Memphian becomes first woman to command Naval carrier strike group [The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.]

Aug. 01--NORFOLK, Va. -- She was a kid who climbed trees in the broad, leafy yards off Twinkletown Road in Whitehaven with the same agility she later showed in scaling the academic and social hurdles of Vanderbilt.

Everything came easily to Nora Wingfield, friends say, whether it was sports, schoolwork, meeting people, organizing sorority events or simply having fun and cracking wise.

So it surprised no one that on an intensely muggy day late last week the woman now known as Rear Adm. Nora Tyson stood resplendent in her officer's uniform before a crowd gathered in the cavernous hangar bay of America's newest aircraft carrier. She had ascended to the heights of the Navy, too.

"Admiral Tyson, I am ready to be relieved," said Capt. Jeffrey A. Hesterman, outgoing commander of Carrier Strike Group Two.

And with that, the 53-year-old Memphis native became the first woman to take command of a carrier strike group. She'll lead nearly a dozen ships and as many as 9,000 sailors and airmen patrolling some 51 million square miles of ocean.

Tyson's flagship will be the carrier USS George H.W. Bush, which was commissioned last year. At 1,094 feet long, its the 10th and last in the line of Nimitz-class carriers.

"It seems like a dream ..." Tyson said as she took command in the ceremony aboard the carrier at Norfolk Naval Station Thursday.

As a one-star admiral, Tyson is not the highest-ranking female Navy officer -- there are other women with two or three stars. But her appointment comes at a high-water mark for women in the military in general and the Navy in particular.

Ever since the Army first promoted its first female one-star general in 1970, one barrier after another has fallen. In 1975, President Gerald Ford signed legislation requiring all U.S. military academies to accept women, for instance, and other laws have cleared the way for females to share in more of the opportunities, and the sacrifices, associated with the military.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, at least 110 women have died in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters, according to the Center for Military Readiness.

Earlier this year, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates notified Congress that submarine forces were being opened to women.

Today, there are more than 8,000 female Navy officers, and, including the enlisted ranks, the 44,335 women in the Navy are 16 percent of its total personnel.

But at the change-of-command ceremony, no one spoke of Tyson's gender. They focused instead on her record of accomplishment during 31 years in the Navy, including a stint as commander of the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, in which she led Gulf Coast relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina, and two deployments to the Persian Gulf.

"Nora has led a distinguished career," said Adm. Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations.

"I do not appoint officers to that command by chance," he added.

Her predecessor, Hesterman, called Tyson a "devoted and enthusiastic professional."

"Admiral Tyson has a great love for her country, the Navy and the sailors who make it run," he said.

Tyson, for her part, pledged to give "everything I have" to the mission.

"The work is never easy, but it is in my mind the most noble and rewarding work there is -- serving our country," she said.

Tyson, who majored in English in college, traces her Navy career to a phone call she received right after graduating in which a recruiter asked that she come take a test. She did, and went on to attend officer candidate school in Newport, R.I., receiving her commission in the Navy in December 1979.

After reporting for training in Pensacola, Fla., she earned her wings as a flight officer in 1983, then served three tours in a fleet air reconnaissance squadron. After that came several tours at sea and ashore, where she earned a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Affairs from the U.S. Naval War College in 1995.

Tyson has been selected to receive her second star in the near future.

Among the audience members were several sorority sisters from her days at Vanderbilt, where she graduated in 1979, and friends from St. Mary's Episcopal School in East Memphis, where she was one of 42 members of the class of 1975. Also present was her husband of 24 years, Wayne Tyson, himself a Navy retiree.

Although they didn't envision her entering the Navy, Tyson's longtime friends aren't surprised by her success.

"She's very, very intelligent ... and very at ease and humble," said Angie Rose, a classmate of Tyson's at St. Mary's.

"Nora's found her niche. She's the right person in the right job. She makes it look easy."

Mary Ellen Chase, a Memphian who was a sorority sister of Tyson's at Vandy, recalls that Tyson had a way of motivating people and using humor to get them to accomplish major tasks.

Chase also called Wayne Tyson the "perfect helpmate" in assisting his wife's career.

"I think she definitely could've done it on her own, but to have someone who believed in her and what she was doing ... I think they were just the perfect twosome."

After the ceremony, Tyson briefly recalled growing up in Memphis.

"It was great. ... I went to the neighborhood school. We climbed trees and played baseball -- what I consider the typical childhood of the '60s."

But she downplayed the historic nature of her new command.

"I really don't feel like a trailblazer," Tyson said.

She noted it wasn't until 1993 that legislation was passed allowing women to serve on warships.

"When I came in the Navy, it was impossible ..." Tyson said. "I think the law was changed at the right time for me."

As for how she came to assume a command no woman had had before, she had a simple explanation.

"Somebody's got to be the first."

-- Tom Charlier: 529-2572

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