Abilene High Student May Be One Of The First Females To Ever Work On Nuclear Submarine
By: Gina Benitez
Updated: January 27, 2012
Rebeckah Melton
is pretty much your normal 18-year-old girl. She's active in extra curriculars, extremely focused on school and just like many close to the finish line, she's so ready to graduate. However, she has accomplished something that isn't quite so average for someone her age."Well I'm in the first wave of females to go into the nuclear engineering program. It is a very competitive field. There are not a lot of women in it right now," says Melton.
In the United States Navy, that is. And this isn't her only accomplishment."
Melton adds, "They told me the possibility of me being one of the first women on a submarine is there. There's a good possibility that I could do that."
A very high possibility, says her Colonel in the JROTC program. Melton scored a 92 on the ASVAB aptitude test. The minimum score for the engineering program is an 80.
"This is big for me. I've always wanted to do something that nobody else in my family has done, that not a lot of other people have done," Melton says.
Melton will be shipped off to bootcamp in November. After that, she'll go to tech school. A year and a half and she'll have her engineering degree. Then, she'll most likely be set to work on the submarine.
She says, "My job is to make sure that it's working correctly. It's not overpowering itself, it's stabalized and there's no threat of it exploding."
A daunting task for someone that will be just twenty years old.
"And I've always been told 'well you're a girl, you can't do anything.' And that's not true. Because look at me now. I'm going into nuclear engineering - very possibly one of the first women on a submarine," says Melton.
This
is just the beginning for a very talented and driven young woman.
