PORT ANGELES — When the first women are commissioned onto submarines in the near future, a Port Angeles couple will stand proud as their daughter makes history.
Amber Pfeifer, 22, was selected as one of the Navy’s first women to serve on submarines.
Although she spent her childhood in Colorado, the daughter of Ray and Laura Lavine spent many summers in Port Angeles.
Considers PA home
She considers it her home when she is not in class at the University of Washington, where she is graduating with a double major in political science and economics.
She’s spent all four years of college in the Reserve Officer Training Corps and will be commissioned into the Navy on June 11, the day before her graduation.
Then she will take off for the Navy’s nuclear power program school in South Carolina.
The school lasts about 18 months, after which she will be stationed aboard a submarine, she said.
Laura Lavine said her daughter has always pushed herself.
“She has always set the bar high for herself — challenged herself in every way,” Lavine said.
“When she did a session with the Navy for the ROTC, she got to spend a couple days on a submarine as part of the training, and it was a cool thing, but at that point it wasn’t an option [for women].
Let them know of interest
“So when they started talking like it was actually going to happen, she made sure they knew she was interested.”
After several cross-country trips to Washington, D.C., for interviews, Pfeifer was officially accepted as one of eight women picked out of the ROTC program in the U.S.
Eleven other women were selected out of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., to participate in the program.
The Navy first began to consider allowing women on submarines in 2007. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced the intention to Congress in February.
He said unless Congress took action against it he would lift the ban, so with no action by the end of April, the ban was lifted.
Close quarters
Some objections because of close quarters with male officers have arisen in the media, but Pfeifer said she isn’t concerned.
“I feel that being in an organization like the Navy, I don’t have to worry,” she said.
“There is a level of professionalism, and it isn’t going to be an issue.
“I’m aware there are concerns of other people, but I don’t have any at all myself.”
Most people are very supportive, Pfeifer said.
“I’m extremely excited,” she said.
“This is not only that I’m one of the first females on submarines, but I’m graduating college and being commissioned into the Navy.
“I’m excited for all of that and to officially begin my career.”
Show and tell
Laura Lavine said the entire family also is excited for Pfeifer.
“All of her brothers love her to death — one even wants to take her for show and tell to school,” Lavine said.
“I always tell her that every time she does something to make me proud and I just think there is no way I could be any more proud than this, and then she does something else and I am even more proud.”
Ray Lavine is a private contractor in the Middle East and will be returning in time for Pfeifer’s graduation.
Laura Lavine said her husband has raised Pfeifer since she was a small child, and her biological father who shares her last name is not in the picture.
Pfeifer said she would want to serve in the Navy whether or not it were for the submarine program.
“I’ve always wanted to serve in the military for as long as I could remember,” she said.
“I’ve just always known that being an officer in the military is exactly what I wanted to do.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
