Naval Weapons Station Yorktown Celebrates Women's History Month

YORKTOWN, Va. (NNS) -- "Women's Education-Women's Empowerment" was the theme as Naval Weapon Station (WPNSTA) Yorktown and Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group (NAVELSG) hosted a Women's History Month program, March 29, at Navy Cargo Handling Battalion (NCHB) 1 at WPNSTA Yorktown-Cheatham Annex.

Retired Command Master Chief Cheri Inverso served as the guest speaker as Sailors from WPNSTA Yorktown and its tenants were educated about how women struggled through the years for both a good education and a good job.

"I've been a few places in my 30 years in the Navy, but nothing I did was done on my own," Inverso said. "The course was drawn by many military women before me, and I hope that I left a path - no matter how small - for women who came after me."

"Women's Education-Women's Empowerment," the theme for 2012, recognizes the pioneering leadership of women and their impact on the diverse areas of education. Of the two million World War II veterans, the G.I. Bill helped inundate college campus during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Almost 20 percent of women veterans took advantage of the G.I. Bill and attended college for an alternative to returning to the kitchen and leaving the workforce.

"Just as they once surprised their families and friends by donning military uniforms, they once again defied social expectations and trained to become lawyers, architects and college professors, among other things," Inverso said.

"They not only bettered their own lives and, more often, those of their families, but they also became role models and mentors for generations to come."
Inverso enlisted in the Navy, under the delayed entry program, in December 1980. She entered recruit training in Orlando, in November 1981 and graduated from Hospital Corps "A" School in Great Lakes in the spring of 1982. She is a 1999 graduate of the Navy Senior Enlisted Academy (89 Blue) and a 2004 graduate of the CMC/COB Course (Class 6) and Keystone 08-02. Inverso is the 2010 recipient of the Navy League's Winifred Quick Collins Award for Inspirational Leadership.

For women serving in the military, it wasn't until 1972-more than 52 years after they earned the right to vote-that women became fully integrated into the armed forces.

"Until 1972, there was an entirely separate chain of command for women in each service," Inverso said. "Women officers could not hold command, even over women. They held administrative leadership roles but were always commanded by a man. Women officers had no authority to give any male service member orders."

As the military continues to evolve its policies, women continue to expand the roles they play as part of the armed forces.

"In the next five years, there will be women permanently assigned to submarines and many, if not all, of the barriers to women will be removed," Inverso said. "It will be up to you, each of you, male and female, to make sure we never go back to the past.

"We all joined the military to make something of ourselves, to be successful and proud and the military is the place to do that. If you serve for one enlistment or stay for 30 years, serve every day as if you were going to stay forever, be proud of your service and it will make you a better person."

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