Lt.Commander Mollie Sanders
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MWSA Review
Lt. Commander Mollie Sanders is an over achiever. Reminiscent of Hawaii Five-0's Steve McGarrett (old and new version), the woman is brainy, brawny, and bold. She excels in technology, languages, weapons, strategy, and fighting -- and dabbles in everything else. It's only right that such an amazing sailor should be the first woman submariner -- a special assignment arising from her anti-terrorist activities.
Ms. Zimber-Miller's novel is tongue-in-cheek clever. Yes, the story was conceived before women were assigned to submarines -- and yes, there is an underlying message that women can hold their own in historically male only situations. However, there is more to this book than a political rant. Mollie takes herself VERY seriously, but the author does not. She lets Mollie's uber competence become both a character flaw and a plot device. Super heroes are fantastical -- and Mollie is a weird combination of the glassy-faced McGarrett and an obsessed Cat Woman. She moves the story forward with violence, technology, and sheer determination...the other characters are there to react.
I am not normally a fan of books about the USN -- not because I don't like boats, but because many authors writing about the Navy, write in Navy. Ms. Zimbler-Miller aims at a wider audience and even a land-lubber like me can follow Mollie's many adventures -- on land, in the air, on the sea -- and under it too.
Reviewed by: Joyce Faulkner (May, 2013)
Author's Summary
When Mitch and I originally wrote the story, women were not yet serving on subs in the U.S. Navy. So we came up with a story reason for LCDR Mollie Sanders to be the first woman. (Note that a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy is the same as a major in the U.S. Army.)
On May 29, 2012, the White House's Council on Women and Girls posted Brad Cooper's article "Women Chart a New Course Onboard U.S. Navy Submarines":
In 2009, U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced that for the first time in Navy history, women would be assigned to serve aboard Navy submarines.
Yesterday, the first contingent of 24 women who completed the Navy's nuclear submarine program met with President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House. They were joined by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Mark Ferguson.
Now I understand that not everyone knows that women are now serving on U.S. subs. So when LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS was free for one day on Amazon thanks to the KDP Select program, I did not get overly upset when I got this message on Facebook from a man about the novel:
This really stretches reality. Women have made great advances in the military, but submarine duty isn't among them.
I sent back this Facebook message:
When Mitch and I wrote the story women weren't yet on U.S. subs and that is part of the point of the novel. BUT ... women are now on U.S. subs.
And the man actually thanked me for "correcting" him.
He did go on to wonder how billeting would be arranged on the sub, which Mitch and I deal with in our fiction story.
On the same day I read the Military Times news story "Female military members sue to serve in combat" by Paul Elias of the Associated Press
To summarize the article, women are suing because, without access to certain combat positions, their chances for promotion are hindered.
[M]ore than 144 female troops have been killed and more than 860 have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan since the wars began, according to Pentagon statistics. Roughly 20,000 of the 205,000 service members currently serving in Afghanistan are women.
The article goes on to say that the lawsuit "alleges that women are already serving unofficially in combat units. Air National Guard Major Mary Jennings Hegar sustained shrapnel wounds in 2009 when she exchanged fire on the ground in Afghanistan after her Medevac helicopter was shot down." (She received a Purple Heart medal for her injuries.)
In conclusion, it is a brave new world for women serving in the U.S. military.