Pioneering Navy officer steers clear of feminine touches
By Associated Press
Published June 7, 2003
PENSACOLA - The first woman to command a Navy combat vessel from the time its construction got under way had a chance to put a personal imprint on the ship but avoided giving it any feminine touches.
"I try to stay away from that on purpose because I don't want people to be able to say "Oh, a woman did this,"' Cmdr. Ann Claire Phillips said Friday aboard the guided missile destroyer Mustin.
The ship, which will get its "USS" designation when commissioned in July at San Diego, its home base, made its first port call at Pensacola Naval Air Station after sailing from Pascagoula, Miss., where it was built.
Most of the building was to strict Navy standards, but Phillips and her 329-member crew, including 65 other women, could choose such items as the flooring pattern and color scheme. They went with a patriotic red, white and blue. There's nothing pink aboard the Mustin.
"You wouldn't see that in my house," Phillips said with a smile. "I might wear it, but I'm not going to put it on the house."
Phillips is among a handful of women commanding U.S. warships, including the captains of two other guided missile destroyers.
"We do try to keep in touch, but all those people are professionals, and there's no secret women's network," Phillips said. She also keeps in contact with other destroyer skippers regardless of gender.
Her passengers for the final leg of the trip here included U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., Pensacola Mayor John Fogg, who is a former Marine Corps fighter pilot, and retired Vice Adm. Jack Fetterman, chief executive officer of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation.
Phillips was commissioned 20 years ago through the ROTC program at the University of North Carolina, where she earned a degree in French. She grew up in Annapolis, Md., home of the U.S. Naval Academy.
"I'm not from a Navy family, but the interest was constantly there and, of course, that's where I got the idea" to join the Navy, she said.
She said it was a major victory for a woman to get sea duty when she began her career, but she landed an assignment aboard the USS Lexington, a training aircraft carrier then based in Pensacola. Now, she said, women can do practically anything in the Navy.
"I'm just fortunate to have been on the crest of that wave," she said.
Her ship is named for the Mustin family, which has a long history with the Navy.
Capt. Henry C. Mustin, a pioneering naval aviator, was the first commanding officer of Pensacola Naval Air Station from 1914 through 1917. His son, Vice Adm. Lloyd Mustin, served during World War II. Two grandsons, retired Vice Adm. Henry C. Mustin, and Lt. Cmdr. Thomas M. Mustin, are Vietnam veterans.
