Ordered to Command

In July 1968 Joan finally began school at the Post Naval Graduate School in Monterey, California – two years after she applied. Once again she was the only woman in her section and the only woman in the Computer Systems Management curriculum. The curriculum included engineering courses and programming languages.

She graduated in December 1969 and was assigned to the Personnel Accounting Machine Installation, U.S. Pacific Fleet. Or PAMIPAC for short.

The installation at PAMIPAC consisted of a room full of IBM mainframe computers. Joan was the Data Conversion Department Director. The department received and processed the daily personnel diaries from the Pacific fleet of Navy ships, coded them, punched data onto cards which were then the input into the computer data banks.

Joan became the Executive Officer after the Commanding Officer and former Executive Officer were transferred elsewhere. She was promoted to LCDR on November 1, 1969.

Navy Regulations prohibited women officers from succeeding to command in the absence of the commanding officer when he was on leave or on temporary duty. The rule stated “Women officers shall not succeed to command as commanding officers except at those activities the primary function of which is the administration of women personnel.”

Because of that prohibition, becoming the Executive Officer was not possible for Joan unless a change to Navy Regulations was made or some other solution was found.

The solution was to be “Ordered” to command. The PAMI’s boss in Washington DC was Marie Kelliher, her old mentor. 

The Chief of Naval Personnel in Washington wrote the orders for Joan to be Detailed as Executive Officer of PAMIPAC and Commanding Officer in absence of regularly detailed Commanding Officer until regularly detailed Commanding Officer returns. “Thus I became the first woman Executive Officer in the Navy’s history of a Command not involving the administration of women.”