Timika Lindsay and Elise Lindsay lately made historical past once they turned the primary Black mother-daughter duo to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy in its 177-year historical past.
Timika, a retired Navy captain, and her daughter, Elise, who graduated on Might 26, knew this second was coming lengthy earlier than it occurred.
However, for Timika, who graduated from the academy in 1992, watching her daughter stroll throughout the stage, diploma in hand, made the second “sweeter.” It was a reminder of her household’s lengthy historical past of service to the nation, courting again to World Conflict II.
Timika’s father served within the Marine Corps and the Navy; her grandfathers served within the Army; and her nephew at the moment serves within the Navy and Air Power. Her kids’s father, who handed away abruptly just a few years in the past, was a lieutenant colonel within the Marine Corps. And his uncles have been among the many first Black males to enlist above the rank of Messman once they joined the Navy’s B-1 band in 1942.
“We do consider what the Pledge of Allegiance says and what the Structure says,” Timika defined. “That is what we battle for.”
Her daughter, Elise, after finishing her coaching this summer time, will report back to Sasebo, Japan. There, she’s going to serve onboard the usS. America (LHA-6) as a floor warfare officer.
“I believe she’s going to do properly in going again to Japan,” Timika stated, pointing to the time she took Elise and her youthful son, Eric, to stay there from 2015 to 2017. “I consider we’re within the Navy to see the world.”
Timika, in the meantime, will proceed to take pleasure in her homecoming. When she retired in 2021 — after a 30-year profession within the Navy — she returned to Gloucester County, the place she’s a Paulsboro native, to be with family and friends.
On the time of her retirement, she was the very best senior-ranking feminine officer within the Navy, serving as chief variety officer. She was concurrently the Naval Academy’s director of DEI, spearheading a number of initiatives that led to enhancements in variety, fairness and inclusion.
“The place we’re in the present day is lots higher than the place we have been 50 years in the past,” she stated. “However we will not cease right here.”
Timika continues her work in DEI with the latest opening of her consulting enterprise, Anchor Management Positions. And although she’s retired from the Navy, she’s nonetheless closely concerned.
“My household will let you know that I faked my retirement,” she stated, pausing to chuckle. “And in some way secretly I am nonetheless working for the Navy.”
She is a trustee on the usS. N.J. Commissioning Committee, the director of management and improvement for the Naval Academy Minority Affiliation and the Freedom to Serve chair for the Nationwide Naval Officers Affiliation.
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