Master Sgt. Christine Carlin of Eagle River stands in front of what was dubbed ÒTent CityÓ during a deployment to Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. PHOTO COURTESY OF Christine Carlin

Originally of Rochester, N.Y., Carlin, 45, had designs on becoming a bricklayer prior to being inspired by an advertising campaign to “aim high” with the Air Force in 1983. But she said her father, a fourth generation bricklayer, had different ideas of what his daughter's future should entail.

“He didn't want me in that role because it wasn't a traditional role at the time,” Carlin said, explaining that he felt she would be better off staying at home and marrying a doctor or a lawyer.

Undeterred by her father's aspirations for her, Carlin enlisted as an Air Force mechanic when she was 21, hoping to find adventure, serve her country and perform some hands-on work.

“I wanted to work and to see the world and to be a part of the world,” she said.

According to Elizabeth James, an assistant professor of history at the University of Alaska Anchorage, the military has become a natural place for women to explore nontraditional roles.

“The military is a little bit ahead of the rest of society because in some ways they've kind of set the standard in that there are more objective criteria in terms of promotions and job entry,” James said.

Although Carlin said working in a male-dominated career field was not without its challenges.

“I wanted to be treated the same,” she said. “Just because I was a female, I had to do the same because I did not want to cause any conflict when a male counterpart might have thought that I was getting preferential treatment.”

Carlin said there have been times when she has had to avoid being treated differently because she is a female service member.

“I've turned down a lot of preferential treatment, certain advancements, because I said, ÔNo, you're not taking me because I'm a quota, I'm a woman. You're going to take me because I have the experience, I have the education, and you're going to treat me fairly,” she said. “I was never the token female. I always had to pull my weight.”

Over the years, Carlin made the transition to the Air Reserve and then to the Air National Guard. She came to Alaska from California in 1999 to fulfill a dream that began when she started raising Siberian huskies in Germany many years before and did some reading up on Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champion Susan Butcher. She now works as a part of the 176th Air Control Squadron on Elmendorf Air Force Base.

Throughout her military career, she's worked as aircrew life support, a survival instructor, a jet engine troop, a crew chief, a propeller mechanic and a first sergeant, and says she has seen many changes occur for female service members throughout the years — particularly in the time between Operation Desert Storm and the Iraq War.

“I wasn't sent over when I was in the engine shop because they considered me the young female that maybe could not adapt to the ways that they did things over there,” Carlin said of the period she served during Operation Dessert Storm. “I still supported the war by sending them over engines and everything. However, at that time, leadership made a decision. I was one of two females, and both of us females, we did not deploy.”

James said the military genuinely learned a lot throughout the conflict about how to deal with the roles of women in the military.

“There was a fair amount of controversy over the women who were taken prisoner and what they were doing,” she said. “They weren't assigned combat roles, but we started to realize that maybe they might be supply clerks, but they're still behind enemy lines, they're still doing the job.”

Carlin said Air Force leadership put some genuine changes in place, opening up more deployment opportunities for women.

“Mainly I think it stems from education and more so the military's higher rankings understanding that females can still be a part of a war situation or an operation, but it's just a matter of working on the logistics side of it,” she said. “Where are they going to bed down? Where are they going to take showers? What are they going to do when they got female things going on?”

Now, she says the opportunities for female service members are virtually unlimited.

“I see a dramatic change,” she said. “There are far more career fields now, combat and even non-combat, that women have played a significant role in.”

James said a lot of the credit for the changes that have occurred for women in the military should be given to females who have taken risks with what have been traditionally male jobs.

“Women have proven themselves time and again in job fields,” James said, adding that she can imagine a future in which women perform direct combat roles. “I'm positive that it will reach that point,” she said.

Carlin said women still have some steps to take toward full equality in the military, but she has no doubt only more good is to come for those who serve.

“You've got to think outside of the box nowadays, because you never know that person in uniform or the civilian clothes, where they've been in life and what adventure they've been on,” she said. “Women's powers have not totally been unleashed, because it's only the beginning.”

Reach the reporter at mary.rall@alaskastar.com.

This article published in The Alaska Star on Thursday, March 20, 2008.