(New London-WTNH, Sept. 7, 2006 6:55 PM) _ The U.S. Coast Guard academy is changing. Now, 30 years after the first women were admitted into the academy, they are becoming an increasingly more important part of the school -- from top to bottom.

• by News Channel 8's Tina Detelj

"You have to walk the walk as well as talk the talk."

A lot has changed since Captain Judith Keene walked the halls of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy 25 years ago.

Keene, now a wife and mother of two, has become the first female Commandant of Cadets. She takes over at a time when women make up 30 percent of the corps, and for the first time ever a cadet was court martialed for sexual assault.

"No one at the academy is proud of what happened."

But Keene says Webster Smith's case opened the door to deal with this problem more openly. She wants to improve how people respond to reports of assault and says an extensive support system is already in place.

"I don't want cadets in the Coast Guard Academy who have been perpetrators of sexual assault."

Capt Keene's assignment at the academy was penciled in long before any accusations were made against Webster Smith. She says the timing of her arrival in June was fortuitous, and not just a response to the spotlight shined on the academy.

"We're not to the point yet where we need to be or want to be, but we have come a long way."
 
And she should know, Keene entered the academy in 1977 - a year after the first females were admitted.

"We would be told right to our face that women belonged barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen."

But there was also support; she says it is still prevalent here. Keene is hoping to bring cadets back to basics--honor, respect, and devotion to duty - the core values of the academy.