‘Ocean Became Lifelong Passion…I Got Diagnosed With ADHD’

Sethi’s interest in the military developed as a teenager. Though not from a long-serving military family, Sethi’s maternal grandfather served briefly in the US Army during World War II and her maternal uncle served in the Navy briefly during the Vietnam War. In her middle school years, Sethi and her brother moved to the Bay Area with their mother who was an electrical engineer. “Growing up as the only Indian person in upstate New York was not a pleasant experience, but when we moved to the Bay Area it was eye-opening to see people who looked like me, and not being unusual or standing out.”

Sethi joined the ROTC at age 13 and was a part of the Civil Air Patrol in the Bay Area. She went to military college at Norwich University with plans to join the Army. But training during a blizzard in Vermont had Sethi’s Army ROTC unit “crawling through the snow taking apart rifles. I did not enjoy that at all,” she laughs. “At the same time, my roommate was in a Navy program learning about radars, so I switched over to the Navy the following year.” The ocean became a lifelong passion. The Army’s loss became the Navy’s gain, but Norwich gave her a “good environment where I learned a lot of leadership skills,” says Sethi.

Enrolling in the ROTC and Military college also gave Sethi the guardrails that she was seeking personally. “In my teens, I realized that I needed some external discipline to work through, and being in the ROTC helped. 30+ years later I got diagnosed with ADHD and suddenly it all made sense”. 

USS Hopper. US Navy Official Photo
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Sethi began her Navy career on an ammunition carrier as a communications officer and then as an electrical officer. Soon after, the Navy dropped the combat exclusion law which kept women off combatant ships. Sethi was then recruited as a navigator on the guided-missile destroyer, USS Hopper, named after Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. One of the first women to serve as a weapons officer and combat systems officer, with responsibility for radars, computer processors, gun systems, and missile systems – Sethi chose to serve on the USS Hopper as a tribute to Grace Hopper, her hero since school. “She had an incredible technical mind and it was cool to be serving on the Navy ship named after her,” she remarks. 

Operation Iraqi Freedom

As Operation Iraqi Freedom went underway in 2003, Sethi worked to establish a missile defense program and collaborated with the Army and the Air Force “to inform them about inbound missiles. I’m proud to say that we successfully detected 13 inbound ballistic missiles from Iraq to American forces, and the Air Force and the Army took care of all of them.” After that, Sethi gained a reputation for being a missile defense expert, a job she held for several years. 

USS Decatur. Photo source: US Navy
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After only 13 years in the Navy, Sethi became one of the first women to assume command of a mine-hunting ship, a post that usually takes 18 years to achieve. “For the first time, it was 55 sailors and me, with nobody standing behind to tell me what to do. From there, it was on to command at sea, which for a commander is sort of the pinnacle of our careers. It’s when we have the most responsibility and the most personal engagement with sailors, and with activities. That was just spectacular. I had an amazing team of officers who all had big personalities and worked together, and it was always fun. I was so fortunate to have an incredible crew, and hopefully, I was the leader that they wanted and needed.” In 2010, Sethi took command of the USS Decatur. 

On her final tour, Sethi was the commander of Task Force 64, part of the US Sixth Fleet,  responsible for the integrated missile defense of Europe, specifically defending NATO Europe against missiles from Iran. “As we saw recently, that’s not just a theoretical threat, but something that could and did happen at the height of the Gaza conflict as they launched missiles toward Israel.” At Task Force 64, she worked closely with both the NATO Air Forces and the United States Air Force and coordinated ship movements regularly to ensure that the protection promised to NATO was in place. 

In 2012, after handing over command of the USS Decatur, Sethi joined the National War College for a Master’s Degree in National Security Policy. “When people think about national security, they tend to think about the military. But a lot happens before military engagement between the intelligence community and the State Department.” During her time at the White House attached to Vice President Kamala Harris’s national security office known as “the inner agency”, Sethi learned the nuances of “using soft power pressure, conversation, and nudges to avoid conflict and present the best possible options as against focusing on just military responses.” 

“I’m happy to see the numbers of women in service growing yearly, but there are still not that many of us,” Sethi says. Given that, she finds “very concerning” the distinct lack of faith the current administration has shown in distinguished military leaders like Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the former Chief of Naval Operations, the first woman to hold the post in the US Navy. 

“The US Navy is still clearly strong, well-trained, and capable of executing every mission, no matter who the Chief of Naval Operations is. I worked directly for Admiral Franchetti at Sixth Fleet and could discuss with her all about the operations I ran, including strikes into Syria. I watched her run war games. She is a highly qualified naval officer who earned her position by being better than the people around her. This situation is really unfortunate and I hope as a nation, we can overcome this and get back the belief in ability.” 

Sethi calls the ban on trans service personnel unfortunate. “I believe that all sailors, soldiers, marines, airmen, and guardians want a leader who cares about them and will make sure they do their best and come back alive from the mission. There are a handful of people with very deeply held beliefs rooted in religion and culture who have disputes with trans, gays, lesbians, or those anywhere on the sexuality spectrum. But for those who have served with honor and continue to do so by overcoming tremendous odds, discrimination, and in some cases, harassment, I believe that their ability to serve the nation should be unimpeded.” 

For youth who dream of careers in the military, Sethi says, “There are a lot of options, and serving in the military gives you a chance to see the world, to meet people who don’t look, act, or sound like you, and to make a real difference by serving the country. Yes, a lot is going on in the world today but we should aim to be the best sailors, soldiers, airmen/women, marine guardians, and Coast Guardsmen/women that we can be.”

Shanti Sethi with her daughter and mother during a winter break. Photo courtesy: Shanti Sethi Credit: Shanti Sethi
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On retiring from the Navy, Sethi, based in Washington DC, runs a leadership coaching practice that enables her to spend time with her eight-year-old daughter, Priya, who “speaks Italian fluently and has a passion for figure skating. I love that I can do things with her, be it taking her to Namibia for a trip or figure-skating training in Italy,” says the proud single mother. “I found my balance late in life but you have to stretch a little bit in some areas to make room for another.”

(The article is published under a mutual content partnership arrangement between The Free Press Journal and India Currents).