Next up in the series of Women Who Inspire, it's Casey (Jamieson) Johnson!
Casey (Jamieson)
Johnson graduated with a Bachelor of
Science in Aeronautical Engineering and reported to Naval Intelligence Officer
School. She served as the Anti-Submarine Warfare Intelligence Officer for VP-24
and worked in the Pentagon both as the Assistant to the Director of Naval
Intelligence and as an Intelligence Analyst in the Naval Information Warfare
Activity. After six years of active duty service, Casey returned to the civilian
sector, remaining in the Naval Reserves for an additional three years,
achieving the rank of Lieutenant Commander (O-4).
AW: You selected the
field of Naval Intelligence coming out of the Academy. Is that something you
had always wanted to do?
CJ: Actually, no.
I was pushed into it. (Laughs). I had wanted aviation all along, but it turns
out that I was a quarter inch too short. Admiral Hill [Naval Academy
Superintendent] and his wife used to joke that they should hang me upside down
to stretch me. I didn’t find out until two days before service selection that I
wouldn’t be able to get a waiver. Fortunately, I was one of the first women to
service select, so I was able to get one of the four Intelligence billets
available.
AW: You served as the
ASW Intelligence Officer for VP-24 [Anti-Submarine Warfare squadron that flew
the P-3 Orion] in Jacksonville, FL. Was that your first duty station after
Naval Intelligence Officer School?
CJ: Yes, that
was a great tour. In fact, that was my favorite tour. I was the only female
officer in the wardroom, and I think about half of the wardroom were graduates
from the Naval Academy – Class of '86 and '87—which helped me to make friends quickly. They were a great group (all of
them).
AW: Did you deploy
with them?
CJ: Yes, we
deployed to Iceland for six months. And people always get Greenland and Iceland
mixed up, by the way, because Greenland is icy and Iceland is green.
AW: I had no idea! So
what was your job in Iceland?
CJ: Primarily, I
gave the flight crews their intel briefings prior to their flights. I was also attached to the local intel unit
as a TAD officer.
AW: Intel like where to
look for subs?
CJ: Yes, we
would give them a potential target area to monitor and tell them what to listen
for. They would drop an appropriate sonobuoy pattern and just listen.
They’d stay on station for eight hours.
AW: Very cool. I’m
sort of thinking The Hunt for Red October
here. So did they ever find anything or is that classified?
CJ: Well,
actually we had one major hit on that deployment, and it was so long ago, I’m
sure it’s declassified by now. There was a high opportunity target that we
wanted a signature on, so we did a lot of work to get the intel we needed on it
and finally determined that it might be out of port on patrol. Our
aircrews went on station and got the
first signature data ever captured on it. That was pretty cool.
AW: And after VP-24?
CJ: I went to
Washington, D.C., primarily because it was the easiest place to get stationed
with my husband. We were engaged at the time, so when I got up there, the
detailer looked for Intel billets for my husband, who was still on deployment,
and it was easy to find him a job. There are literally hundreds of Intel
billets in D.C.
AW: When did you meet
your husband?
CJ: I met him at
Intel School, and then we dated long-distance for two years while I was in Florida and he was in
California. We got engaged while I was still at VP-24.
AW: And where was he?
CJ: He was in San
Diego and served as the Intel Officer for HS-4 [helicopter squadron] and
deployed with the Kitty Hawk. Oh, and a story for you, which you’ll appreciate
since you flew the 46 [H-46 Sea Knight helicopter]. My husband flew off the Kitty
Hawk to Bahrain in an H-46 and the helo starts hemorrhaging hydraulic fluid. I
mean, he was drenched in it. My husband told one of the crewmen, “Hey guys,
we’re getting poured on back here,” to which the response was something like,
“Let me know if it stops, because if it stops, we’re in trouble. As long as we have fluid, we’re good.”
AW: Ok, that is
hilarious! And sort of typical, actually, of the kind of stuff we encountered
with the 46. What memories! So you were together, then, in D.C. after that?
CJ: Yes, After
that tour, he moved to Washington, D.C., we got married, I got pregnant, and we
got out! In that order.
AW: Did you have your
kids while you were still in the navy or was that after you got out?
CJ: I had my
oldest daughter when I was still on active duty and working at NavSecGru. And
that was a unique, only-in-the-navy experience. I was assigned to Bethesda
Naval Hospital for the delivery and the baby was frank breech, so I needed to
have a scheduled C-section. Now Bethesda is a training hospital, so everyone
present in the operating room that day had a training partner with them. There
were like fifteen people in there watching me get spliced open !
AW: Nice audience!
CJ: Yeah, tell me
about it! I found out later that my C-section was an actual scheduled training
event for that day.
AW: Why am I not
surprised? So then you left active duty soon after, right?
CJ: Yes, my husband and I met with the detailer and we
realized that we would be on opposite deployment schedules, lots of underway
time, little family time, and so we decided it was a good time to leave.
