The Life We Live

A New Wave

• Nicole Williams • Season 1 • Episode 2

Share episode

In this captivating episode of "A New Wave," we delve into the inspiring journey of Beth, a remarkable woman who grew up in a small New Jersey town during the transformative 1960s. With a mother who was a pioneer in women's entrepreneurship, Beth learned the importance of breaking barriers from an early age. Following in her mother's footsteps, she enlisted in the Navy and became one of the first women to serve on a co-ed combat ship, the U.S.S Vulcan. 

Content ID

License code for YouTube:

AGEDTNCZCALVBYUW, 50S7JCCC8PAI8NK6, QNR8L4EHQSWQIQHD, H1FMPL0GVFOUHYIS, Y4MZCTMGANK5PFUJ


Send us a text

Support the show

Episode 2

A New Wave

 Welcome to the Life We Live, the podcast where we dive into the stories of everyday people and the incredible lives they lead. I'm your host, Nicole Williams, and each week we'll explore the unique journeys, challenges and triumphs of individuals from all walks of life, from artists and educators to entrepreneurs and community heroes. Our guests share their experiences, insights, and the lessons they've learned along the way. Together, we'll celebrate the beauty of our diverse human experiences and discover the common threads that unite us all. So whether you're on your morning commute, winding down after a long day, or simply looking for a dose of inspiration. Join us as we connect, learn and uncover the rich tapestry of life that surrounds us. Let's get started. Welcome to today's episode of A New Wave. In this installment, we have the pleasure of introducing Beth, who grew up in a quaint new Jersey town during the vibrant 1960s. Her mother was a true trailblazer, paving the way for women in entrepreneurship and self-employment. Inspired by her mother's pioneering spirit, Beth embarked on her own remarkable journey, enlisting in the Navy and becoming one of the first women to serve on a co-ed combat ship, the USS Vulcan. Join us as we explore this incredible story and the impact of her groundbreaking achievements. Thank you for joining me, Beth. I'm so excited to have you here today. Thank you for having me. So I wanted to start by learning more about your younger years. So you have two sisters and one brother, correct? That's right. So I really believe that we play specific roles in our families. So tell me a little bit about your role in your sibling dynamic. What was your role? So my brother was the oldest. I was the oldest girl and, um, two sisters under me. So I don't know, there's not really a middle child with four. Mhm. Um, I was the responsible one. I was known for the generous, responsible one. Um, so that was, that was my role. My one sister was very artistic. Um, my other one was a very creative hard worker. Um, my brother was the studious one on his way. His goal was to get to the Naval Academy. Oh, he. He was interested in being in service as well. Yes. Yeah, he actually did join the military. He was in the Navy. Um, nuclear submarine program. But his eyesight didn't let him get into the Naval Academy. I mean, that's for for is a challenging number. Like you said, there's not really a middle child. There's just two on each end. Looking back, what are what are some of the fond memories that you have that you kind of think back about your childhood in terms of the relationship with you and your siblings? Um, my one sister who was really close in age. Um, we probably did the most together because our age was closest, and then my brother was three years older. My other sister was three years younger. So there was a big chunk of time. We had similar activities, similar friends. Um, I think are my fondest memories was trying to. My mom had a business she created. We'd help her in the business, and when she'd have customers come and pick up their dogs from being groomed. Um, my sister and I would stand behind the customer, facing my mother, and trying everything we could do to make her laugh in front of her customer. It was just a real fun activity. Very fun for you. Maybe not fun for her. She actually had good humor about the whole thing. Um, I do think she also enjoyed it. Now, isn't there a story about, um, maybe taking that a little too far and locking yourselves in some of the crates? Yeah, maybe. Maybe saying help, help, help. That was in the car. It was my younger sister. The one I said is very smart and creative. Sister. And a jokester. So yes, there were usually dog crates in the car for transporting them to, you know, doctor visits or vet visits or or dog shows. Um, but unbeknownst to my mother, she did climb into the crate in the back of the, um, station wagon and held the sides of it and mouthed help! As cars were passing by. That's my family. I also, uh, I also, um, recall in some of the conversations that we've had, uh, that you guys also had kind of a playful type of relationship between you and your siblings. Um, where sometimes you also try to, I guess, fake each other out or or, uh, pranks. And I, I recall one particular story about, uh, about, uh, some creative artwork I think you did with some brownies. Is, is is this ringing a bell? Yes. Yes, yes. So, um, me and my sister closest to me did pull a prank on my younger sister. Uh, we ended up shaping nice, moist brownies into the shape of cat poop and put it on her bed. Um, that wasn't the worst part. The most deranged piece of it was that when she came in and saw it and was grossed out by it, we ate it. Oh my word. So these are the memories you hold dear. Oh, my memories I should have never shared. But I mean, I think that speaks knowing. Knowing you. Um. How I know you. Um. I think it really kind of speaks to the conversations we've had and and some of the personality traits you shared today. You are, um, you know, you are definitely one. Definitely one that likes to joke, um, has a has a nice, colorful personality in terms of what you find funny, uh, which makes the conversations really enjoyable and fun. Um, sometimes, yes. Demented. But for the most part. Sometimes I've learned as I've gotten older, you really should know your audience. Um, I don't always have filters. Oh, no. No filters today either. Yeah. No. So you talked about your your mom a little bit in, in some of the memories you had. So your, your mom. Really? Um, she had her own business. Correct. The the kennel was her. Her own startup. Yes. Yeah. So her her goal was when we were very young, probably first, second grade. She wanted to have employment, but didn't want to not be at home when we got home from school. So that was her goal. She was very, you know, attached to animals, dogs specifically. So she ended up working at a, um, a veterinarian to learn how to dog groom. And she is very, very artistic. So that really took off. And she was very, very successful in creative. So she first started off with a grooming business and then expanded it to a boarding kennel that was also very, um, very, very successful. She, uh, we lived close to the city and she'd have a, a pickup and delivery service for city people that needed to leave their dogs on vacation, Christmas time. You know, she'd make Christmas stockings, and every dog that went home from being boarded or groomed was bathed and brushed and had bows in their hair and sprayed with that cheap perfume we'd be able to buy at a discount store. But it was very successful. People felt comfortable leaving their dogs with her, and then if we had an overflow, there'd be a time where someone's not quite checked out yet and another group's checking in. So you had a little bit of an overlap in the dogs that were familiar to us, that had been boarding with us for years, would be the ones that would end up in our bedrooms and sleeping with the kids at night. So it's really interesting because, you know, hearing that story, if you put it in context today, you know, there's a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of startups, a lot of of businesses. But this was back right back in the 60s. Correct. So she really kind of pioneered this, this concept of, of self-employed entrepreneurship from, from a woman's perspective. It wasn't really the common thing to do. Right? Yeah. She was quite the entrepreneur and very creative and had a real good business instinct. She knew what was going on. She was really good at the marketing and what was going to be attractive and what would what would sell. So I assume, you know, with any startup, there's a lot of demand at first and not a lot of money coming in. And so not a lot of of extra cash flow to. Really have extra staff, so I assume you and your your siblings played a large role in supporting the business, right? Absolutely. And I think she also wanted it that way, that we would be around her when she's working. We still participate. So we brushed and bathed dogs and walked dogs, um, fed the dogs when we had the kennel. So she grew it slowly. So she started with the grooming and then that when that became successful and there was a demand for it, then she started in and at the kennel, uh, the first kennel she built, my dad actually constructed. It was, um, refurbishing the, the carriage house. That's the name of it was, uh, carriage house canine in and it was a carriage house originally. And, um, he made, you know, the dog runs with that one. And then when that was growing, outgrowing that, they built another building to be able to board more animals. Uh, that that seems like it grew pretty, pretty big. Um, so I'm sure at that point when you're younger, probably not the most fun memories of helping out with the business, when maybe you wanted to go play with friends. But looking back, what are what are some of the things that you feel like you really learned or took from that experience that still still play a significant part of of of how you approach your own business and career today. It was the customer service aspect. Learned that right from the very, very young age, my parents would leave for, um, dog shows and we'd be at home to handle customers. We'd answer the phone, we'd take appointments, we'd interact with them when they came and picked up their, their dogs. Um, so just learned how to be very appropriate and professional. Except for when we're trying to make my mom laugh. But when we were responsible for handling a customer, you know, we would be responsible so fast. Fast forward now. You're, you know, early teen, young adult, and you're trying to figure out what you want to do with starting off your own life. And so this is when you decided you wanted to serve in in the Navy is. And so tell me a little bit about what was it. Partly because you have a history and your family is serving or what was really the pull for you and specifically Navy. Well, I think the fact that my brother had already joined, um, gave me the, uh, the knowledge and the awareness and the exposure of military service. But what was the reason why I wanted to is, is I was in a very small little town. There wasn't anything much for employment. Uh, and I wanted to travel. So Navy. I picked Navy because I thought that I would. I actually thought that I would be able to go overseas, or I could be on a ship. I didn't at the time know that wasn't a female job. Um, but that was my my vision. So then you enlist. Is that is that the right terminology? I'm. I'm not. Yeah. So you enlist. Enlist, and then you. Is it boot camp? Is that what? Or is it called something else? No boot camp. You go to boot camp, and all the women went to Orlando, Florida. It's the first time I'd ever been on an airplane. And you go to, uh, to boot camp, and it's pretty rigorous and a little bit scary. And when you graduate, there you go to they call it an A school. So it's a school to train you in whatever job profession you tested and, um, chose. So when you went in there and you were testing, what were you tested for? What what was your outcome? All different kinds I ended up choosing. Um, they call it personnel, man. So it was an administrative role? Mhm. Handling, uh, people's records. And, you know, it was administrative. So the boot camp that you went to. It wasn't a coat. It wasn't a coed boot camp. It was just women. No, they had coed areas of it in Orlando. So there was coed. We had coed classes. Um, and then when the. When are you ready to graduate? There was a date in Orlando. Um, Disney that was also coed. Was was boot camp hard? It was. It was kind of scary. Um, I think I kept waiting for it to get harder. There was physical aspects of it. I joined the drill team. I thought that was just cool. Just slapping those guns around and flipping them around. And, um, I had fun with that. So that got me out of some of the physical, um, training activities because I was busy training in that. And then you performed at the graduation. Are you nervous you're going to drop your your gun in a twirl? I know, yeah. Nervous about that. Another fun thing that I like doing was calling cadence. So you marched everywhere. You didn't. When you're in a group, you didn't walk, you didn't talk. You just marched from one place to another. And then to keep everybody in step, you'd have to call cadence. So that sing songy rhythmic. Thing that you would. Yeah. So did you have. Was it just one? Was it just one or did you guys have like many, many songs or what are the rhythmic cadence. It would be a few. Yeah a few different songs that you would do. Um, and, uh, I can't even remember them now, but yeah, it would be these sing songy little. Did you really get into it? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Especially when you got to do the. Yes. That would, that would be my favorite part to lefty. Right. You left and then you go into some other words I can't even remember now. I wish I had thought of that before you started talking to me. I would have been prepared. So what was what were some of the hard things in boot camp that maybe you didn't really anticipate going in? All right, you're going to laugh about this? Um, I learned from this experience, but you had to have your locker. Completely. Everything had to be precisely folded. Precisely organized. Um, very hard to fold a woman's bra and have it not look sloppy. So I so we all ended up getting those really hard form from the pointy bras. They look perfectly pristine and perky in our shelves. We didn't wear them, but we had them in there for inspections. So that was. That was a little bit challenging. Um, when I first got there, I didn't know you had to dry the sink out every time you used it. So there were things I had to learn that were you'd get yelled at for it until you knew you were supposed to do it. Um, but it it was manageable. What about the physical aspects of boot camp? How did you find those challenging? For me, it was because I had just, um, had a cast on my leg before I went into boot camp. I had a tobogganing accident. Um, I never told the Navy. I didn't think I needed to tell the Navy because it was going to come off before I went into boot camp, so it wasn't really all that healed or long. I got my cast off just before I went to boot camp, so I had to run a mile like my first day. A couple days there, you had to run a mile, and if you didn't pass that, you'd have to try again the next day. So it was a little in a certain time you had to run it in a certain time period. So I really pushed myself because I knew the second day was not going to be easy for me. When you left boot camp, I think you had told me previously that you had gained a stripe. Is that is that correct? Right. You can get, um, if you do well in the classes and you don't get in trouble, you get another stripe. So you start off as, uh, like two stripes when you go in, I, I think I came out with three stripes. So now you're, you're out of boot camp. And is this at the point when the legislation started to change and there were. Opportunities for women to serve on ships. Or was it? Was it did you get started in your career and that come a little bit later? What was the timing of that? Yeah. Came a little bit later. I was already at my first duty station, um, in Virginia Beach, and I was, um, managing a few different schools and coordinating the logistics of getting people to their next assignments, next duty stations, and letting them, helping them catch their ships midstream. So I was working with, uh, photo school and a few other different schools, and then they had, uh, made this, uh, announcement that they were looking for volunteers. Uh, so me and another, uh, another woman that worked with me, we went on the ship and checked it out, and she didn't end up choosing to do it, and I ended up choosing to do it. So we volunteered, or I volunteered and was selected as one of the 60 women. So and this was a pretty significant shift for the Navy, because I think you had previously said you didn't realize when you first enlisted that women were really not allowed on combat ships. And some of the things that you thought the Navy was going to open up as an opportunity for you was not really available being being a woman. But now you're now you're seeing a an opportunity to volunteer to be part of the first real group of, of women to be on a combat ship. Is that correct? Yeah. That's correct. And that's why it excited me to do it, because then I would be able to travel, I would make med cruises and North Atlantic and, you know, I'd be like what I thought the Navy was all about, but it wasn't opened up to women. So this was an experiment that they were allowing women. They first let the officer, women officers on board first, and then after the women officers spent a little bit of time getting prepared and getting the ship prepared, they had to prepare the ship for women as well. The berthing area needed to be a separate location. And then then they started just filtering in, you know, assignment by assignment, we'd all be kind of flowing in. So the ultimate amount, the the final amount was 60 women that were part of this pilot experiment. And so this was probably what? Somewhere around 1979 ish. Right? Yep. And then so what ship did you end up serving on? It was the USS Vulcan. That was the ship that was doing this pilot. Uh, USS Falcon, AR five. And this job was a tender, and they had a foundry on board. And the it was an old ship. And the job of the ship was to pull up next to ships that had broken parts and build the parts on board and then repair their ship. That was what the job of the ship was. And so you and what was your specific role on this ship? I was, uh, admin. I was still admin. I was working with, um, people's personnel records and training. And, um, later it was also their career career counselor. And so here you are at that point. Young 20s, early 20s, early 20s, going on this ship. And and at this point, the Navy still referred to women that were serving as waves. Correct? Right. Back then they did. And so you are a new wave going on this ship. And I can't even imagine this is how many stories you probably have related to just what you encountered. And when I originally was speaking to you about this, you know, I was like, oh, you probably encountered a lot of sexism on the ship. But you interestingly enough, you said actually it was more other ships that were not co-ed where you seem to have more of the sexism, but on the on the actual ship you served on, it was more of a brother father type of protective relationship with the men that were originally serving, at least in the the volunteer part of your service. Right. And the volunteer part and I'm sure there were there was a few of the older generation that was just they were against it. They just they just didn't like it, but they didn't, um, uh, they didn't share that outwardly they were professional. Um, but I don't have to say most of the most of the crew on our ship was more protective. They were, um, like I said, like you said, fatherly, brotherly, protective, especially when we went to other ports. And when you're at port, there's multiple ships tied up. And, you know, there would be the rude and crude comments from the sailors hanging off the edge of the ship as we're walking down the pier, you know, um, talking about. You know how convenient it was that they had women on their own ship. So. And we also had a hard time with. There was there was a several groups that did not like this at all. It was the wives and girlfriends. That's interesting, because that's not where I would have assumed that you would have felt that. The, the the, um, I guess the sexism or I guess, um, misunderstanding from from groups around, uh, just serving on a co-ed ship, but, um, but what about on on the actual ship, even though you. There were people that you said older generation didn't really, um, support the idea of women being or serving on, on combat ships. Um, were there any other things that you faced? You know, maybe not. Maybe not the the common, but what were some of the other challenges that you faced being being a woman or really trying to, I guess, pave the way to have the ship adapt to having women on it? Right, right. Yeah. And I think they did quite well. But what was challenging was still, um, being a woman in, um, leading men and leading men that were older when I was, you know, advanced. And then I had responsibilities to supervise. I it was it was a little bit challenging. Plus, for one, I'm young and not that experienced in leadership. Um, there was some little resentment when there would be a more senior person that I would be responsible for supervising. So really kind of helped me. Figure out my management style and my leadership style. Working under those circumstances, or how am I going to make my my team and the people that work for me, um, not turn against me just because I'm a woman? How are we going to work together? How am I going to, uh, have them feel valued and important and not micromanaged? And, um, so it was just kind of experimenting with approaches, uh, that turned out to be actually pretty successful. Um, I have been told and many reviews that I'm just a natural leader, so I think that I've done a good job with it. I also recall there were, uh, I think 2 or 3 times you were called to. Was it called to the captain? What is it called? Captain's mast. Oh, captain. Yes, yes. So? So. Yes. And and and just for for anyone who doesn't know who. Because I did not know that it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing. Captain's mask is that you have a personal invitation to talk to the captain. Now, I'm just this lowly little, you know, seaman at the time. Um, and I'm called to the captain. So the first scenario situation was we were doing drills, and we do overboard drills, so. The requirement is, is that you're supposed to report if you see a man overboard. So they do these drills so they throw Oscar. That's his name. They threw Oscar overboard. I watched Oscar go over the edge, but I'm standing right next to the executive officer who I was supposed to report it to. I look at him, he looks at me. Oscar's over the edge. I did not feel I needed to report that I got in trouble because I didn't make that official report. Um, I did get out of it when? When I talked to the captain and I explained to him that I was standing right next to the executive officer. I know he saw it, too. So that one, that one did not cause me any harm. Uh, the next time I actually requested base time with the captain because I thought something wasn't fair. Uh, they had a rule that, uh, if you're at a certain rate, if you didn't make a petty officer. So if you didn't make a certain advancement, everybody had to do their tours in the mess decks. That's an awful, awful job. It's lots of hours. It's gross work. It's heavy work. It's all the food stuff, um, and all the cleanup and. Anyway, I was due to go, but because of my administrative capabilities, they wanted to save me because they already had an admin type person down there, so they wanted to save me so I could do a lot of that admin work. During this tour of working in the mess deck. In the meantime, I made rate. I got advanced and then they wanted to pull me down and I said no, I already made advancement. So I did go to the captain's mass and plead my case, and and I, I won that one. I was not having to go to the mess deck because I made. Right. That was their policy. So you're, you're you're in your young 20s on a ship full of men, some of which you don't even want you there in a training slash leadership type of role. And you are you're requesting to talk to the captain. It wasn't fair. That's really that was that was a problem when I mean, you got some guts that could have gone very wrong for you. It really could have gone very wrong for me. Are you do you kind of look back at how brazen you were and and kind of shock yourself a little bit since we've been talking about it? Absolutely. I don't know that I would have the guts to be doing that at this point in my career. I kind of way things out a little bit. It's like, is this the battle you really want to choose? I mean, I don't know how gross the mess hall is, but how big was your ship? How many people? Uh, we had about 750 crew and then 60 women. So, yeah, it was a pretty significant amount of people. And having to go to a mess hall and clean up anything related to that, I would assume cooking. Yeah, the cooking, the prepping, the cleaning. I assume that's pretty. That's pretty awful. There's a reason they call it the mess hall, although honestly, I think I would I would take mess hall over toilet duty any day. I didn't have that either. How long were you on the USS Vulcan? What was the. How long did you serve on that? I. Oh gosh, I. I actually extended so we made a mediterranean cruise and then a North Atlantic cruise. And then I was supposed to be transferred. It was like a two years, I believe. Um, but then they were going to the Caribbean and I said, I want to extend because I wanted to go to the Caribbean. So I went to the Caribbean, went to Saint Thomas, went to Puerto Rico, went to we went to really, you know, exciting places. I also traveled, took out their tunity of traveling to visit other places when you pulled into port. So went to um, went to Scotland. But then I went to England from Scotland, took some leave time, vacation time and traveled a little bit as well. And so how long did you serve in the Navy? Ten years. Ten years. Mhm. And then you transitioned into civilian life. Right. Yeah. Started a family. The next step. If I'd stayed in, I would have had to. Um, it was really the real reason I got out was not just because I would be transferred. Um, you know, children young at that young age could transfer to another country. That would be an experience as well. Uh, the problem was, is that they had a requirement. If you were married to another military person, you had to sign parental rights to someone else in the event that you both got killed. And there was no way I could even fathom the idea of signing legally sign my children over to. Even if it was my mother, I couldn't do it. So that was why I ended up leaving after ten years. I should have left him earlier. I made the. I made the wrong choice. Keep the navy, lose the husband. But that's for another recording. Another day. I want to thank you so much for. For taking the time with me today to talk about your experiences. Um, what would you say for anyone who's listening is, you know, your 32nd elevator pitch on. On what? What the Navy brought you? What what what was the fondest thing or if if you were if you were talking to somebody else who was maybe contemplating, you know, serving themselves. What? What would you say? Take advantage of all the opportunities that they offer. It's a great opportunity to get education. It's a great opportunity to, uh, see other world, see other cultures. I would say just take every opportunity you can. Um, and then so many of those skills are transferable. You just need to switch up the language. Uh, we call things differently in the military, but they totally translate to civilian, um, to the civilian world. Um, I totally enjoyed it. It was a great experience. Um, it took me out of my little shallow shell and, um, as you heard, a little bit bold. So, um. Get out there. Experience things you only live one time. Well, thank you so much for joining us. I truly appreciate it and enjoyed our conversation. Well, thank you so much for inviting me. It was it was fun. Thank you for joining us for this episode of A New Wave. We hope you enjoyed hearing Beth's inspiring journey and the remarkable strides she made as a pioneer in both entrepreneurship and military service. Her story serves as a powerful reminder of the impact one individual can have in breaking barriers and paving the way for future generations. If you found this episode meaningful, please consider subscribing and sharing it with others. If you like this episode and want to support the creation of more episodes, visit me at buymeacoffe.com/thelifewelive. Until next time. Embrace every moment and find joy in the life you live.