Female cadets raring to serve on submarines

New London - In her freshman year of high school, Maria Abreu asked if women were allowed to serve on submarines.

"Sorry, kid, no," was the response from the Navy chief who was visiting her Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps unit at New London High School.

"My heart just, like, sunk," Abreu, 17, said.

Now a junior, Abreu was ecstatic to learn that military leaders are working on a plan to allow women to serve in the Submarine Force. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has said the change could happen in two to three years, which means that Abreu and other teenagers who are NJROTC cadets now may be among the first women to serve on submarines.

"The men better watch out, because I'm coming," said Leslie Souvenance, 17, a junior at New London who is in the NJROTC unit.

"We're going to dominate," added Jasmine Rios, 17, a senior who is also a member of the unit.

Abreu, Souvenance, Rios and two of their fellow cadets, Hayley Smith and Ashley Gomez, said they were happy that women will be allowed to serve alongside men but questioned why it took so long to bring about the change.

"We go on ships, we drive ships, so why not a submarine? There's not that much of a difference," said Smith, 16, a junior. "I think it was the men saying 'women can't do this' because of reasons that weren't really good reasons, like women have different hygiene needs. I don't think that was a good reason to stop the decision or prolong it. The men were making excuses."

"We're doing things that only men were able to do, and I think in ways they're almost like - I don't want to say jealous - but surprised and intimidated, like, 'Wow, women can do this too,'" said Gomez, 17, a senior. "So I think it's good. It's great, actually."

"Before, women were only allowed to be nurses in the military but now we're in this new generation where women have excelled to the point where they're equal to men," Abreu said.

Abreu's interest in submarines stems from hearing about her uncle working with weapons on submarines. He is still in the Submarine Force, stationed in Groton.

The others were not so convinced that being on a submarine would be fun, citing the confined space, hygiene issues and a lack of sunlight.

"I'm 50-50," Rios said. "I would like to, but then I don't want to. It would be hard to do that, being underwater stuck in a submarine, but it would be a good experience because I could be one of the first."

Souvenance said she would prefer serving on a carrier.

"It's just the hygiene part, that's what kills it," she said, adding that she heard that men on a submarine "stunk" by the end of the deployment. "I do not like sweat for anything … and I'm clumsy. I'd bump into something."

Still, she thinks that having the option is a positive step for women's rights.

"By men saying women were not allowed on submarines that was kind of like another stopping barrier for us," she said. "But for us to overcome that and actually be allowed on submarines, it's another step forward for women in society.

"If I have a daughter and she wants to go on a submarine, I would like for her to have the same rights as men."