This Day in Navy and Marine Corps History: Oct. 20, 1994 - Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) deployed to the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf as the first carrier with women permanently assigned. More than 400 women served aboard at times during the cruise.

I was the last crewmember to walk aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) for this historic deployment after saying goodbye to my wife and our four children on the pier, knowing I would not see them again for about six months.

A few months before, I was stationed at the Pentagon as a Navy spokesman during the terrible tailhook scandal. At the Pentagon every day just got worse as we turned one page after the next on sexual harassment in the Navy. After months of dealing with it and helping craft a strategy for the Navy to move forward, I called my assignment officer and said that I'm using a Navy regulation that states, "...officers can terminate shore duty to return to sea." I told him I wanted the next aircraft carrier assignment. I wanted to get out of the DC Beltway and go back to sea serving aboard a ship, not in the world’s largest politically-charged office building. I didn’t know what I had just signed up for.

It was shortly after I reported to the IKE, the Navy announced that the IKE would be the first combatant ship to be integrated with women. It was a political onslaught. We hosted the President, Secretary of Defense, all of the Service Secretaries and more congressional delegations and news media than I can remember. It was a steady stream of people flying on and off the ship. This was a good thing. They all recognized that we were upending two centuries of Navy tradition. There's a sentence in one of my fitness reports that reads, "The IKE hosted more distinguished visitors and news media than all other Atlantic Fleet Aircraft Carriers combined." My public affairs team was responsible for coordinating those events and I lived for months in a constant state of sleep deprivation. It was a really hard tour of duty, but I was always mindful that this was a good thing and I wasn't in an open field with bullets flying around.

Looking back almost 30 years now, I'm very proud of how well we integrated the crew. The women performed superbly in spite of the unfair intense microscope. It wasn’t the earth-shattering event everyone thought it would be. The ship didn’t run aground because we had women aboard. It was arguably one of the most important watershed events in Navy history. We had a few issues to deal with but demonstrated impressive leadership as we made life aboard ship more "normal" for everyone. Our military must reflect the population it protects and defends. Today, women are almost fully integrated and are essential to the Navy. We can't put a fleet to sea without them.

I'm so grateful to have been there and played a small role in that historic moment.

Bob Ross is the Executive Director of the Connecticut Office of Military Affairs and President of the Association of Defense Communities.