Master Chief Petty Officer Hwang Ji-hyun speaks about becoming the Navy’s first female command sergeant major at the Navy Club inside Navy Operations Command in Busan, Friday. Courtesy of the Navy
At the Jinhae Gunhangje Festival in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, most visitors come for the cherry blossoms. When Hwang Ji-hyun visited in her early 20s, the gray warships moored along the coast caught her eye more than the flowers.
"I was drawn to the warship and even had a chance to look inside," Master Chief Petty Officer Hwang recalled during an interview with The Korea Times. "That was when I decided I wanted to become a sailor serving aboard ships."
Nearly two decades later, Hwang, now 44, became the first female command sergeant major in the history of the Korean Navy.
The draw to military life had roots even earlier, influenced in part by her family’s military background. Her father served as a noncommissioned officer in the Navy, while her uncle graduated from the Naval Academy.
She enlisted as part of the Navy’s 211th noncommissioned officer class in 2006 and officially assumed her new post last month at the Maritime Operations Center under the Navy Operations Command.
Master Chief Petty Officer Hwang Ji-hyun, then a senior platoon leader, leads noncommissioned officer candidates during an exercise at the Navy Field Training Center in this 2016 photo. Courtesy of the Navy
Along the way, she accumulated a series of firsts, including becoming the Navy’s first female training platoon leader and the first female fleet operations specialist to be promoted to master chief petty officer.
Her specialty was radar detection operations, involving the use of radar and combat systems to gather and analyze information for commanders during maritime missions.
She served aboard Korea's major destroyers, including the Choi Young, Gwanggaeto the Great and Munmu the Great.
Source: Korea Times News
