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Now, Vice Adm. Michelle Howard stands on the cusp of making history, becoming the Navy’s first female four-star when she’s officially promoted in early 2014. She will also be the first black woman to attain four-star rank.
Howard has steadily surmounted hurdles over three decades through drive and a sense of humility, her friends and colleagues say, helping alter perceptions about roles for women. She volunteered for tough assignments and kept a steady eye on mission accomplishment in stand-offs like the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama.
Howard joined as the Navy struggled with the integration of women, who’d largely held support roles. She and other early female Annapolis grads proved that women could serve as warfare officers, and her selection to be the vice chief of naval operations marks another turning point: Women can run the Navy, too.
“No offense to [Rear Adm.] Grace Hopper, but this is somebody who came up the old ranks,” said former Navy Secretary Don Winter. “It’s confirmation that women in the Navy aren’t just doing the intel function and comms and things of that nature anymore: They are commanding ships, battle groups and now at the VCNO position. Not too bad.”
Howard has been a trailblazer during her 31-year career, becoming the first black woman to command a ship when she took charge of the amphibious dock landing ship Rushmore in 1999.
The daughter of an Air Force master sergeant, Howard sees herself in the context of those who’ve come before her.
Asked in a 2013 interview with The Flagship newspaper to name her role models, she cited, among others, Lt. Cmdr. Wesley Brown, the first black academy grad.
Brown, the sixth black man admitted to Annapolis, encountered persistent racism while in school. Trifling uniform issues led to severe reprimands. Mids refused to sit next to him at lunch. He lived without a roommate.
He graduated in 1949 and served for 20 years in the Civil Engineering Corps. A veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, he is interred at the academy.
Howard also encountered resistance in her career’s early stages. She joined a Navy where opportunities for female officers were only beginning to open up. Integration efforts came with a backlash.
“There were individuals who didn’t want me there or wanted to undermine what I was trying to do,” Howard recalled in an 2012 interview with WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C., after adding her third star.
Howard declined an interview request prior to her Dec. 20 confirmation, and a spokeswoman said she was not available to comment in the following week.
Some of her contemporaries have privately grumbled that Howard has gotten ahead because of her gender and race. These resentments came to light in 2013 after a Navy report cited one of her peers, Rear. Adm. Chuck Gaouette, for telling others that Howard “may not have had to cross as many hurdles in the same fashion to get where she was at,” and her race and gender may have sped up her selection for vice admiral, according to the Navy’s investigation.
Gaouette, who was fired from command of the John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group mid-deployment in 2012, admitted his comments were “petty” and said he’d apologize to Howard.
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About the game:
USA as a world power? In E-Sim it is possible!
In E-Sim we have a huge, living world, which is a mirror copy of the Earth. Well, maybe not completely mirrored, because the balance of power in this virtual world looks a bit different than in real life. In E-Sim, USA does not have to be a world superpower, It can be efficiently managed as a much smaller country that has entrepreneurial citizens that support it's foundation. Everything depends on the players themselves and how they decide to shape the political map of the game.
Work for the good of your country and see it rise to an empire.
Activities in this game are divided into several modules. First is the economy as a citizen in a country of your choice you must work to earn money, which you will get to spend for example, on food or purchase of weapons which are critical for your progress as a fighter. You will work in either private companies which are owned by players or government companies which are owned by the state. After progressing in the game you will finally get the opportunity to set up your own business and hire other players. If it prospers, we can even change it into a joint-stock company and enter the stock market and get even more money in this way.
In E-Sim, international wars are nothing out of the ordinary.
Become an influential politician.
The second module is a politics. Just like in real life politics in E-Sim are an extremely powerful tool that can be used for your own purposes. From time to time there are elections in the game in which you will not only vote, but also have the ability to run for the head of the party you're in. You can also apply for congress, where once elected you will be given the right to vote on laws proposed by your fellow congress members or your president and propose laws yourself. Voting on laws is important for your country as it can shape the lives of those around you. You can also try to become the head of a given party, and even take part in presidential elections and decide on the shape of the foreign policy of a given state (for example, who to declare war on). Career in politics is obviously not easy and in order to succeed in it, you have to have a good plan and compete for the votes of voters.
You can go bankrupt or become a rich man while playing the stock market.
The international war.
The last and probably the most important module is military. In E-Sim, countries are constantly fighting each other for control over territories which in return grant them access to more valuable raw materials. For this purpose, they form alliances, they fight international wars, but they also have to deal with, for example, uprisings in conquered countries or civil wars, which may explode on their territory. You can also take part in these clashes, although you are also given the opportunity to lead a life as a pacifist who focuses on other activities in the game (for example, running a successful newspaper or selling products).
At the auction you can sell or buy your dream inventory.
E-Sim is a unique browser game. It's creators ensured realistic representation of the mechanisms present in the real world and gave all power to the players who shape the image of the virtual Earth according to their own. So come and join them and help your country achieve its full potential.
Invest, produce and sell - be an entrepreneur in E-Sim.
Take part in numerous events for the E-Sim community.
