She blends a commanding presence with a wide-open demeanor. It’s little wonder the “TODAY” show interviewed Capt. Janet Days ’99 in March 2023, one month after she became the first Black woman to run the country’s largest naval base.
And no surprise after watching the segment that she majored in communication at Old Dominion 91Ƶ.
“I think the assumption is, it’s media, it’s television and it’s video,” Days said in a video coproduced by the Office of Alumni Relations and WHRO. “It’s more than that. It was strategic communication. It was how to think, problem-solve, research, analyze and be comfortable with public speaking.
“I use the tools that I learned at Old Dominion every single day,” Days said.
She uses them to oversee Naval Station Norfolk, a 6,200-acre base with 77,000 people – Navy personnel, civilian employees and contractors – 18 squadrons and 75 ships.
It’s the people who count most to Days. “We are warfighters,” she said on the “TODAY” show, “but we cannot do our mission if we do not understand and know what every individual brings to the table.”
Days acknowledged in an interview in her office that it was easier to apply a personal touch when she supervised a ship. Now, she said, “I do my best to get out, but I have to be very deliberate.” She relies on such “touchpoints” as occasional visits to departments and video calls, like one she had held the day before with the base’s 350 E-4 petty officers.
“My responsibility is to create an environment where people love their jobs and want to come to work,” she said in a speech at the Town-N-Gown annual dinner last June. With the number of recruits declining, “we have to ask ourselves some tough questions: How come young people do not want
to serve?”
To “reintroduce the community” to the Navy, last fall Days revived Fleet Fest, which drew nearly 13,000 people to the base. “We also want to be good partners and encourage the people who come to the military to stay in the community,” she told Town-N-Gown.
On the base, “I mentor and counsel all the time. We have to make sure people are comfortable saying, ‘I have a problem. I need help.’ We’re trying to provide more resources for them.”
Days is the 51st person but the first Black woman to serve as commanding officer of the 107-year-old Naval Station Norfolk. She shrugged off the attention at first but now appreciates the power of the milestone: “It means I’m not the last …. Women will come up and shake your hand, hold your hand and won’t let it go. I want to let ladies know, ‘You can do it.’”
Days’ previous positions include commanding officer and executive officer of the destroyer USS McFaul. She was also executive officer of Naval Station Norfolk and Surface Warfare Schools Command in Newport, Rhode Island.
She and her three siblings were raised by their father, George Hanks, a Vietnam veteran who served in the Army for 25 years, six of them in Germany. “That’s where I get the desire to serve,” Days said.
91Ƶ, she shouldered a heavy academic load – 21 credit hours a semester—and graduated summa cum laude. Two faculty members in communication made a big impact on her.
Fran Hassencahl’s “Communication Between the Sexes” course still comes in handy for Days. She also recalled Tom Socha’s ability to captivate students. “You know a professor is winning when they have the entirety of the class involved – when it’s interactive, they’re not preachy and they’re not just talking at you, but everyone has something that they want to add, and the class goes really fast,” Days said in the alumni video.
Outside class, she participated in the Hampton Roads Naval ROTC, which she called a “fantastic program.”
“In addition to the military training, it was a great opportunity to get exposure to senior-level leaders,” Days said.
She was first stationed in Norfolk in 1999, living in Saratoga Hall and working aboard the USS Mahan. “Not much has changed when I look at it,” she said.
But her title and duties have. Days emphasized it hasn’t beena solo mission.
“You don’t just get there overnight,” she said on “TODAY.” “You have advocates who are rooting for you and an amazing team that works with you.”
Editor's note: Days retired from the Navy in August 2024, three months after this story published in Monarch magazine.