 My mother told me, Ray, you'll have three strikes against you. First, you're female and you're black and you'll have a southern segregated school education. But you can do or be anything you want to be. I was born right here in Little Rock, Arkansas. I didn't realize that I was in a segregated area. I was talking with some of my friends about what we wanted to be when we grew up. And they laughed at me when I said I wanted to become an engineer. And one of my teachers said, Ray, aim for the stars at the very worst you'll land on the moon. And the day after I graduated college, I marched off to Washington, D.C. And the first group of people to call me in for an interview was the Department of the Navy. President Nixon was in office and he called the Navy and he told them that there was a new ship design coming up and instead of it taking the two years that it normally takes, he wanted the Navy to do the rough draft of it in two months. I brought that rascal in in 18 hours and 26 minutes. And for that, my career just took off. And I had revolutionized the design process for all naval ships and submarines. I broke a lot of glass ceilings. I was the first female program manager of ships in the history of the Navy. I had five field activities reporting to me. I had a staff of roughly 250 people. You see, only in the United States would we have had an opportunity to do these things. In spite of the system, I was able to accomplish not because of the system.