God and country: Catholic midshipman among growing ranks of women in military service

ANNAPOLIS – A summer camp when she was 17 awakened in Maria E. Weimer the values that would come to define her life: She is a protector, a defender and a believer – and her future would be with the U.S. Navy.

Weimer grew up Catholic in a military family in Somerset, Pa., and when she served as a companion to a severely autistic woman at the camp for adults with special needs in her hometown, she discovered what was always in her heart.

“I saw someone completely vulnerable and completely helpless who would never have the ability to defend herself,” said Weimer, now 23 and a midshipman first class in the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘What is the best way I can impact lives?’ The military was the obvious answer.

“I wanted to keep our name on a military uniform.”

She is following in the footsteps of her father, brother, grandfather and uncles, but with a special distinction: Weimer will be the first woman in her family to serve in the military when she is commissioned a naval officer May 26. She joins an ever-growing legion of women in the armed forces.

At the Naval Academy, just one in five of the midshipmen are women, although the number is up a whopping 218 percent since 1990 when 98 women graduated. Congress authorized female admissions in 1976 to all of the service academies, including the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.

“Today’s military is much more integrated along gender lines than at any time in the past,” according to a 2020 essay by the Brookings Institution titled, “Women Warriors: The ongoing story of integrating and diversifying the American armed forces.”

The percentage of women across all military forces has roughly doubled in the last generation. Women represent one in six Americans in uniform, the think tank reported. Their ranks range from 8 percent in the Marine Corps to 19 percent in the Air Force.

“We’ve come a long way,” according to the Brookings authors, retired Air Force Gen. Lori J. Robinson and Brookings senior fellow Michael E. O’Hanlon. “But there is plenty of work yet to be done to encourage the participation of women in the military and to ensure their experiences and opportunities are equitable to those of the men who serve.

“If we put the work in, we will have a stronger military – and country – for it.”

At the Naval Academy, female midshipmen pursue the same academic and professional training as do their male classmates, although physical standards differ. Midshipmen earn an undergraduate college degree over four years and receive commission as a military officer in the U.S. Navy or Marine Corps. As students, midshipmen are on active duty.

Weimer, whose home parish is St. Peter in Somerset, Pa., aspires to become a surface warfare officer on a Navy warship at the base in San Diego, Calif. In this role as an ensign, the rank she will attain at graduation, she hopes to lead a crew of seamen and petty officers aboard a destroyer.

Her father, Mark Weimer, served as a sailor in San Diego before he married her mother, Laura. The couple volunteers as “Gold and Blue Officers” to help high school students in western Pennsylvania navigate the academy’s admissions process. Their goal is to expose other young people to the opportunities they can find in military service.

Mark Weimer said he remembers a visit to the Naval Academy before Maria started her sophomore year in high school. Their time together on the Yard – and a group of midshipmen who stopped their volleyball game to talk to Maria – helped her to see the life she could make for herself with a Navy career.

The Weimers say they’re in awe of their daughter’s quiet leadership, sense of right versus wrong and deep gratitude.

“It’s her calling to serve in the military and to give back what’s given to her,” Laura Weimer said.

Alongside her parents, Weimer is helping build the pipeline for female midshipmen. She has made phone calls and joined panels to share her experience, offer advice and give encouragement.

“I hope to be a light for young girls and empower them: You can be a female and you can pursue the military as a career,” Weimer said. 

One of her role models is Capt. Tracie Severson, an academy professor who has helped mentor Weimer. She is the officer representative to the Naval Academy’s chapter of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas. Weimer is its president.

Severson, who is also Catholic and a 1995 graduate of the academy, said Weimer provides inspiring leadership to the chapter and the 20 midshipmen who are members.

“Having that sisterhood is important, because in this world there is a lot of pressure on women to look or think or act a certain way that is counter to our Catholic faith,” Severson said. “That sisterhood can help us make the best decisions for ourselves, our families and communities so we can find what God desires for us.”

Standing inside the academy’s storied Bancroft Hall and its majestic rotunda, Weimer reflected on the service, life and achievements that she dreams for herself. At the center of all she yearns for is a life devoted to God and country.

She understands the sacrifice that her commitment might require. The names of her fallen shipmates, killed in action and enshrined in the Yard’s legacy, are memorialized in crests for each and every academy class. Her class crest is blank, for now.

“I fail a lot here,” Weimer said. “It’s made to break you. The only thing that has been consistent for me is to rely on my Catholic faith. All of those principles and truths that the Church teaches allow me to live at peace and remember the whole goal and intention.

“One day if I can look back at my career when I walk in these doors, I’ll ask myself the question: ‘Did you give it all that you had and did you serve the Lord to the best of your abilities?’ ”

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