{"id":48315,"date":"2021-03-01T05:03:06","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T12:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/navy-veteran-gail-harris-breaks-barriers-on-race-police\/"},"modified":"2021-03-01T12:03:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T12:03:06","slug":"navy-veteran-gail-harris-breaks-barriers-on-race-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/navy-veteran-gail-harris-breaks-barriers-on-race-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Navy veteran Gail Harris breaks barriers on race, police"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Gail
Gail Harris, who is taking a music composition class at The Julliard School, laughs as she works on a composition piece last week in her music room at her Durango home. In 2001, she retired as the highest-ranking African American woman in the U.S. Navy.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Durango resident Gail Harris is known for going above and beyond \u2013 and breaking barriers along the way.<\/p>\n

She barreled past racist or sexist practices in her childhood and three-decade military career. In 2001, she retired as the highest-ranking African American female in the U.S. Navy. For Harris, 71, retirement just created time to host a local radio show, publish a memoir, become an event speaker and teach an intelligence analysis and policy course.<\/p>\n

In 2019, she decided to study composition at The Julliard School so she could write music for her own Broadway-style musical. When police reform protests swept the nation in 2020, she started consulting with the Durango Police Department on solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s somebody I want my daughter to meet,\u201d said Brice Current, the department\u2019s deputy chief, who met Harris at a city speaking event in 2019. \u201cI don\u2019t want her (his daughter) to quit on anything. That\u2019s exactly why I want her to meet Gail because I know she\u2019s going to provide her with that strength that she needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris joined the Navy after earning a graduate degree in national security from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. (Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was her classmate.)<\/p>\n

Her 28-year career as a Naval intelligence officer was marked by leadership roles and a string of firsts.<\/p>\n

Harris, who retired as a highly decorated Navy captain, was the first African American female to be designated as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy, the first Navy female liaison to the Egyptian military, and the first female and African American instructor at the Armed Forces Air Intelligence Training Center at Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\"Music
Music has always been a passion for Harris, who had a DJ show on the Fort Lewis College radio station for more than 10 years. She says she used music to get through tough moments during her career, in which she was the first African American woman to hold several leadership positions in the Navy.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Throughout her career, she met resistance, she said. Her solution? Performing extremely well and depending on her sharp, and at times, off-color sense of humor.<\/p>\n

In the 1970s, a Navy woman couldn\u2019t be deployed to a combat ship, a law that wouldn\u2019t be overturned until the 1990s. While in Naval intelligence training in 1973, the class adviser, a Navy lieutenant, asked the other (male) students what they wanted for their first assignment, but ignored Harris.<\/p>\n

\u201cI finally raised my hand and said, \u2018What about me?\u2019\u201d Harris said. \u201cHe said, \u2018I don\u2019t believe you belong in the Navy, let alone an aviation squadron.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018You can say whatever you want, but everybody knows Black people are sexually superior,\u2019\u201d Harris recalled.<\/p>\n

That year, she became the first female intelligence officer in a Navy aviation squadron.<\/p>\n

Her superiors said one reason they wanted her to be the \u201ctest case\u201d for women on a combat assignment was that she got along with men, in part because of her sense of humor, she said, adding that the women\u2019s rights movement was in full swing at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving to be better, just to be considered \u2018as good as,\u2019 I would not have been a successful intelligence officer without that,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

When asked if those experiences seemed like sexism or racism, she said: \u201cI did it, so you don\u2019t have to. I\u2019m honored that my ceiling became the next generation\u2019s floor. \u2026 All of us are standing on the shoulders of people who came before us.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would never council anyone going into an environment \u2026 to handle the situation as I did,\u201d she said. \u201cThey don\u2019t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s not history\u2019<\/div>\n

Harris, who is from New Jersey, grew up visiting the segregated South. She remembered the Black and white water fountains and not being able to stay in certain hotels or eat in certain restaurants.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs any African American baby boomer \u2026 it\u2019s not history to me,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

Last summer, the nation\u2019s racial tensions burst back into the forefront after the deaths of several Black Americans at the hands of police. Protests swept the nation.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Harris got more involved with the Durango Police Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in full uniform, which is a pretty nerve-wracking experience, right? It\u2019s a place where I could probably use a friend,\u201d Current said. \u201cShe stood with me at the rally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gail
Gail Harris is on the city of Durango&#x2019;s Board of Ethics and consults with the Durango Police Department about diversity, equity and inclusion issues.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Harris said the situation reminded her of joining the military during the anti-Vietnam War movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe doesn\u2019t really care what other people think,\u201d Current said. \u201cRight then and there, I knew it \u2026 she\u2019s about solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone has their own path, Harris said, but she prefers to show action rather than demonstrate. She also does not hold back from saying there are some problems with the military or police.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say there are never any misbehaving or racist policemen is not a correct statement,\u201d Harris said. \u201cYou\u2019re entitled to your views, but if you treat one group of people differently in a situation than you would someone else, then there\u2019s a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Current invited Harris to join the Durango Police Department\u2019s diversity, equity and inclusion group, an informal group offering the department feedback about hiring, promotion and recruitment practices. The group has already made huge changes to the way the department does things, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Gail) is a leader. With her history and what she\u2019s done; she immediately zoned in on mental health,\u201d Current said. \u201cIf the officers are mentally healthy then (the community) will trust more that we\u2019ll make good decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gail
Gail Harris is a former Naval intelligence officer, author, motivational speaker, instructor, radio DJ and composer.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
\u2018Find a philosophy\u2019<\/div>\n

In her lowest moments, what she calls \u201cthe dark night of the soul,\u201d Harris turns to religion and music.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen life knocks you to your knees \u2026 you need to have some inner support to help you get back up,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

While her father taught her how to succeed in the workplace, her mother taught her about the spirit.<\/p>\n

Her mother made her and her siblings go to Sunday school until they were 21. She encouraged Harris and her brother to sing, although Harris says she\u2019s the only one in her family who doesn\u2019t have a good singing voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something about music that makes my soul sore,\u201d Harris said. \u201cWhen I was going through some of my most difficult times in life, I would make a playlist to lift myself up.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a DJ at KDUR, an indie-punk radio station at FLC, Harris serenaded the city with soul and R&B for more than 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cGail is wonderful on the air,\u201d said Bryant Liggett, KDUR station manager. She might talk about an artist \u2013 or desserts, wine nights and the National Football League. \u201cIt just made people smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days, Alicia Keys, H.E.R., Frank Sinatra and Luther Vandross are on that playlist. Thinking of her challenges and successes, Harris had simple advice to offer others:<\/p>\n

\u201cFind a philosophy of life that works for you,\u201d Harris said. \u201cIt\u2019s very important that it works for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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