But whether she originally intended to or not, Hoeft and a group of women on board the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt did make a statement this year. In what Navy officials say is likely a first for the 97,000-ton aircraft carrier, Hoeft and the rest of an all-female crew carried out the complicated and physically demanding job of catapult operations on the flight deck. It's a feat for a sector of the military that comprises only 18 percent women overall, and even fewer in its aviation track. "Some of the guys, they'd tell us, 'You're going to mess it up. You're not going to do it,'" Hoeft said from her perch on a coffee shop chair on Thursday in Rice Lake. "We told them, 'No, we are going to do it. We're strong. We can do this.' And we did." Their attitudes changed once Hoeft and the 35-woman team made their goal a reality, she said. Completing that goal, however, took some work.
Pulling the parts together
The USS Theodore Roosevelt has four catapults that rest upon a more than 1,000-foot-long deck. Those catapults launch aircraft -- or "birds," as Hoeft calls them -- into the air to carry out missions. The duties required to launch those aircrafts are numerous and complex, Hoeft said, and one must have proper certifications to carry them out. When the idea first began to circulate about an all-female catapult crew, there weren't enough women with the right qualifications. Assembling the crew required shuffling people around and urging women to obtain the needed certifications, she said. Eventually a team of two catapult crews were assembled, and they took over operations for a day on Feb. 28 while the ship was in the Persian Gulf.
An F/A-18F Super Hornet lands on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). The carrier assembled a 35-woman crew to carry out flight operations
Esperanza Romero, work center supervisor for the USS Theodore Roosevelt's bow catapults, said having two catapult crews consisting of only women is, to the best of her knowledge, a first in the ship's 32-year history. She hopes the feat sends a positive message to women both in and out of the military. "Our job isn't necessarily a glamorous one," Romero said. "We work late hours; we're usually dirty. But when you're on the outside looking in, it's something really spectacular when you see a group of females launching a Super Hornet off the flight deck." "It's a stereotype that men are constantly doing all the big, heavy-duty jobs," she added. "That's not always the case. There are women going above and beyond and doing those same jobs, and doing it successfully."
'If you say you can, you will'