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COMMANDER DARLENE ISKRA
Commander Iskra was the first woman in US History to command a Navy ship.
Born in California in 1952. When she joined the Navy in 1979, her ambitions were modest; she was 27, coming off a divorce, her life in need of a jump start. Her timing was ideal with the expansion of roles women were allowed to be in during the 1980s and 1990s and she would more than get that jump start.
She was one of the first female line officers to graduate from the Naval School of Diving and Salvage in Washington, D.C. in May 1980
I took advantage of everything I could…the first order of business was to become a Diving Officer, one of the first three women officers to do so. My first assignment was as the diving officer on USS Hector (AR-7), a World War 2 vintage repair ship. Homeported in San Francisco Bay, my crew of 8 divers were the only diving locker in Northern California, and did many repairs and hull inspections on Navy ships stationed in Alameda, Mare Island, and Oakland. We also deployed to the western Pacific, including Yokosuka, Japan, Philippines, Melbourne, Australia, Nairobi, Kenya, Aukland, New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa as well as a two month stint in Diego Garcia tending ships serving in the Arabian Gulf. That tour was followed by shore duty as an instructor in San Diego, but as soon as more ships opened to women in the mid-1980s, I requested a transfer.
My Operations Officer tour was on the USS Grasp (ARS-51), and I was on her during her pre- commissioning and through her first year of commissioned service. I was selected for Executive Officer afloat, and served on two different ships in a split tour, first on the USS Preserver (ARS-8) and then USS Hoist (ARS-40). I was selected for Commanding Officer afloat in 1990, and reported for duty on the USS Opportune (ARS-41) on December 27, 1990, in Naples, Italy. Seventeen days after I took command we were underway in support of Operation Desert Storm. I am proud to say that I was the first woman to command a commissioned vessel of the United States Navy! While in command the ship also participated in Hurricane Andrew relief operations in Miami, Florida, and towed numerous decommissioned vessels to the inactive ships shipyards, among other things. My tour lasted 26 months, and then it was shore duty for the remainder of my 21 years of service.
The Navy changed my life. It gave my life purpose and sense of honor. My tour on the USS Hector was probably the most exciting, because everything was new, including women serving on ships! While we were deployed I had the opportunity to work a propeller replacement on a DDG pierside in Yokosuka harbor. It was a joint effort between the ship and the shipyard, but we were in charge!
Being in command was also a thrill, especially sitting on the bridge while the ship is underway and doing its job. And diving was always fun, though potentially dangerous. After the Navy I was able to use the Montgomery GI Bill to go to graduate school and get my Ph.D. in Sociology with the specialty areas of Military Sociology and Gender, Work, and Family. I taught for about 10 years, and wrote two books about women in the military.
Her two books are “Breaking through the Brass Ceiling: Strategies of Success for Elite Military Women” which was published Nov 6, 2008 and “Women in the United States Armed Forces: A Guide to the Issues (Contemporary Military, Strategic, and Security Issues)” which was published Mar 23, 2010.
In 2002 she worked for Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington state as a Women’s Research and Education Institute (WREI) Congressional Fellow. During her fellowship, she helped staff and pass an amendment to the 2003 Defense Authorization Bill, which forbade the Department of Defense from requiring U.S. servicewomen to wear the abaya garment while stationed in Saudi Arabia. For this work, she was awarded the University of Maryland, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences Phillips Award in 2005. This award recognizes graduate student excellence in research most likely to affect public policy. She was also awarded the Center For Teaching Excellence, Distinguished Teaching Assistant for Academic Year 2003-2004 and the Charles H. Coates Graduate Research Award, University of Maryland, 2000-2001, for her Master’s thesis, which documented the continued negative discourse regarding women in the Navy over time. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2007.
In the past she has been an adjunct professor at Columbia College of Missouri, teaching in the Military Studies programs, Treasurer for the Alliance for National Defense, Deputy Director of the LEAD (Leadership Education And Development) program at University of Maryland
Currently Commander/Dr. Iskra a professional speaker and usually speaks at community functions, but has also spoken at panels, VA day events, Women’s History month events, and others. An ambassador for the Women In Military Service For America Foundation, Inc in Bremerton, WA, where she lives. She represents Washington state at various military functions in support of the Women in Military Service for America Foundation. Purpose is to educate the public on women’s military service as well as to reach out to women veterans and register them into the database for posterity. She volunteers as a greeter at the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, WA. She is on the board of directors for the Military Officers Association of America.
https://www.vfw.org/advocacy/women-veterans/our-stories/darlene-iskra
https://foundationforwomenwarriors.org/darlene-iskra-commander-u-s-navy/
https://nation.time.com/author/drdmi/
SUPERINTENDENT JANE DELANO
Jane A. Delano, was an American nurse who helped prepare the US for World War I in addition to all the other amazing things she did for our Country.
Jane was born March 12, 1862. Before she was born her father died of yellow fever during his service in the Union Army. America was in the middle of the civil war when Jane was born. Like many children of Soldiers have to do, she grew up without her father there. She lived and went to school in Montour Falls, New York. She moved to NY city to attend nursing school. She then moved to New York City to attend the Bellevue Hospital Training School for Nurses (now the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing). She graduated from Bellevue Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1886. After graduation she became the superintendent of nurses at Sandhills Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.
Jane’s job was to take care of the patients with yellow fever. Amazingly enough she protected them from mosquitos even though there wasn’t an official understanding or a connection between the disease and the insects. She was clearly the correct woman to put in this position. She used mosquito nets in the windows and in the patient care area, and obviously it was quite successful.
She also spent time in the frontier nursing in Arizona along the Mexico border at a copper mine. She wrote about how they would never venture outside without a revolver. She was in the wild west and it was exciting.
In 1890s, she worked again as the Superintendent of Nurses, this time at the University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her time there motivated her to attend medical school. Even though she went to med school in Buffalo, New York, Jane decided she wanted to continue nursing. She continued working as a nurse and supervised girls shelter in New York City called the House of Refuge. This takes us through the decade into the 1900’s.
In 1902 she moved to be the Bellevue superintendent of nursing schools all of the connected hospitals. She did this up until 1906 where she stepped away from work and stayed with her mother. She cared for her mother for two years until she died in 1908.
In 1909 she was back to work this time serving as chairman of the Red Cross national committee on nursing service. But you know this was enough, she also served as superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps. Oh wait her plate isn’t full enough yet. She also served three terms as the president of the American Nurse Association.
Working in the office of the Surgeon general from 1909 to 1912. Okay
How about president of the board of directors of the American Journal of Nursing? Sure
Co-writing an American Red Cross Textbook on Elementary Hygiene and Home Care of the Sick? Absolutely
All of these were done between 1900 and 1913. A super busy time for her.
In 1910, Jane applied to the Army Nurse Corps even though she was over the 45-year-old age limit. Like age would stop this woman, she just left her age off the form. The Army approved her and she did amazing things for our country.
I think that the work she did during the Spanish American war in 1889 may have given her an understanding of how important the preparation of nurses for service overseas in support of a war could be.
It was Jane who prepared the plans to make the Red Cross Nursing Service the reserve for both the Army and Navy Nurse corps, as well as the public health service. Because of her foresight, 8,000 nurses were ready for overseas duty in World War I.
She resigned from the Army in 1912 because she wanted to volunteer full time with the red cross. She clearly had a heart for helping.
Jane oversaw the mobilization of over of 20,000 nurses during the war. However, it wasn’t just the nurses she coordinated for. She was also helping prepare nurses’ aides and other types of workers that would be needed for overseas duties.
In 1918 she became director of the wartime organization, the Department of Nursing, which supplied nurses to the army, navy, and Red Cross.
During this time Jane traveled to Europe. She visited hospitals and was able to see many of the nurses she helped recruit. Unfortunately, while in France she became very sick and died on April 15, 1919. She was buried in Savenay, France. She died of mastoiditis, which is a inner ear infection, but apparently when left intreated it can cause a brain abscess.
Her last words were, “What about my work, I must get back to my work.” 57
1920, the Army Quartermaster Corps brought Jane’s body back to the United States. She was reinterred in the nurse’s corner at Arlington National Cemetery.
After her death Jane was also awarded the Distinguished Service Medal her work as the Director of the Department of Nursing at the American Red Cross.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jane-A-Delano
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/jane-arminda-delano
https://e-anca.org/History/Superintendents-Chiefs-of-the-ANC/Miss-Jane-A-Delano
Photo credit: https://www.workingnurse.com/articles/Jane-A-Delano-1862-1919-Red-Cross-Nursing-Service
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