As I mentioned a few weeks ago, when introducing Kingsley Browne, I'm delighted to say that Captain Rosemary Bryant Mariner (United States Navy, Retired) will be joining us next week to present a view different from Prof. Browne's. Capt. Mariner is a Research Fellow with the Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Tennessee Knoxville; she teaches U.S. military history in the university's History Department; she is co-editor with G. Kurt Piehler of a forthcoming anthology, The Atomic Bomb and American Society, from the University of Tennessee Press; and she is an oft-quoted expert on gender integration in the armed forces.

Before her retirement 10 years ago, Capt. Mariner was (among many other things) the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) Professor of Military Studies at the National War College, where she taught national security strategy and joint warfare. Capt. Mariner is also a member of the first group of women trained as full-fledged military pilots in 1973, and the first American female aviator to qualify in a tactical jet aircraft, the single-seat A-4E/L Skyhawk, in 1975. During the Gulf War, she commanded Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron Thirty Four, becoming the first woman to command an aviation squadron and was selected for major aviation shore command. I much look forward to reading Capt. Mariner's thoughts on this matter.