Breaking the mold

UNITED STATES

11.12.2021

Story by Seaman Alonzo Martin-Frazier 

USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72)   

PACIFIC OCEAN -- “Sometimes the Navy life forces us to be a way that’s not who we really are, and rewards us for it,” said Chief Machinery Repairman Sasha Bond, sole female chief of her rate across the entire U.S. Navy, and substance abuse rehabilitation program (SARP) counselor aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72).
Bond started her journey as a junior sailor in engineering with the same sandy hair and professional demeanor she carries today, but she didn’t have any female leadership to look up to. That didn’t change until she became part of leadership herself by learning what it took to get there.
“I joined from Ohio, and I didn’t know where to go from there,” Bond said. “I think it was my first time being in a position where I could fail. The first time where I wasn’t in control. And that was scary. But, it was also a motivating factor, because it drove me to learn more, work harder, and push myself.”
Bond’s first tour was in Japan attached to the USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) where she joined the ship as one of four females in all of engineering department. She was breaking the mold just by being there, but what she wanted was success.
“I learned early on that women in the Navy, we get classified into these specific labels, and it drove me crazy,” said Bond. “It was either I was going to be strict and to the point, see everything as black and white, and say it as it was. Or – I was going to be this emotional, crying, useless person. I know the latter wasn’t me, so, it was like I had to take on this role.”
In the workplace, she began to develop the more direct leadership style she is now known for, and she started to notice the success she was garnering because of it. Although, according to her, not everything that came out of it was good.
“I had someone tell me that I was impossible to love, because I was so engrained in the military style,” she said. “I found myself reflecting on missed opportunities sometimes. Moments where I could’ve been more compassionate, more empathetic to Sailors. I think that part of me made it hard.”
It was around her third year of service, when her troubled thoughts turned to feelings of disenchantment with the Navy, that her ship’s fire marshal, a chief warrant officer at the time, spoke to her one-on-one.
“He unknowingly was a huge mentor for me, because he was someone who took the time to sit down with me and figure out what it was that I really wanted,” she said. “I remember him expressing ‘If the Navy’s not for you, that’s okay.’ It was the first time that I ever heard someone say that.”
He asked her what she wanted. That simple question at that perfect time made her begin to realize that her job involved more than just equipment. She realized that there were people around her that cared, and ones that needed caring for.
“He inspired me to be successful,” Bond concluded. “So, you know, I can do that for other people.”
Today, Bond works as a SARP counselor, providing guidance and resources to Sailors at risk of or struggling with substance abuse, and as Medical’s subject matter expert on everything that isn’t medicine. When she first arrived aboard Abraham Lincoln a few months ago, Lt. Cmdr. Mauer Biscotti, the Ship’s Surgeon, could only describe her as… ‘chiefly.’
“She’s kind of the glue that keeps the department together,” he said. “She liaises between the ‘Khakis’ and the Sailors, the non-medical and medical. She wears a lot of hats, or, as we say in the Navy, covers. She’s a mentor to not only the junior Sailors, but also some of us juniors Officers, and even other personnel.”
The impression Bond has left on everyone in the Medical department is something that can be felt. When she isn’t at medical, she helps teach the Advanced Leadership Development Course, a class intended to further the leadership skills of first class petty officers, and another opportunity for her to see more of the kind of impact on people that keeps her going.
“She is the epitome of what I would imagine an outstanding Sailor would, could, and should be,” said Biscotti. “The battles one faces in the Navy and in the Machinery Repairman community as a female are probably something more than I’ve ever had to fight through, and she’s come out strong for it. I don’t think we’d be where we are without her, even though she’s only been here for a certain amount of time.”
Bond doesn’t know exactly where she’ll be in the future. One thing’s for sure: that future will involve people, in or out of the Navy.
“I never thought I would get this far, and I think that in itself is inspiration to me that I easily forget,” she said. “Find what you’re passionate about, and don’t stop. That kind of passion brings freedom, wherever you are. You have to start with you.”

• Date Taken: 11.12.2021
• Date Posted: 12.07.2021 19:26
• Story ID: 410679
• Location: US