Navy recognizes first woman officer to serve on sub and earn ‘dolphin pin’

Lt. Britta Christianson, Gold Crew supply officer for the guided-missile submarine USS Ohio (SSGN 726), is presented with her Submarine Supply Corps "dolphins" by her commanding officer, Capt. Rodney Mills, during a ceremony at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on June 22. Capt. Dixon Hicks, Ohio's former commanding officer, looks on. Christianson is the first female Supply Corps officer to qualify in submarines. (U.S. Navy photo by Chris Calnan/Released)

   

A Navy lieutenant from Wisconsin on Friday became the first woman to serve on a Navy submarine and earn her “dolphin pin,” a designation of her qualifications to work aboard subs.

“I was honored to be given the opportunity to serve aboard a submarine, so receiving my dolphins is like icing on the cake for me,” Lt. Britta Christianson, 30, said in a statement.

Lt. Christianson will be awarded her dolphin pin during a ceremony Friday afternoon at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington, where she was stationed on the USS Ohio. She spent more than a year in training, which included a six-month deployment on the sub.

“It was a lot of hard work, but at the end of the day, two things bring us and our submarine home safely: knowledge of the submarine and our ability to execute the mission, and that basically sums up what dolphins are all about. I owe a lot of my thanks to my captain, chiefs and crewmembers, who trained me and helped me to learn my boat,” said Lt. Christianson, a supply officer.

She is one of 24 women who were selected to take part in the Navy’s first class of submarine officer training, after the Navy reversed its ban on women on submarines in 2010.

The 24 women were deployed to four submarines last fall - six women to each submarine, three on each of the submarine’s two crews.

Lt. Christianson was one of seven supply officers in the program.

“She was required to demonstrate knowledge in basic submarine operations, engineering fundamentals, perform damage control functions and qualify as a diving officer of the watch,” said Lt. Ed Early, spokesman for Submarine Group 9, the unit to which Lt. Christianson was assigned