LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. — Captain Gail Harris says her dream of joining the Navy started when she was a little girl. "Well when I was five years old I was watching a movie with my father called A Wing and a Prayer. And it was about the U.S.S. Enterprise that aircraft carrier right after the attack on Pearl Harbor. My father was very forward thinking he was in the Army in the aftermath of World War II, when it was still segregated."
Her father encouraged her to follow her dream. "He could have killed my dream right there instead he said this is America you can be whatever you want to be when you grow up."
She joined the Navy in 1973, she became a trailblazer. She was the first female Intelligence officer in a Navy Aviation Squadron. "This was in 1973 when I entered the Navy it still wasn't possible, they had women civilians intelligence analysts, but not military. The job wasn't possible, but by the time I got officer training, they had opened up the school to women. And so I went there, and there was only one slot in the officer candidate class, and I got that opening because I had done graduate school. There was something about me that they decided to make me the test case, for women in the Navy. And they said we think you can get along being the only woman in an organization that has nearly 400 men."
Though retired now, Harris travels sharing the importance of following your dream and having a mentor. I recently caught up with her when she spoke at Palm Beach State College. "I tell people do not self-eliminate. If you have a dream and I mean deep seated dream, that is your future. I am honored that my ceiling became the next generation's floor. when I retired at the time, I was the highest ranking black woman in the Navy as a Captain. A few years later Admiral Michelle Howard, an African American female, became the first woman to have four stars as an Admiral."
Harris retired in 2001. Other than traveling, she’s improving her skills playing the piano and composing music. She is a student at the Julliard School.
