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The important point, the Navy insists, is that the Eisenhower operated more than efficiently. During a busy half-year stint, the Ike suffered no decline in combat readiness. With more than 400 women in its crew of 5,000, the ship was deployed off the coast of Haiti for the U.S. intervention last September; it then steamed to the Middle East in October, when Saddam Hussein marched Iraqi troops to the Kuwaiti border. In December it was posted in the Adriatic, where its jets patrolled the no-fly zone over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Throughout the cruise, the ship performed "as well as if not better than before women were aboard," says the Ike's executive officer, Captain Doug Roulstone. "As a matter of fact, if you took women off the ship now, it wouldn't feel right."
More than $1 million was spent renovating bathrooms and sleeping quarters to accommodate women. Crewmen received color-coded brochures on how they should act around their female shipmates. (A polite compliment, for example, was in the "green zone" and acceptable. "Red zone" behavior included promising promotions for sex.) Squadron commanders conducted seminars for pilots' wives, some of whom were nervous about their husbands working in close quarters with female aviators. Doctors trained in gynecology were brought on board. The ship's barbers were even given classes in cutting women's hair.
Some adjustments were almost comic. Females quickly learned that their lingerie would be ruined in the ship's laundry, which has no gentle wash cycle. The mess-hall menu was geared to hungry young males, with few low-fat items. More bathrooms had to be allotted to women in the 333-m-long carrier so they wouldn't have to walk city blocks to find one. Male sailors received so many lectures about fraternization that at first they were afraid even to talk to females. "Everyone was on edge," says Bosun's Mate 1 Isaac Small.
The women too were intimidated in the beginning, says the ship's assistant operations officer, Commander Jan Hamby. "But," she adds, "a comfort level was eventually established. There was almost a sigh of relief by the women when they realized they weren't walking into a den of chauvinists-and by the men, who realized the women weren't out to charge them with sexual harassment at every turn."
Male pilots were worried that women would be in cockpits before they were ready. But their fears were assuaged in December, when Lieut. Shannon Workman, an EA-6B Prowler pilot, was sent ashore because she had trouble landing her radar-jamming jet. (A male pilot was sent home for the same reason.) Female aviators were relieved as well. "Nobody wants lives on the carrier sacrificed on the altar of political correctness," said Lieut. Commander Janet Marnane, an F-14 radar intercept officer.
Women improved things -- because of military skills and because of gender. Wives noticed they were getting better gifts because during port calls their husbands had female shipmates to advise them on shopping. "Some of the guys have an easier time talking to females than males about family problems," said Airman Heather Weers. Feeling competition, the men worked harder. And foul language was toned down. "I think we've become a little more civilized," said the skipper, Captain Alan Mark Gemmill.