Fort Schuyler Magazine Spring 2021

TURN I NG OCEANOGRAPHY INTO A TREASURED TEACHING CAREER

BY ODALIS MINO

D eborah Kravchuk was one of six women in the first class of women at Maritime College in 1974. Like all students in the College at the time, she participated in the Regiment of Cadets and underwent the required training. “I was always very determined and believed I could do those things people thought I couldn’t do,” she said. Kravchuk - whose maiden name is Gallagher - was in the license program and quickly became close friends with her fellow women MUGs. By the time graduation arrived in 1978, five of the six women remained and completed their degree program. Kravchuk received a Bachelor of Science in Oceanography and Meteorology. During her final year at Fort Schuyler, Kravchuk attended a job fair in November and was interviewed by Sperry Corporation (a manufacturer of advanced submarine navigation equipment located in Great Neck, NY, which was later absorbed by

UNISYS). She was hired as a full-time field engineer by Thanksgiving, one semester prior to her spring graduation. As the only woman Systems Field Engineer at Sperry Corp., Kravchuk was initially mistaken for a secretarial assistant at an engineer’s meeting. She participated in the meeting and shared her knowledge of ships and navigation using maritime terminology, which shocked her male counterparts and supervisory engineers. When asked how she “knew so much” about these terms and concepts, Kravchuk showed them her graduation ring, stated she was a graduate of Maritime College, and was well-versed in navigation and engineering. The head of the field engineering department immediately requested her to be assigned to the USS Compass Island, Sperry Corp.’s seagoing subsystem navigation test platform. “I had to receive permission from one of the commanders to go on the ship,” stated Kravchuk.

Systems Field Engineer for Sperry Corporation on board the USS Compass Island, 1979 Deborah A. Gallagher- Graduation, 1978

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