Naval Station Great Lakes women to step up
Taking advantage of greater opportunities now
Kelsie McCown hopes to be one of the first female Navy SEALS in history. For now, though, she’s excited to be training in a submarine, a job that only opened to women in the Navy in the past several years.
“It’s a really, really big opportunity for females,” said McCown, 19, who recently graduated from Naval Station Great Lakes boot camp in North Chicago. By the end of the second week in March, she likely will be inside a submarine training to be a sonar technician, which she said requires “hands-on mechanical work.” Five times as many men will be on board that submarine than women.
McCown, along with other women in the Navy, will be celebrating International Women’s Day on Monday with gratitude for the opportunities she has — and hopes to have — in the military.
In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly designated March 8 as the UN Day for women’s rights and world peace.
“Normally every year (on March 8), I read stories about other women who changed the world,” McCown said. “I know that I’m trying to fight for my country and for a cause.”
She joined the Navy about nine months ago, and shipped to boot camp from her home state of Ohio.
McCown’s father died when she was 13, and she joined the Navy in his honor. “He fought for me to get anything I wanted, whether it was to play football or snowboard,” she said. “He wanted me to be able to be just like my brothers.”
She does snowboard, but doesn’t play football.
The first women to serve
on a combatant ship received their assignments from the Navy in 1994, according to Naval History and Heritage Command. The first female chaplain was also aboard that ship. But women weren’t allowed on submarines until the 21st century.
McCown said the reason was because the passageways were so small that when heavy equipment was being moved, the sailors had to go through sleeping quarters.
“They didn’t want males going through female sleeping quarters,” she said. “They have a few new models now that eliminated that problem, and are hoping to get out a few more
by 2025.
“There are a lot of opportunities for females to do really rare and cool things in the Navy, but they don’t advertise it,” she said.
“Women only make up 19% of the active duty Navy,” said John Sheppard, public affairs officer for Naval Station Great Lakes. “We’d like to see more women join. We’d like the Navy’s demography to reflect the nation’s.”
Eye on the SEALs
McCown said she’s ready for the challenge of living in the small quarters of a submarine. She lived in a small home with a big family, which she thinks has prepared her. After that, she’ll try to become a SEAL, part of the Navy’s warfare command and special operations force.
“They train extremely hard,” she said. “They’re the ones that go out when soldiers have been kidnapped or held hostage. There are no female Navy SEALs right at this point.”
It requires a lot of physical stamina, she said.
“Females have gotten close to passing the test, but not yet,” McCown said. “I don’t know if I’ll be the first female to become a Navy SEAL, but I want to be one of the first.”
Another recent Naval
Station Great Lakes boot camp graduate, Aimony Techio Zanin, is waiting to be sent to train on a ship in Norfolk, Virginia
“Its’ been a dream,” to join the military, she said, adding there are many more opportunities for women to do so in the United States. She was born in Brazil, and she said her uncle served in the military there.
“My father wants me to do hard things, to challenge myself,” Zanin said.
She will serve aboard a ship as an operations specialist, someone who does everything from maintenance on aircraft carriers to construction.
“If you’re a woman, don’t think you cannot do it,” she said. “You can.”
Officer some day
Lacey Krecko, who’s been in the Navy for eight years and works in the administration department at Naval Station Great Lakes, said she believes many people still think the military is meant for men, not women.
She said she joined the Navy “to get away from my home environment. I wasn’t financially prepared to go to school. I though the military was a good option.”
Krecko thought she’d do a four-year stint, then take advantage of educational benefits. Now she has a 3-year-old son, and said she appreciates the way the Navy supports women with families.
“I feel like the Navy will just allow me to better take care of him,” she said of her son. “And there are opportunities for me moving forward with the Navy.”
Krecko, who lives in Libertyville, was recently named junior sailor of the year.
Vivia Honeyghan, who has been in the Navy for six years, said she joined to travel, see the world and take advantage of education benefits. The 25-yearold Lakemoor resident is a chaplain’s assistant.
“I really wanted to work alongside the chaplain, and I know he’s doing God’s work. I wanted to help however I could,” she said.
Honeyghan added, “I think it’s great that in the past couple of years, more jobs have been opening up to women. For example, the submarines. Now they’re allowing us to do that. Why not? We are capable just as everybody else.
“More so now, I’m seeing more women in the higher ranks,” she added. “It gives me hope ... one day I could eventually make that rank.”