Courtesy Photo | Retired Lt. Col. Brigid Lester (left) and Maj. Theresa Christie, the executive officer...... read more read more
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FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii – At 18 years old, when Theresa Christie was a freshman at the University of Texas in Austin, joining the service was the last thing she considered as part of her post-graduation plans despite growing up in the Army.
Christie called six different places home by the time she was 14 years old, including two years living abroad in Germany. So, when she moved to Austin, Texas after her mom retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2000, she was ready to grow some roots.
“As military brat with both parents serving I didn’t know anything different,” said Maj. Theresa Christie, the executive officer to the commanding general for the 8th Theater Sustainment Command. “I was always the first kid at daycare and last one picked up. I knew how hard my mom worked, and I was exceedingly proud of her, but at the same time, I didn’t want to do that.”
However, that all changed in the spring of 2006. Christie was planning a school event for the theater department that required coordination with the UT ROTC program, and the serendipitous interaction with a few of the cadets ignited an immediate connection.
According to Brigid Lester, Christie’s mom, “the energy and discipline of the cadets matched her biological rhythm, and Theresa had found her people.” With the simple connection, Christie experienced a change of heart and the idea of joining the Army started to sprout.
The path Lester paved
In October of Lester’s senior year of high school, President Gerald R. Ford Jr. signed Public Law 94-106 permitting women admittance into all-male military academies, opening a door that had remained shut for 174 years.
Like Christie, the idea of joining the service wasn’t on Lester’s radar, let alone the idea of attending the United States Military Academy.
“I remember my mom, my parents were from New York, saying, ‘I always dreamed I'd have a kid go to West Point. I kind of assumed it would be a son,’” said Lester, recounting her mom’s offhand comment. “And honestly, that's the first time I really knew anything about West Point.”
By all measures, Lester didn’t need the academy. She recorded a 1590 on her SATs, and with her athletic and extra curriculars rounding out her resume, she’d already earned a full ride scholarship to the prestigious MIT.
However, her mom’s comments consumed her thoughts and with accolades that’d rival the most accomplished male high school senior, she decided to explore the idea.
“So, I started to inquire [about West Point], and it was an institution that really looked at the whole person and looked at you academically,” said Lester. “It looked at you physically and it looked at your character, and then set you up for a very honorable career in the military. So, I thought, ‘wow, that really suits me.’”
President Ford’s announcement opened a possibility she couldn’t ignore. Although the door was now open, she still knew it was a competitive process to get accepted.
“Many young men, as young as fourth or fifth grade start thinking about the academy, and they sort of set themselves and their resumes up to be good candidates,” she said.
For Lester, she had a mere nine months before the class of 1976 was due to report for reception day, and the urgency began to set in.
“Everybody I ever knew, every teacher I could get my hands on wrote letters to Congressman Don Edwards,” said Lester. “And on Christmas Eve, he showed up at my house with a news crew to deliver my nomination.”
In that moment, Lester went from exploring the idea of attending West Point, to receiving a congressional nomination signifying her endorsement to attend the United States Military Academy. In the fall of 1976, she became one of 119 women admitted as the first female class to West Point.
While Lester navigated the academic and physical rigors, the thought of quitting never crossed her mind. With every new obstacle, she’d think to herself, “this is the day that I will no longer meet the standard and get thrown out,” but that day never came.
She never buckled and always exceeded the standard.
As Lester reflects on her time at West Point, she did wish there was more camaraderie between the women in the class, one of her few misgivings on how she and her fellow cadets forged their path.
However, at the time, there was real concern about how they would be perceived if they stood up for one another. Everyone was solely concerned about just trying to make it to graduation, according to Lester.
“And the common theme from way back to when we were there was, I don't want to be a female cadet, I want to be a cadet,” said Lester.
As the years passed and the women of ’80 gathered for reunions, they found solace in knowing there was never ill intentions between them. Collectively, the women were blazing a path without being able to see their next step.
As Lester progressed throughout her career, she often faced challenges emblematic of the time. It was just two years before her graduation in 1978 that congress disestablished the Women’s Army Corps, finally allowing women into the regular Army. Unfortunately, the climate was slow to change.
During Lester’s first pregnancy in 1985, her commanding officer called her into his office expecting Lester to resign her commission upon giving birth. Dismayed by Lester’s response, the most rationale plan for her commander was to ensure she had a valid physical fitness test on her next officer evaluation report.
“In my day, your pregnancy profile expired the minute you were not pregnant. Which means the day or the day after you deliver, you must meet the Army height and weight standards. You have to pass a PT test,” said Lester.
Just two weeks after Lester gave birth to her first child, she was standing on the track in front of her unit’s headquarters in the middle of winter at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Word had gotten around the unit that she was taking a PT test, and it was received with mixed reactions. Some were in the camp rationalizing the standard is the standard, while the majority tilted toward showing grace.
After barely passing the sit-ups and push-ups, Lester readied herself for the two-mile run.
“I'm wearing sweats, and they are bloody all the way down to my ankles because I'm still bleeding after having a baby and I had just done my sit-ups," said Lester.
Unwilling to give-in to the tangible signs of her body saying enough is enough, Lester finished her first mile around the one-mile track. Her co-workers observed her every step from the outset and fled their offices to flood the track and complete the last mile alongside her.
“I don't think I would have made it without them," said Lester. "And it was the first time I felt part of the team. That was a very profound moment for me. I had been doing everything I was supposed to do as an officer, but I still sort of felt like I was sort of an oddity. I was the female captain, the female this. And you know, for that moment, oddly enough, one of the most female moments of my life, in a postpartum situation, I felt like I was a member of the team.”
Walking in her mom’s path
Maj. Theresa Christie acknowledges it’s a completely different Army than the one her mom grew up in. She’s in a unique position to have Lester’s lived experience as the backdrop to see the progress for women in the Army.
“The Army as an organization that is getting better at enabling parents to have a family and still maintain a career,” said Christie. “And we see that consistently. We've seen the policy changes that help families have children or adopt children and give them the time to do that.”
Early in Christie’s career she was able to help her Soldiers when they were starting a family, whether it was the Soldier that was pregnant or the spouse. However, for years after commissioning it was a bridge she hadn’t yet personally crossed.
It wasn’t until Christie was in her second company command position at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Germany when she became pregnant with her first child. Although she knew the regulations supported her, she couldn’t help recount what her mom experienced and how she might be perceived because she was in command.
As Christie sat with her brigade commander to inform him of her pregnancy, his response couldn’t have been more different than what her mom experienced.
“I go into the meeting with this huge plan of how I'm going to make sure that it doesn't impact the unit,” said Christie. “I've got my change of command inventory plan and schedules. I can start doing this and that, and he wouldn't let me get through it. He straight up said, ‘Hey Theresa, this is a good thing, right?’ I said, ‘Absolutely, sir.’ And he replied, ‘Then let’s celebrate it. I trust you to get your job done. I'm not worried about that. Let's celebrate this.’”
Overwhelmed with emotion, Christie phoned Lester to share the news.
“I call my mom and I was like, mama, this just happened, and we both just started crying,” said Christie. “And she said, ‘If everything I went through made it possible for this to happen to you, then it was worth it.’”
Christie’s been able to manage a career full of demanding jobs and unique broadening assignments due to the support from her husband, Ward. When they made the decision to start a family, he sacrificed his professional pursuits to raise their kids. With 7 moves behind them and two kids, ages 7 and 4, Ward has his hands full regularly assuming single parent duties.
Christie’s current job as the executive officer to the 8th Theater Sustainment Command Commanding General Maj. Gen. Jered Helwig, is rich with experiences both professionally and as a frequent flyer.
It’s normal for her to be in one country west of the international dateline on Monday, a different country on Wednesday, and back to Hawaii on Friday for a schedule full of meetings.
Trips can range from a few short days to the continental U.S. for a symposium, to across the Pacific to check on Soldiers and equipment, to bi-lateral meetings with leaders of foreign Armies or serve as a keynote speaker for an Operation Pathways exercise.
Regardless of the event, big or small, Christie meticulously manages Helwig’s calendar, coordinates actions between phone calls and emails, and drafts documents to prepare the commander for his next engagement. And although there’s a team that supports the commander, she is the engine the keeps it moving.
The path they walk together
Lester helped pave the path her daughter is actively walking. And while she’s proud of her own accomplishments, she’s far more inspired by what her daughter is doing. Christi can be measured by her own merit, and no longer the adjective that precedes her name.
“She is in an Army that has clearly dropped the adjective,” said Lester. “It’s no longer a female major, it’s just a major.”
Although Christie was the first kid dropped off at daycare and the last one picked up, Lester found a way to do it all. From serving as battalion commander to raising kids, she succeeded in both.
Christie now finds herself in a similar position. If she has it her way, her kids will hopefully view her in the same light she views her mom.
“I never doubted that her work was important to her,” said Christie. “But I also never doubted that I was more important, even when her work hours kept her away from us, I knew she loved us.”
| Date Taken: | 05.12.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 05.12.2024 20:51 |
| Story ID: | 471090 |
| Location: | HI, US |
| Web Views: | 139 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 8th TSC Soldier leads from path her mom helped pave, by MAJ Jonathon Daniell, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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