COMMANDER CATHERINE
A. LEAHEY, USN (RET)
When the Navy began accepting women
for sea duty in 1978, Ensign Leahey was among the first women to
volunteer. After completing Surface
Warfare Officers’ Basic School, she reported aboard USS Point Loma (AGDS 2) as Auxiliaries and Electrical Officer. During this tour, she qualified Surface
Warfare Officer and later fleeted up to Operations Officer. Lieutenant Leahey’s next assignment, in 1982,
was as Combat Systems Officer on the staff of Commander Service Group TWO in
Norfolk, VA.
The next milestone in her career
was graduating from Surface Warfare Officer Department Head School in 1985
after which she was assigned to USS Shenandoah
(AD 44) as Operations Officer. During
her time onboard, Shenandoah
completed a Mediterranean deployment, supporting SIXTH Fleet units engaged in
missile strikes on Libya and freedom of navigation operations in the Gulf
of Sidra. Lieutenant Commander Leahey’s second
department head tour was onboard USS Simon
Lake (AS 33), homeported in Holy Loch, Scotland, as Engineer Officer.
Taking a break from sea duty,
Lieutenant Commander Leahey attended the Naval War College, graduating in 1990
with a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies. Following that, she reported to USS Pyro (AE 24) as Executive Officer. During this time, Pyro participated in the 1991 Gulf War as part of the Abraham Lincoln Battle Group.
Based on her
extensive experience in fleet logistics, Commander Leahey earned the
designation of a proven sub-specialist in operational logistics. This led to her next assignment as Fleet
Logistics Plans Officer on the staff of Commander, U. S. Naval Forces
Europe. Her duties included negotiating
host nation support (HNS) for wartime theater operations by U. S. Naval Forces
in northern Europe and developing NATO procedures for multinational maritime
logistics. The culmination of her Naval
career was a tour of duty as an exchange officer with the Royal Navy, serving
as an instructor for the senior course at the Royal Naval Staff College, Greenwich,
England.
Commander Leahey retired from
active duty in 1997, after completing 20 years of service, and immediately
embarked on a five month circumnavigation of the globe, visiting 54 ports. She then earned a second Master of Arts
degree in Art History from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2003. She is an active member of the Navy League of
the United States and was honored as the Savannah Council’s “Navy Leaguer of
the Year” in 2002. She is currently researching
a book on the history of Navy women serving on sea duty and presented a paper
on her findings at the 2007 Naval History Symposium sponsored by the U. S.
Naval Institute.
A Centennial Tribute to Navy Nurses: The First Women to Serve aboard Navy Ships