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A Navy Plebe Re-Meets His Match
Photojournalist Lucian Perkins reunites Naval Academy graduates Sandee Irwin and Don Holcomb, 30 years after his photo captured the new gender dynamics at the school
Don Holcomb was new to the United States Naval Academy, still in the grueling orientation period known as "plebe summer." Sandee Irwin was a midshipman first class—a senior. One day in July 1979, while Holcomb was still getting used to the academy's intense memorization drills, Irwin ordered him to recite the lunch menu.
"Tater tots, ham, luncheon meats," he spouted, according to a contemporary report in the Washington Post. "Swiss cheese, sliced tomatoes, lettuce, mayonnaise, submarine rolls, macaroon cookies, iced tea with lemon wedges, milk...uh...ma'am."
"Did I hear salami, Mr. Holcomb?" she demanded.
She had not. She should have. Holcomb and his fellow plebes had pulled in their chins like nervous turtles, a punishing position known as "bracing up." Now he prepared for a verbal gale.
"I don't remember the words she used, but I remember the tone," recalls Lucian Perkins, then a Post intern on hand to photograph the rites of plebe summer. He snapped his shutter.
The academy had been the exclusive domain of men until 1976, when it admitted 81 women, about 6 percent of the freshman class; in 1979, the senior class included women for the first time in the academy's 134-year history. Images of a woman commanding men were rare enough to make the Post's front page.
In the moment, though, Holcomb didn't quite grasp the significance. "We knew this was the first class with women, kind of a historic thing," he says, "but when you're getting screamed at, it doesn't matter if it's a he or a she."
A day or two later, Irwin opened her dorm room door and reached down to pick up her daily copy of the Post—where, sure enough, the photograph appeared on Page 1. "Oh, [expletive]," she recalls thinking. "This isn't going to be a good day."
A few minutes later, one of her male classmates stormed into the room. "He slams the paper down," Irwin remembers, "looks at me and says: 'We are not impressed.' But you know what? My parents were proud. And as long as I was making my parents proud, I didn't care what anyone else thought."
Irwin had gone to the academy not to make a point, but to get a low-cost education—and a career. She says she had been a "California girl," a perky cheerleader from the Bay Area city of Livermore, but she was also determined to become the first member of her family to graduate from college. While nearly one-third of her female classmates would drop out (as would one-quarter of the men), she would make it to the end.
Over the next several weeks, Irwin received hundreds of letters from people who had seen the photograph, which had been widely distributed through the Associated Press. Some were congratulatory and supportive, even grateful. Others contained death threats. (Navy investigators held on to those.)
"I never feared for my life," she says. "But some of them quoted the Bible to say that women should not be in positions of power, and I'm a Christian, so I would have liked to debate them on that. Of course, none of them were signed."
Holcomb, too, squirmed in the spotlight. He had been trying hard to blend in with the other plebes—few people on campus knew that his father, M. Staser Holcomb, was a vice admiral. Irwin certainly didn't.
"I didn't want to get any special attention or favors, so I didn't tell her," Holcomb says. He took some ribbing from upperclassmen, mostly for his bad brace position (his chin wasn't in far enough), but for him the episode blew over pretty quickly.
Irwin, too, thought it had blown over when she started working for the chief information officer at the Pentagon the next year. But one day her boss found an excuse to send her on an errand to Vice Adm. Holcomb's office.
"You could see everyone around start to snicker because they knew who I was. I'm thinking, 'Oh, God, I'm dead,'" she says. "But he walks out from behind his desk, shakes my hand and laughs. He said, 'If my son forgot something, he deserved to be yelled at.'"
As a public affairs officer, Irwin spent eight years on active duty in the Navy and three in the reserves; she rejoined the reserves in 1999, and after September 11, 2001, was mobilized for almost two more years. Now a captain, she plans to retire next summer.
She was single until last year, when she married Steve Young ("At 50, I became Young!" she cracks), a biochemist she met in her current job as a spokeswoman for the biotech firm Amgen.
Holcomb spent 22 years as a Naval officer, mostly on nuclear submarines (where, coincidentally, women are still barred from serving). He retired as a commander in 2005, and now, at 48, works for a private defense contractor in Virginia, where he lives with his wife, Jayme, a lawyer. His three children are grown.
As for Perkins, he was hired by the Post a few months after he shot the encounter and worked for the paper for 27 years; he has won several major awards, including two shared Pulitzer Prizes and a World Press Photo of the Year award. Now 56, he freelances out of his home in Washington, D.C., where his photograph of Irwin and Holcomb hangs in a hallway.
Amanda Bensen is an assistant editor at the magazine.
Comments
I have worked with Sandee and am happy to call her my friend. This article is a fun insight into her past. Knowing her now, anyone - man or woman - should be proud to serve under her.
Posted by Shelane Enos on June 19,2009 | 05:01 PM
As a member of the Class of 1979 I remember vividly the "growing pains" the Naval Academy experienced with the admission of women with the Class of 1980. As difficult as it was for the men, I can only imagine the added scrutiny and pressure the first women endured, most of it unfair.
Posted by Gil Shuga on June 23,2009 | 09:02 PM
I met Don Holcomb when he served as Exec. Officer, NROTC at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI. What a delightful surprise to open my copy of Smithsonian and read the article about his early days in the Navy.
All the best Don!
Posted by diane.gilby on June 24,2009 | 10:22 AM
As a member of the second class with women, I personally witnessed untold harassment of women by members of the classes that did not contain women. We last a number of women that could have served stellar careers. Others graduated, and then have had the abuse affet their lives. One is a personal friend, who was awarded a partial VA disablity. Sharan Hanly Disher has written a book regarding her experiences as a member of USNA 1980. I am proud that one of my female classmates returned to the Academy to serve as the first female Commandant of Midshipmen, which is equivalent to a Dean of Students. She left the post when selected to become a Rear Admiral (Lower Half). Her biograpy can be found at www.navy.mil at the following link. The wide stripe looks spectacular.
http://www.navy.mil/navydata/bios/navybio.asp?bioID=451
Posted by LCDR William E Higgins Jr. USNA 1981 on June 26,2009 | 08:50 AM
Great picture of my '80 classmate~ Sandee Irwin. I'm proud of her pioneering efforts & great example - initiating the culture change where quality trumps gender - so necessary in matching the legislated one. I'm pleased to report my daughter Laura is a USNA graduate now in '09 with orders directly into the Medical Service Corps and the 4-year retention at USNA is now over 87 percent.
V/R, CAPT(Ret) Steve Honan, '80
Posted by Steve Honan on June 26,2009 | 10:02 AM
Just a thought.
When women became midshipwomen in 1976, there had to be a sea change in status at the Academy.
When the women ascended to first class and could "correct" plebe's behavior, I just know that the plebes thought their mother or a big sister was on them. Only a senior woman can get young male's attention--even in formation.
We all grow together and that's what makes the Navy strong.
Posted by Pete Swanson on June 30,2009 | 09:32 AM
I read this article with a great deal of nostalgia as I remember seeing this memorable photograph. It is not totally clear in my mind when I first saw this picture but I do remember it and the impact it had on me. My first thought was how remarkable and admirable it was for that young woman to have survived the grueling academy training at Annapolis and to have reached that level of authority and confidence. It is wonderful that such a fine magazine as Smithsonian pays tribute to historic moments such as this moment in time.
So, for Sandee and Don, I thank you for the memories but most of all I thank both of you for your service to our great country and for preserving our freedoms. I wish you all good things.
Posted by Robert M. Lee, Jr. on July 5,2009 | 12:02 PM
What a joy to stumble across this article and memory! I was in the class of '80 along with Sandee, and can summarize her countenance in two words - professional and cheerful. Nothing but great memories. Thanks for posting it.
Posted by Ross Levin on July 22,2009 | 09:29 AM
Thanks to the USNA Wave Tops email, I found this article - what a great trip down memory lane. I also immediately dug out my personal copy (now quite yellowed) of the July 25, 1979 Washington Post article and re-read it. Still good friends with several of those interviewed - and being one of them - I recalled our not-too-pleasant visit with the 'dant afterwards.
Excellent article, and keep up the good work.
Posted by Bob Huffman on July 22,2009 | 07:08 PM
I remember hearing this story several times when growing up and always enjoyed it. I was delighted to hear that it was going to be revisited! What a great example of a single picture being worth so many words.
Special thanks to Amanda :)
Posted by Kid Holcomb on September 7,2009 | 06:31 PM