First black woman to command Navy ship to lead strike group

Rear Adm. Michelle J. Howard, the first black woman to command a U.S. Navy ship, is being assigned as commander of Expeditionary Strike Group Two in Norfolk, the Navy announced this week.

Howard, a 1982 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, is now the senior military assistant to the secretary of the Navy in Washington.

In 1999, she took command of the dock landing ship Rushmore. She went on to serve as commander of Amphibious Squadron 7 from May 2004 to September 2005. The squadron's operations included tsunami relief in Indonesia and maritime security in the North Arabian Gulf.

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