Recently, she became only the second Navy woman, and the first on the West Coast, to earn submarine dolphins as an engineering duty officer. Her next assignment will be with the Pacific submarine fleet, in an engineering post she couldn't have snagged without the dolphins. Women can't earn the submarine warfare dolphins that full-time submariners earn, since to do so you must be stationed aboard a submarine and pass a test on all aspects of submarine operations. But women face hurdles even to obtaining engineering duty dolphins. It requires about 13 weeks of experience aboard a sub, as well as qualifying as diving officer of the watch.
Men can get all that by going on a patrol.
Tom Carpenter, deputy chief of staff for operations and plans with the Trident fleet at Bangor. You have to go out and ride in bits and pieces, so it's a pretty good feat. Between patrols, the Tridents often go out for short periods for sailors in need of at-sea drills. She joined those refresher training trips, spending at longest five days aboard a Trident. And Olson said she encountered no resistance from the Silent Service brotherhood.