When Lt. Cmdr. Carol McKenzie enlisted in the U.S. Navy 26 years ago, women were not allowed to serve on surface warships. In two weeks she will command a ship carrying 350 sailors and 850 Marines.
Lt. Cmdr. McKenzie is one of 10 female Navy officers in the current fleet commanding a ship. There are 275 ships in the Navy.
Her early years in the Navy were not easy, especially when she and other women started serving aboard combat ships.
“You had to be thick-skinned,” she said.
Each female sailor had to be focused on her goals, she said.
Lt. Cmdr. McKenzie finished her degree and became an officer after 12 years enlisted, then set her sights on commanding a ship.
“I’ve never been about making this huge wave for women in the Navy. I just do what I love to do,” she said.
She will take over the USS Harpers Ferry, an amphibious assault ship based in Sasebo, Japan.
Now ships are open to female commanders if they meet the requirements, but fewer women than men stay in the Navy long term, mostly because of family commitments, she said.
With 26 years in service, Lt. Cmdr. McKenzie could have retired years ago, but said she “wasn’t ready to retire. I have so much more I can give the Navy.”
Her tour on the USS Harpers Ferry is scheduled for three years. On average the ship could spend more than 275 days a year at sea.
The mother of four is taking her two youngest children 8-year-old Lakxota and 2-year-old Aiden with her to Japan. Her husband, a retired sailor, will live with the children on base.
Lt. Cmdr. McKenzie shared high points and challenges the Navy faces with Chattanooga Shriners at a Friday luncheon.
Her father, Joseph Gebis, moved to Hixson nearly 12 years ago from Michigan and is a member of the Shriners. He invited her to speak at the Alhambra Temple, a meeting center for Chattanooga Shriners.
From increased deployment time to budgets for maintenance, she told the audience where the Navy stands.
Bill Green, a Shriner, heard her overview of the Navy.
“I was very pleased, very impressed,” he said. “The way she explained things, all the information she gave us.”
Many of the dozen Shriners present were not aware of the strain from increased sea deployments from six to nine months on combat operations and the added burden of humanitarian missions such as current work in Haiti.