“People with limited perspective told me there are things I couldn’t do,” says Lt. Christie Plackis, only the fourth female Army diver since 1982. Luckily, the only voice she listened to during the seven-month intensive training was the one inside her head, reminding her that failure wasn’t an option.

Q: What take-aways did you gain from that experience?

It was encouraging when a male colleague shared with me that because I didn’t cut out during the required 100 pullups and 500 pushups, I had set the example for everyone. He said that if I was doing it, then nobody else had an excuse.

Q: Did you ever think about quitting?

No. I wanted it too badly. I thought that they would have had to kick me out of the program.

Q: What do U.S. Army divers do?

Army divers do everything the Army does, but underwater. We perform search and recovery, map areas, locate sunken ships using sonar and, well, the rest I’m not cleared to say. The only thing we don’t do is underwater combat. That’s what combat divers are for.

Q: What is tough about being a female diver?

During training, I was in a different locker room and missed a lot of shared information, so I had to be two steps ahead, ready sooner. If there were uniform changes and nobody told me, I had to make time to find that out.

Q: What's it like being a female in a male-dominated career?

There are considerations people wouldn’t think about. Women know what I mean. You have to get creative. One thing I can mention is how easily my hair gets in my face. You address the problem without it ever being brought up. Everyone needs to be an equal soldier. I tested hair gels, and found ways using hair ties and bobby pins, which worked — until a lifeguard found a bobby pin at the bottom of the pool.

So with such an intense job, what do you do for fun?

I spin fire. It’s called poi: It’s like batons with fireballs on the ends. It’s easy to pick up.