come from thailand or be from the east coast. You can come from anywhere and you can do anything. Youve heard stories about people who have a high school diploma. Dont give up your power. I want you to close your eyes for a minute and i want to you to imagine the speech the richest no blemishes the kind you cut into and it melts in your mouth and its so sweet and you have added no sugar. Nature has created this masterful thing great no matter how juicy and rigid as there are people in the world that dont like peaches. No matter what you do to that page, no matter what you do you put sugar on it, put it in a pie whatever they dont like peaches and the reason i tell you that is you have to be genuine to yourself. You are who you are, own it. You are unique and special and the skills you bring to this Organization Called the department of defense is paramount. You need to find a champion. Thats the thing that i have learned. I appeared to the next but im actually an introvert. But advocating and getting someone to be your champion. To get the next somebody needs to know that you are the girl that needs to be in that next job. Youve got to advocate and reach out. They just want to tap in and say how do i get there and then we all figured out. The worst thing that can happen to someone is they can say no and your fall down and her best friend will. You up and everything will be okay. But i dont like peaches you dont like peaches . We may have a problem about that. [laughter] there is very little we control in our life and its taken me a very long time to get to this point. Dont touch the pod and you touch the pot and you burn yourself. Some of you that arent quite as eager as i am the only thing you can control in live is how you respond to what life gives you. How you respond to it. We have a question about toxic environment. Its how you respond to it. My response to that is i create my community. I own my community. I am the queen of that community and i am vicious to anyone it tries knocking at anything thats detrimental to it. If we build enough community, we take over the enterprise and those people who are negative to our organization the one thing that my grandmother taught me to do is kill your enemy with kindness. Thats what we are here to do. [applause] again please join me in one more round of applause for this dynamic team. [applause] [inaudible conversations] im seriously taking a picture. [inaudible conversations] [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] with that amazing . [applause] [inaudible] [inaudible] it all as the authors were able to push through whatever barriers that had an right write openly and honestly about their deepest struggles. One of them that comes to mind is its such a real and honest account of grief and loss and it also reflects the state of the arab world today. This is an uplifting book. The reality is that i have to arm them not simply with kind of a set of skills and intellectual tools that allow them to flourish in school and ethics and values but also a way to make sense of the hostility that they encounter every day from people at times whose responsibility is to treat them as community members. All decency has been cast aside. Not a donald trump to his opponent at his opponents to him. They are attempting to do far worse damage. They have no right, none. Digital digital immortality takes everything known about you on the internet. Your digital footprint, your credit card record, what movies you see, what wines you like to plan what countries youve been to. It creates a profile that will last forever. When you go to the library as a teacher you will not take other book about winston churchill. You will talk to winston churchill. Now back to the conference looking at Current Issues women face while serving in the military. We heard remarks from former air force secretary Deborah Lee James who served under president obama as well as a panel looking at how women served in the military around the world. Th i