Capt. Jessica O’Brien recently assumed command of Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, becoming the first female commander in the base’s 78-year history.
With nearly 25 years of service as a naval officer, O’Brien arrives in Orange County from the Pentagon, where she worked for three years under the Chief of Naval Operations in cooperation with military strangers. She relieved Captain Jason Sherman in a ceremony on July 15, but had learned the ropes over the past few months.
O’Brien previously shattered a glass ceiling as the first female commander of Beachmaster Unit One, a Coronado-based landing craft unit that trains to move Sailors, Marines and their equipment from ships to opposing shores. .
Coincidentally, O’Brien entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1993. In 1994, Congress repealed combat exclusion laws that had prevented women from serving in combat ships and aircraft.
“Throughout my career, I’ve been the first woman in so many cases. I’m part of that vanguard wave of women who really had an open path to serve on fighters. Even since then, females can do more. We now have females on subs and everything is really open,” O’Brien said.
As a woman who entered the male-dominated profession of operating naval vessels, O’Brien said she was proud to have laid the groundwork for her fellow female officers.
“It wasn’t something I wanted to point out because I’ve never done it in my career. I just tried to do my job and earn everyone’s trust and respect,” O’Brien said.
A defining moment in O’Brien’s early career came on October 12, 2000, during his first deployment to the USS Anchorage landing dock. The warship had arrived at the port of Seychelles, an archipelago off the coast of East Africa. O’Brien was helping paint a school when the ship sounded its horn and hoisted a flag signaling that all of its crew had been recalled from shore.
“We pack our bags and run down the hill and we’re told there’s been an explosion on a ship in Yemen,” she said.
Captain Jessica J. O’Brien is the new Commanding Officer of Naval Weapons Station at Seal Beach.
(Kevin Chang / personal photographer)
The USS Cole guided missile destroyer was bombed in a suicide attack while refueling in Aden, Yemen. The explosion killed 17 sailors and injured 39 others. Al-Qaeda terrorists claimed responsibility for the attack.
Anchorage steamed to Yemen to help the damaged Cole and was the first American ship to arrive, O’Brien said. The amphibious ship’s crew provided security, food, clothing and medical care to the Cole’s sailors. For the junior officer at the time, the bombing brought home the real dangers of military service – even on the air.
“It definitely changed for me the importance of what I was doing and I really realized how much I love this job,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien lands at Seal Beach in a busy moment for the 5,256-acre base. It is likely to see the completion of a $154 million construction project to reconfigure Anaheim Bay and replace a World War II munitions pier by the end of 2024. In April, construction crews drove in the last of more than 660 concrete piles that will support a new pier.
For the first time, the planned pier and causeway will be able to accommodate 844-foot-long amphibious assault ships or service two guided-missile destroyers simultaneously. In a first for the base, ships will be able to siphon electricity from the pier rather than run their own generators, which should free up sailors to handle the missiles and reduce the service’s fuel consumption.
Each San Diego-based ship comes to San Diego to load and unload missiles between missions. The next closest ammunition dump is over 1,000 miles away in Washington State.
“It’s no secret that we’re still in a big power competition with China and with the pivot to the Pacific, that’s strategically important for the Pacific fleet and being able to increase capacity here is important for the Navy,” O’Brien said. .
The civilian boat channel to Huntington Harbor has already been reconfigured to end the practice of vessels passing through the Navy’s inner harbor. This greatly shortened the wait time for pleasure craft while warships maneuver around the ammunition dock.
In a separate project, the Navy is conducting an environmental study for future uses on 28.89 acres of largely vacant federal land at the northeast corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Seal Beach Boulevard. Affordable housing for military or civilian families would help Seal Beach meet the state’s mandate to plan for the area’s housing needs.
O’Brien said she was grateful for the opportunity to be one of 70 sailors in charge of US naval bases.
“It wasn’t the handling of the ship and all the excitement of being at sea that kept me in the Navy. It’s the culture, it’s that camaraderie and it’s all over the Navy,” she said. “Here I can build that with this team and outside of our fence line in the community.”
Daniel Langhorne is a TimesOC contributor.
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