The first and only woman in the U.S. Navy to achieve the rank of vice admiral will be the guest of the Branson Women Veterans Committee in Branson May 19-25 for the fourth annual Women Veteran Week.
Retired Vice Adm. Patricia Ann Tracey will be the featured speaker at the annual banquet to be held at the Lodge of the Ozarks on May 25 and also attend many of the week’s festivities.
At Tracey’s retirement ceremony in 2004, Admiral Vern Clark called her a visionary and chief architect of the future Navy and said she revolutionized, stretched and transformed every Navy organization that she ever touched.
“Our Navy and our nation have greatly benefited from Pat’s rigorous analysis, studied opinions and wise counsel. Every way point along her journey prepared Vice Admiral Pat Tracey to revolutionize and transform our Navy, helping Sailors see their futures, first as a graduate school placement officer, as a leader in recruiting, and later as a manpower analyst,” said Clark.
Tracey entered the Navy when lines were drawn, Clark said, and lived her life in a way to blur those lines and “became the best among us.” He predicted the future would see a blend in the Navy’s history, fashioned by the mind, the life and the example of Tracey’s vision – she saw opportunity at every turn and promise at every door.
Tracey didn’t like being the first and didn’t live her life to do or be the first, Clark said, but she “has, for so many women, been an incredible example, showing what they could become in this institution of ours.”
Clark commended Tracey for her actions following 9/11 when she “kept us together and kept us moving forward… When the Pentagon was attacked on 9/11, only a few weeks after her arrival, Pat was there to stabilize our Navy’s critical planning and to rebuild our operations center.”
After graduating college at the age of 19, Tracey completed Women’s Officer’ School, and was commissioned as an Ensign in 1970. She earned a Master’s degree, with distinction, in Operations Research from the Naval Postgraduate School. Her initial assignment in the U.S. Navy was to the Naval Space Surveillance Systems where she was qualified as a Command Center Officer and Orbital Analyst.
Her first command tour was at the Naval Technical Training Center at Treasure Island, Calif., followed by a staff position with the Chief of Naval Personnel as the head of the Enlisted Plans and Community Management Branch. She served as Commanding Officer of Naval Station Long Beach, then the second largest homeport of the Pacific Fleet. Tracey became a Fellow with the Chief of Naval Operations’ Strategic Studies Group at the Naval War College in 1992. She was assigned as Director for Manpower and Personnel on the staff of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Prior to her position as the Chief of Naval Education and Training and the Director of Training on July 10, 1996, she served as Commander, Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, home of the Navy’s only boot camp.
The admiral’s decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service, three Legion of Merit Awards and three Meritorious Service Medals.
Festivities for Women Veterans Week include seeing shows, touring attractions, renewing acquaintances, meeting new friends, shopping and enjoying spring in the Ozarks along with the Second Annual Miniature Golf Classic.
“Our event has grown every year as we recognize the service, always voluntary, the contributions and sacrifices of women veterans that have been vital in defending the freedom and way of life enjoyed by all,” said Mary Slivka, chairman of the Women’s Veterans Committee. The Women’s Veterans Committee, a subcommittee of the Branson Veterans Task Force, was instrumental in establishing the week first celebrated in 2005 as Women Veterans Week by proclamation of the Mayor of Branson.
“In this city that honors veterans every day, it is important to recognize the more than one million American women have served in the armed forces,” said Slivka who herself is a veteran. “Since the American Revolution when women served on the battlefield as nurses, water bearers, cooks, laundresses and saboteurs, thousands of women paid the ultimate sacrifice by giving their lives while serving in the armed forces.”
Reservations are open for all who would like to attend events during the week and help honor women veterans, especially the banquet. For more information contact Barb Riggle, committee member and a member of the BVTF board of directors, at the BVTF, P.O. Box 128, Branson, MO 65615, call 417-337-VETS or e-mail [email protected].
Women’s Veterans Week is just one of many community service projects sponsored by BVTF and its partners. The biggest is the weeklong Veterans Day celebration in November during which the Womens Veterans Committee hosts a rose petal ceremony in honor of women veterans. The task force works to promote an environment of patriotic pride and dignity to recognize and honor the nation’s veterans and their families. The BVTF office is located at 138 Pointe Royale Drive in Branson.
