Black Woman Is New NOAA Corps Leader

Rear Adm. Evelyn J. Fields was sworn in in Washington as the first female and first black commander of the NOAA Corps, a small uniformed service that operates ships and aircraft used to study the weather, oceans and fish. “I am proud to have such a visionary and outstanding officer . . . lead the NOAA Corps,” Commerce Secretary Bill Daley said at her induction ceremony. Fields was the first woman to command an oceangoing federal ship. The corps, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was founded in 1807 as the Coastal Survey. It has 400 officers, all scientists or engineers.