Photo By Staff Sgt. Dustin Biven | Capt. Shaye Haver, commander of Company C., 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry...... read more read more
Growing up as a self-proclaimed “Army brat,” Maj. Shaye Haver was an 11-year-old growing up in Fort Novosel, Alabama, when she got her first inkling, while watching the events of 9/11 unfold, that perhaps she wanted to be part of the community that worked to defend America.
When she was 12, Haver said she remembers asking her mother if women can have careers in the military, to which her mother responded, “Yeah, they're lawyers and doctors and pilots and stuff like that.”
Haver, a 2012 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, said helping people is in her DNA. Initially, she thought she wanted to do something in the medical field, but as it turns out she took a completely different path.
Haver commissioned as an aviator and attended flight school at Fort Novosel. As an aviator, she said she felt like she could make a significant contribution to the military either as a troop transport pilot or an attack helicopter pilot.
“I originally chose fixed wing, but I knew in my heart of hearts that that was not what I wanted to do with my time in the military, so I traded with a classmate and became an Apache pilot,” Haver said.
Ranger School
Haver was a First Lieutenant stationed as an aviator at Fort Carson, Colorado, when she got the opportunity to attend Ranger School at the Maneuver Center of Excellence in Fort Moore, Georgia, and in August 2015, she, along with Maj. Kristen Griest, made national news by becoming the first two women to complete the Ranger Course and earn their Ranger tabs – opening the door for other women to follow. A third, Lt. Col. Lisa Jaster, U.S. Army Reserve, would complete the course in October 2015.
However, Haver said that she and Griest just happened to be in the right place at the right time and it could have been anyone else at any other time.
“I think what graduating from Ranger School did was show that women are capable,” Haver said. “It doesn’t take a superhero. It just takes hard work, and they’re doing it every day, which is amazing.”
From helicopter pilot to Infantry officer
After completing Ranger School, Haver went back to Fort Carson, where she was picked up for a promotion and sent to the Maneuver Captain’s Career Course at Fort Moore.
While she was stationed there, the exclusionary clause that prohibited women from serving in combat roles in the military was lifted, so she voluntarily transferred into Infantry and continued her Army career as an Infantry officer.
“I loved flying, both the technical and tactical aspects of being an Army aviator, but my experience at Ranger School reminded me that I love people more,” Haver said. “When the time came to make the decision to transition to the Infantry, just like my decision to fly Apaches, I knew in my heart of hearts it was the right thing for me to do.”
Haver served from 2020 to early 2023 as the memorial affairs company commander with Delta Company, 1st Battalion, The 3d U. S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. She was the first woman to lead one of these rifle companies. During her tenure as commander, she had the honor of escorting the remains of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg for her laying in state at the Capitol.
The Army needs more women
Haver challenges the assumption that the Army is a man’s sport.
“It’s not any gender sport,” she said. “It is a team sport, and we need people on the team who want to better themselves and better the strength of our national security because it is so vital to preserving the way that we get to live.”
With more than 200 career tracks available, Haver said to encourage more women to join, the Army needs to show them that they are needed. She added that by demonstrating how serving can offer them stability and opportunities to apply their skills and explore their interests, the Army can help women “Be All You Can Be.”
“They absolutely belong in these organizations because of the unique skills, talents and abilities that they bring,” Haver said. “Whatever skills, talents and abilities we think women have, they're well suited for these jobs just like anyone else.”
She added that people sometimes wrongly assume that for their experience to matter, they need to make the military their career.
“Even if you stayed only two, three, five or 10 years, not only are you getting the benefit of stability and a steady paycheck and medical and school benefits, but you’re also getting on-the-job, hands-on experience in an environment where it is more acceptable to learn through trial and error,” Haver said. “I honestly think that it's more effective for us to be able to learn from our mistakes than by demanding perfection, and I think that provides an opportunity for specificity, for subject matter expertise, for being genuinely good at and enjoying your job whether you choose to stay in the military or not.”
Haver knew long ago that she wanted to make a career out of the Army. As she transitions to her next duty station at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, she said she is excited to keep going and contribute for as long as she can.
“The thing that keeps me in the Army is that I still think I can contribute and help,” she said. “I'm at that next level, and I still believe in it so much. Maybe the system isn't perfect, and neither are people, but anywhere I go I want to be able to influence positively the people around me. Because it is such a people-centric organization, that speaks to me personally. That's my desire in a career.”
| Date Taken: | 06.26.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 06.26.2023 12:43 |
| Story ID: | 447973 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 688 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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