'Grandma Navy' steaming ahead

Superiors and subordinates said she is an inspired - and inspiring - sailor.

The Memphis, Tenn.-area native has a passion for military recruiting, and she makes "ball of energy" seem like a trite cliche.

For example, in September 2003 rather than re-schedule her interview to serve at the Navy's Recruiting Command, she went in on crutches and in casts, following surgery on both legs.

She got the job, and was the senior enlisted leader of the 8,000-person command, which included sailors stationed in remote locations around the country.

Master Chief Banks punctuates her conversations with the word "steaming," as in "I was steaming and not about to give up," or "We were steaming ahead."

The 24-year Navy vet said one of her fondest memories was pulling extra duty as a young seaman.

"I remember steaming into Hawaii and I (voluntarily) stood back-to-back deck watches, so I could see Pearl Harbor at sunrise ... It was the prettiest thing I have ever seen in my life," she said.

That tour of duty included criss-crossing the Pacific Ocean, and allowed the young sailor to visit Japan, the Philippines, Australia and Singapore.

"I said I like this Navy," she said.

The list of ships that Master Chief Banks has served on includes destroyer tenders USS Samuel Gompers and USS Acadia, the destroyer USS Decatur, the dock-landing ship USS Germantown and the supercarrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

Now 52, Master Chief Banks spent her early years in the Navy working in kitchens, and overseeing food preparation. She is entitled to wear the surface-warfare and aviation-warfare insignia.

On one tour, a superior punished her for telling him "I don't tolerate cursing," by naming her education officer. In doing so, he helped her career more than he could have known. For punishment, Master Chief Banks had to read and learn one military manual after another, and then teach the sailors.

"Best thing that ever happened to me," Master Chief Banks said of the "punishment."

She seems to have a gift for making the most of a bad situation, starting with how she joined the Navy. In 1984, she was the young, divorced mother of two daughters, and suddenly found herself without a job. In the process of applying for unemployment compensation, she was told she also qualified for food stamps.

"I said, 'There is more to me than this,' " she said. "I had my strength and health, and saw those programs as being for people who needed them."

It so happened that military recruiters were stationed in the same building where she applied for benefits, and Master Chief Banks suddenly saw a way out of the unemployment doldrums.

The Army recruiter had a long line waiting to see him, she said, and the Marine sergeant was busy and said "Come back in 10 minutes." The Air Force desk had a sign on it that read "Gone fishing," which meant the recruiter had met his quota for the month.

That left the Navy.

"The Navy recruiter was sitting there with his feet up on his desk," Master Chief Banks said. "I went in there because there was no line, and five days later, I was on my way to boot camp. I have never looked back."

Master Chief Banks said that over the years she has heard other sailors say they were contemplating getting out of the Navy, but she never even considered a separation.

"I knew the grass was not greener," she said of the civilian world.

Master Chief Banks said she has learned that the rules for success are simple: "Learn the rules. Respect the rules. Follow the rules."

"I have enjoyed myself tremendously; I live life to the fullest, and I am filthy rich," she said of her blessings.

'Boundless energy'

Master Chief Banks remarried while in the Navy, and now has four daughters and eight grandchildren. She said her husband, retired Navy Chief Kyle Hammonds, at times sacrificed his advancement to support her career, which has required a lot of moving around.

Master Chief Banks applied to come to the Naval Academy just as Vice Adm. Rodney P. Rempt was concluding his tour as superintendent in the summer of 2007. He chose her for the assignment, but confirmed the selection with his successor, superintendent Vice Adm. Jeffrey L. Fowler.

Adm. Fowler had worked with Master Chief Banks before, when he was the Navy's senior recruiting officer - he was the commanding officer who interviewed her in 2003 when she hobbled into the Navy Recruiting Command on crutches.

"I saw her boundless energy, her passionate care for her sailors, and her unwavering love of her country," Adm. Fowler said recalling that first meeting. "I knew then I had the best sailor our country could offer. I consider my choice of her to serve with me among the best personnel decisions I have made in nearly 31 years of commissioned service."

Of the decision to bring her to the Naval Academy, Adm. Fowler said, "No one is too junior for her to help out, yet she is comfortable interacting with the president of the United States, cabinet members and foreign leaders ... She is one person any midshipman or sailor can talk to about anything, no matter how personal. By her approachable and caring personality, she is a mentor to anyone who has a need."

Master Chief Banks travels widely on recruiting and public-relations missions, and oversees about 200 enlisted personnel at the academy. Her sailors and chief petty officers work with midshipmen in a range of assignments, including serving as craftmasters on Yard Patrol training boats and staffing the medical clinic.

Before Master Chief Banks' tour of duty at the Naval Academy, there were two master chiefs - one to oversee naval operations in at Naval Station Annapolis, and one for the Naval Academy. In a reorganization by the military district, many of the naval station's functions were transferred to the Naval Academy, and Master Chief Banks is the first enlisted person to oversee installations on both sides of the Severn River.

One of her subordinates, Senior Chief Petty Officer Brad Lewis, the senior non-commissioned officer for 1st Company of midshipmen, said Master Chief Banks sets "high standards," but leads by example.

"She is extremely motivating, and she is very, very, very excited about what she does at the Naval Academy," he said.

Dedicated recruiter

Master Chief Banks and Adm. Fowler said they are working to recruit qualified minority students for the Naval Academy, and to build stronger relations with the local African American community. Local blacks give Adm. Fowler and Master Chief Banks high marks.

"I saw her for the first time at a football game, and she was a human dynamo," said Zastrow Simms, an African American community leader in Annapolis. "She really seems to care about people."

It's easy to see why Mr. Simms and others are smitten by "Grandma Navy," who has an entertaining side.

She grew up working on the family's produce farm in Tennessee, and like farm kids everywhere, she has that one "special" crop - say, tobacco, cotton or chickens - that she never wants to see again.

"Corn. I don't eat it no how, no way, not even to be polite. I don't want it on the cob, or creamed, or any other way," she said going into animated gestures as she told about years of picking sweet corn for market, and boiling it up on Sundays when the preacher came. "If I have soup powder, and there's corn in it, I even pick out the grains."

The cornfields are a distant memory now, and Master Chief Banks is 100 percent Navy.

"I love going out on the stump and telling folks about the Navy," she said. "And as for my next assignment, my prayer is for God to give me a burning desire for whatever I get."