A Woman's War
The Professional and Personal Journey of the Navy's First African American Female Intelligence Officer
By (author) Gail Harris, Pam McLaughlin
Publication date:
08 December 2009Length of book:
284 pagesPublisher
Scarecrow PressDimensions:
234x155mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780810867932
When Gail Harris was assigned by the U.S. Navy to a combat intelligence job in 1973, she became the first African American female to hold such a position. Her 28-year career included hands on leadership in the intelligence community during every major conflict from the Cold War to Desert Storm to Kosovo, and most recently at the forefront of one of the Department of Defense's newest challenges: Cyber Warfare. At her retirement, she was the highest ranking African American female in the Navy.
A Woman's War: The Professional and Personal Journey of the Navy's First African American Female Intelligence Officer is an inspirational memoir that follows Gail Harris's career as a naval intelligence officer, sharing her unique experience and perspective as she completed the complex task of providing intelligence support to military operations while also battling the status quo, office bullies, and politics. This book also looks at the way intelligence is used and misused in these perilous times.
A Woman's War: The Professional and Personal Journey of the Navy's First African American Female Intelligence Officer is an inspirational memoir that follows Gail Harris's career as a naval intelligence officer, sharing her unique experience and perspective as she completed the complex task of providing intelligence support to military operations while also battling the status quo, office bullies, and politics. This book also looks at the way intelligence is used and misused in these perilous times.
Harris became the first black woman to work in military intelligence when she joined the U.S. Navy in 1973. She has worked in every major conflict, from the cold war to the more recent challenges of cyberwar, but her particular battlefield has been sexism and racism in the military. She recalls her early desire to join the military despite the decidedly antimilitary mood of the nation because of the Vietnam War. An early mentor, when she was at the University of Denver School of International Studies, was Josef Korbel, Madeline Albright’s father. When she joined the navy, there were few women, and they were mostly confined to nursing or administrative work. When opportunities did open up, she had to guard against being treated as a token or being bullied in the male-dominated culture. Harris rightly sees the lessons of stamina and determination learned from her personal and professional life as applying more broadly to women beyond the military.