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135 ∏* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Revolutionary Change at Evolutionary Speed Women in the Class of 1980 When three women, Janice Buxbaum, Amber Hernandez, and Lynn Vostbury, arrived at the Naval Academy Preparatory School (NAPS) in Newport, Rhode Island, in January 1976, they became the first female Napsters in the school’s history.∞ Women’s experiences at NAPS served as a forecast for what would later take place at Annapolis. The women attempted to integrate with the men, for example by shoveling snow along with their male colleagues, but this goal was thwarted by a regimental commander who ordered the men to treat the women ‘‘as if they were his daughters .’’ As a result, men at the school began ignoring the women. Montel Williams, an African American midshipman-candidate who would later host a syndicated television talk show, felt that the silence was wrong, and he eventually spoke to and ate meals with the women.≤ His Caucasian colleague, Ron Rockwell, soon joined him. Janice Buxbaum recalled that other men then ignored Rockwell and Williams as well, although with time more men spoke with the women. Most, however, continued to say nothing to the women or made comments about females being out of place there. NAPS’s yearbook later reported that ‘‘the first few days were chaotic ones, marked by complete confusion,’’ but according to Buxbaum the first few months were, overall, ‘‘not too bad.’’ This chapter follows the stories of these three women at NAPS and the first group of eighty-one women at the Naval Academy, exploring their experiences as midshipmen as well as the Academy’s reaction to them. Although Buxbaum told the media that women ‘‘fit in well’’ and that ‘‘the men are very helpful,’’ life for the women at NAPS was in reality stressful as Buxbaum realized that she and the other women were ‘‘guinea pigs.’’ Men were increasingly resentful that the women had arrived in January, thereby missing half of the NAPS school year. When women received the required 136 * Women in the Class of 1980 nominations for USNA and some men did not, it reinforced the idea that women were stealing men’s places at Annapolis. Negative comments then became increasingly common, and pranks, some potentially dangerous, began . When some of the midshipman-candidates discovered that one of the women was dating an African American colleague, they entered her room, stu√ed a female uniform with paper, and then set it on fire. Buxbaum recalled that the incident was the first time she realized that ‘‘an individual woman’s actions were going to turn into ‘women’s actions.’ ’’ The women, facing rising flames in the room, were forced to escape out of the window. As fewer men got nominations, their frustration led to a second attack on the women. A group of men stabbed a female uniform, covered it with ketchup to resemble blood, and then hung it from the ceiling in a woman’s room. Buxbaum became increasingly concerned, and she consulted a Preparatory School administrator. The o≈cer informed her that Navy leaders had ordered him to ‘‘see what happened with no controls over the men,’’ but as a result of the fire and the e≈gy hanging, he realized that he would have to take some protective steps. He dismissed ten men linked to the incidents. Meanwhile, at Annapolis, Kinnaird McKee wrote to midshipmen, faculty, and sta√ in February to update them on administrative actions he and other administrators had taken during the first six months of 1976 to make the final arrangements for the arrival of women.≥ One topic McKee did not mention, but about which he and other administrators became aware, was a study of the 1969 integration of women at Yale University. As the Wall Street Journal reported , the study indicated that ‘‘to win acceptance from their male classmates , the Yale women a√ected masculine mannerisms: lower voices, athletic walks, and profane language.’’∂ As a result, Academy administrators began to consider how similar circumstances would play out in Annapolis. Administrators’ considerations centered on the question of how to support the femininity of female midshipmen while at the same time being certain that it did not stand in the way of women fulfilling their requirements as midshipmen . In April, the commandant ended the four-year-old custom of having a homecoming queen to avoid the ‘‘fixation on ‘good looks.’ ’’∑ Yet administrators displayed a somewhat inconsistent attitude by suggesting, in a report on the integration of women, that USNA could end the tradition of...

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