| The United States Coast Guard Academy is a premier academic institution with highly selective admissions dating back to 1876. One hundred years later, thirty-eight women entered the Academy for the first time. Fourteen women graduated and commissioned into the United States Coast Guard in 1980. Through the medium of oral history, I was able to consolidate all of their stories for the first time. I conducted twenty-one interviews with men and women, graduates and non-graduates. The memories of my participants help to recreate the atmosphere at the Academy over forty years ago.;The goal of my project was to document a retelling of the joys and hardships faced by the first women to enter a previously all-male military institution. What I received was tremendous feedback about how the Coast Guard and the Academy assimilated women into their establishments. Many of the stories are unique and personal, but equally as many are memories of instances shared by all.;The topics covered were not preset, nor were the questions fixed prior to our conversations. We discussed uniforms, living areas, academics, extracurricular activities, the press, disappointments, harassment and numerous other subjects. In most cases my inquiries focused on what stuck out to each person the most. The result was 19 individual memoirs that are by no means comprehensive but provide the reader with a snapshot of the experiences of the first women to integrate into the Coast Guard Academy.;Nearly all of the participants remain connected to the Coast Guard or the Coast Guard Academy in some way. All of them maintained a sense of pride when discussing their experiences despite some of them being unpleasant. My thesis serves as a window into a small and protective military community. |
