NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Coast Guard has named the first female superintendent of its Connecticut-based academy, and says she will be the first woman to lead a U.S. military service academy.
The Coast Guard announced Tuesday that Rear Adm. Sandra Stosz will become the New London academy's superintendent next summer after Rear Adm. J. Scott Burhoe retires.
Stosz is now the Coast Guard's director of reserve and leadership. Officials say she's a 1982 graduate of the academy, and the first woman among its graduates to hold the rank of flag officer. She commanded two cutters during her 12 years of experience at sea.
The Coast Guard Academy is the smallest of the five U.S. service academies with an enrollment of about 1,000 cadets. It was the first academy to accept women as cadets in 1976.
(This version CORRECTS that Stosz is first female Coast Guard Academy graduate to be flag officer, not first woman in general in that role.)
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