Women have assumed management positions all through the Navy, so it was solely becoming {that a} lady for the primary time Friday took command of the usS. Constitution — the Navy's most historic vessel.
Cmdr. Billie J. Farrell, 39, throughout a ceremony that began on land and ended on board, turned the 77th commanding officer of the 224-year-old warship that earned the nickname Old Ironsides when British cannonballs bounced off its hull in the course of the War of 1812.
“Of course, in our fashionable Navy, ladies have already commanded in any respect ranges, however not this ship, the general public's most accessible commissioned vessel, America's naval heritage," Rear Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, president of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, stated in the course of the ceremony at Boston's Charlestown Navy Yard.
Farrell's appointment is an inspiration to others, she stated.
“I can only hope that a new generation of people are inspired by seeing a woman as the captain of our ship of state, recognizing that for them too, there is no limit to what they can accomplish,” Chatfield stated.
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro stated in the course of the ceremony that Farrell, who most not too long ago served as the manager officer aboard the guided missile cruiser U.S.S. Vicksburg, is “the perfect leader to take command of this historic ship at this historic time.”
The significance of the command was not misplaced on Farrell, who was a teen in 1998 when her household visited the ship, which is considered one of Boston's hottest sights with about 500,000 vacationers yearly.
“Any person that walks on the decks of the ship is immediately standing on the page of history itself," said the native of Paducah, Kentucky, and 2004 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. “She also serves as a somber reminder of those that gave the ultimate sacrifice on her decks to create the nation that we know today. Her name carries the weight of the document to which we are all familiar, and to which all members of the armed services swear an oath to support and defend.”
Farrell relieved Cmdr. John Benda, who had led the ship’s crew since February 2020.
The Constitution is the world’s oldest commissioned warship nonetheless afloat. It performed an important function within the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812 and defended sea lanes from 1797 till 1855. The ship was undefeated in battle and destroyed or captured 33 opposing vessels.
Today, it's crewed by about 80 active-duty sailors, a few third of whom are ladies.
The first lady to serve on the Constitution’s crew was Rosemarie Lanam in 1986. The first lady to function a commissioned officer on the ship was Lt. Cmdr. Claire Bloom, who served as govt officer and led the 1997 sail, the primary time Old Ironsides had sailed beneath her personal energy since 1881.
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