She is Michelle Janine Howard, promoted on Tuesday to the service’s highest rank. The ceremony was held at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at the Arlington National Cemetery, near the Pentagon.
She will serve as the vice chief of naval operations, which makes her the No. 2 admiral in the Navy behind Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations.
“Michelle Howard’s promotion to the rank of admiral is the result of a brilliant naval career, one I fully expect to continue when she assumes her new role as vice chief of naval operations, but also it is an historic first, an event to be celebrated as she becomes the first female to achieve this position,” said Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, who presided over the ceremony and administered the oath of office. “Her accomplishment is a direct example of a Navy that now, more than ever, reflects the nation it serves ― a nation where success is not born of race, gender or religion, but of skill and ability.”
