Michelle Howard, in full Michelle Janine Howard, also called Michelle J. Howard, (born April 30, 1960, Riverside, California, U.S.), U.S. military officer who was the first woman to become a four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy. She also made history as the first African American woman to captain a U.S. naval ship (1999).
Howard was born into a military family—her father served as a master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force—and by the time she was 12 years old, she had started thinking about embarking on a career in the military. Howard discovered, however, that opportunities for women in U.S. military academies during the early 1970s were nonexistent. That circumstance changed when U.S. Pres. Gerald Ford signed (1975) the Military Procurement Bill, which provided for the admission (starting in 1976) of women into the military academies. During high school Howard applied to the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, and upon entering the academy in 1978, she became one of only seven black women in the school’s class of 1,363 students. She graduated in 1982 and later earned (1998) a master’s degree in military arts and sciences from the U.S. Army’s Command & General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
During Howard’s sophomore year at the academy, she piloted her first ship, the destroyer USS Spruance, during a summer training cruise. She served aboard the submarine tender USS Hunley (1982–85) and the training aircraft carrierUSS Lexington (1985–87) before being named (1990) the chief engineer aboard the USS Mount Hood. She assumed the duties of first lieutenant (1992) aboard the USS Flint and was the executive officer (1996) on the USS Tortuga. By taking command of the USS Rushmore, Howard became the first African American woman to captain a U.S. naval ship.
She served (May 2004–September 2005) as the commander of Amphibious Squadron 7, which aided in relief in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. She became the first African American woman to lead a U.S. Navy battle group when in 2009 she took command of Expeditionary Strike Group Two. This flotilla guarded (April 2009–July 2010) the Persian Gulf as part of the U.S. war on terrorism and performed antipiracy operations in the Indian Ocean. Sailors under her leadership rescued Richard Phillips, the captain of the container ship MV Maersk Alabama, who was held hostage (April 8–12, 2009) by Somali pirates. Howard also served in a number of onshore positions, notably as deputy director of the Expeditionary Warfare Division under the chief of naval operations, senior military assistant to the secretary of the navy, chief of staff to the director for strategic plans and policy, and deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans, and strategy (N3/N5).
On July 1, 2014, Howard became the first woman promoted to the rank of four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy. That day she was also appointed the 38th vice-chief of naval operations (VCNO), making her the second highest-ranking officer in the U.S. Navy. In 2016 she became commander of naval forces in Europe and Africa. The following year she retired from the navy.
He specified first “female”‘ four-star officer for the US. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (which is like a separate health officer only branch of the US uniformed services).
Michelle Howard is amazing but she was Navy.
Edit: Let’s not spread misinfo on what the Surgeon General said — he specifically said US health service Corp. He is completely and maliciously wrong about Levine being anywhere close to female though and should be blasted for that.
Edit2: I’d also like to add that the US Public Health Service Corp is a completely commission only service, no enlistment. Meaning you apply and get hired in for it as a health worker and it’s not a combat unit. It’s not at all like regular military, and they basically just gifted Levine a fake rank. He has zero prior service in any branches and skipped traditional captain rank entirely for new entrees. So they gave him a giant fake ass “first female” bullshit show (skipping other prominent real females in the US health service!) just to shove it in everyone’s faces. The man is a turd for going along with it. It’s fake as hell and a giant publicity stunt.
It’s fake as hell and a giant publicity stunt.
So Rachel Levine is a four-star officer to the same extent that Jeff Bezos is an astronaut. And they're both high on their bullshit fumes.
Exactly right. It’s smoke and mirrors because the vast majority of people have no idea what the USPHS is, and will instead think this is some warranted and significant “female” military combat ranking 😂 It’s an entirely made up political appointment that requires zero experience and has zero bearing at all militarily. It’s a farce just to give Levine euphoria at being called first “female” something.
will instead think this is some warranted and significant “female” military combat ranking
This is sort of what I was misled to believe, being pretty clueless about anything military myself.
Yep, it’s a glorified political appointment. And it’s specifically spitting in the face of women with legit ranks in military branches by pretending it’s somehow a big achievement. It’s not at all, he didn’t do any military service whatsoever. It’s pretty hilarious he took a pic in a admiral uniform and everything when it’s a political appointment. No shame.
Just another white prostate owner in a long line of prostate owners pretending he’s special and stepping over women along the way 🥱
Hope you don't mind I quoted your comment in mine above -- you're right that we shouldn't spread misinformation. Thank you for the clarification!
Dick Levine, still a man tho!
No problem! Glad we’re being transparent, no need to exaggerate or mislead, the truth is damning enough as it is. Levine is a man and not the first female anything, let alone some fake ass appointment rank. It’s infuriating that this is being touted as something special when he did ZERO military service.
I love the troll who's downvoting you for keeping our side honest. Misinformation is for TRAs. 🤷♀️
The facts are the facts regardless of how we feel about them.
Wtf????
More female erasure from the woke crowd. This time, erasing the amazing accomplishments of a black woman. 😡😡😡
I immediately posted the link to the Britannica article on my Facebook page. We'll see what happens.
I just left a comment on the post about the other guy saying the same thing, right before I saw this post!
ETA: I want to draw attention to this comment from @OneStarWolf below -- obviously Levine is NOT female and that's what we should be focusing on:
And here is my original comment: How do we make this go viral? I think it's gonna peak a lot of people that this incredible black woman's history has been over-written by a white man LARPing as a woman.
Here's her Wiki page as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Howard
We need to get this trending on Twitter, Reddit, etc.
I'm banned from both sites, so…
I don't use either...ugh. If your post doesn't get enough traction, I'll cross-post to o/activism
cool
Did Levine actually say he was the first female four star general? Wow. Why am I not surprised. It seems to be really common in American history that the “first” was actually a black woman (but people have forgotten). For instance the news said that William shatner was the first Star Trek star to go to space but it was actually Mae Jemison.
Nah, the Surgeon General said it about him, on Twitter. He used the word "female" to describe Ol' Dick Levine.
ETA: Mae Jemison was an astronaut, so I'd hope she had been to space -- are you thinking of Nichelle Nichols?
ETA2: Ha! I see Mae Jemison WAS on an episode of Star Trek as a guest star because she was a fan of the show, but IMO it's a bit disingenuous to refer to her as a "Star Trek star" when she's actually an amazing engineer and astronaut: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_Jemison
Oh, of course! I didn't mean to imply she was just a Star Trek star. I just found it interesting that there was such a fuss about Shatner being the very first trekkie to go into space when she had already done that years ago. Another example I just thought of was when the press said that this dude was the first USA tennis player to reach the grand slam semi final since 2009, and Andy Murray had to point out that Serena Williams had won 23 grand slams!
Haaaa yes I remember that interview well. Still makes me lol.
https://www.si.com/si-wire-rio/video/2016/08/15/andy-murray-reminds-reporter-serena-and-venus-exist?jwsource=cl