Video: 'Women in the Navy Overview' (Aug. 1972 at 7:59)

(Tuesday, August 8, 1972) — Admiral Elmo R. “Bud” Zumwalt Jr., the Chief of Naval Operations, who has already done away with Navy bans on beards and beer, announced today changes in the United States Navy’s rules to allow women to serve on ships, become aviators, and attend the U.S. Naval Academy.

In a four-page message to all ships and stations, the admiral said that he believed the Navy “may very well have authority to utilize officer and enlisted women on board ships” in “the near future” — a time that he defined more specifically in a news conference as linked with the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Besides, he said in his Z-gram (as messages from Admiral Zumwalt have come to be called), “the imminence of an all-volunteer force has heightened the importance of women as a vital personnel resource.”

While women have “historically played a significant role” in the Navy, he said, “I believe we can do far more than we have in the past.”

Video: 'Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. (documentary)'

The Z-gram then detailed just what he was doing and planned to do. A study group “to look at all laws, regulations, and policies that must be changed”—by law, until now women have served only on hospital ships and transports — has been set up, and the “limited entry” of women into all ratings has been authorized.

Applications from women officers who wish to serve as chaplains or civil engineers will be accepted, and “paths of progression to flag rank within the technical, managerial spectrum” will be opened for women “in essentially the same manner” as for men.

Women will now be assigned to “the full spectrum of challenging billets,” from briefers —Navy personnel who brief reporters to explain Navy developments—and service; college faculty members, to senior enlisted advisers, and the “pattern of assigning women exclusively to certain billets” will be eliminated.

The admiral said, “We plan to start a small pilot program” for women aviators in the near future. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have women aviators,” he added.

The program would train women to fly, search and rescue helicopter missions and take part in “the transport end of the game,” according to the admiral.