With degrees from prestigious universities, military commissions and a former U.S. senator on speed dial, Beth and Scott Pursley’s four daughters — Erin, Anna, Meg and Claire — don’t play well for second place.
“I am not surprised that all four of them are strong leaders,” Scott Pursely said. “Beth and I both feel that some of the strongest, most competent women leaders come from all-girls Catholic high schools.”
Catholic education — which in the Pursley quartet’s case, included their home parish’s Christ the King School and Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock — have found their poster children in the four remarkable sisters, three of whom entered military service.
Lt. Erin Pursely, who graduated from Mount St. Mary in 2002 and the U.S. Naval Academy in 2006, is a helicopter flight instructor with HSM 41 Seahawks in San Diego.
“I decided to enter the military for two reasons — to fund my education and travel,” she said an e-mail interview with Arkansas Catholic. “I have lived in Pensacola, Fla., Corpus Christi, Texas, and San Diego. I have had port calls in Pearl Harbor, Saipan, Phuket, Pattya, Singapore, Bahrain and Dubai.”
Lt. Anna (Pursley) Barcus, graduated from Mount St. Mary in 2004 and the University of Notre Dame in 2008. Now a naval reservist in Ohio, she served aboard the USS Preble (DDG 88).
“My ship was a little exceptional in that the officer group when I reported onboard was half female, so being a woman in the Navy did not seem unique,” Anna said in an e-mail interview. “We had strong female leaders onboard and I had, and still have, great mentors.”
During Anna’s active service career, she was a surface warfare officer. She also volunteered to serve as the USS Preble’s onboard Catholic lay leader, after completing a course that equipped her to conduct services when a priest wasn’t present.
“We deployed twice without a chaplain onboard, so being a lay leader became an important role for me,” she said. “A small group of us would meet on Sunday afternoons to pray, read the Sunday readings and sing together. It provided a sense of community while we were out to sea for extended periods of time.”
Ens. Claire Pursley, MSM class of 2009, is the youngest of the family. Claire also graduated Notre Dame, in 2013, and is currently aboard USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53), as a surface warfare officer.
“What is unique about the Navy, or the military in general for that matter, is that young new junior officers are trusted with a huge amount of responsibility,” Claire said via e-mail. “Driving ships and leading divisions as a 22-year-old is something that you cannot find in many other jobs. Learning as you go, making mistakes along the way, has been a very trying but rewarding experience.”
The sister who didn’t choose to fly or float — Meg Pursley, MSM Class of 2005 — ran in powerful circles of her own. After graduating from the University of Arkansas in 2009, she served on U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s staff and still resides in Washington D.C. as a corporate consultant.
Given Scott’s military career (retired Navy nuclear submarine officer with 30 years of service and US Naval Academy-educated mechanical engineer) and Beth’s upbringing as the daughter of a 30-year Navy man, it is easy to jump to conclusions about the pressure the three young women faced to go into the family business. Scott said nothing could be further from the truth.
“We didn’t raise them to go into the Navy,” Scott said. “If you would have told me when they were young that three of them would go into the Navy I would have said, ‘Really?’ They grew up regular, normal girls.”
For their part, all three of the naval Pursleys echoed Claire’s assessment on the role their family’s legacy played in their decision.
“(Dad) always talked about how valuable the lessons that he learned in the Navy were,” she said. “I wanted similar leadership opportunities for a career.”
Beth also said the family’s deep roots in naval service and leadership has tempered the normal concerns of any parent with children potentially in harm’s way.
“I knew more about (the military) than the average parent,” said Beth, director of student services at Mount St. Mary. “I was proud they wanted to serve and I didn’t think of the danger. It’s always been a part of our life.”
None of the three officers could pinpoint the element of their naval experience that was the most challenging. Nor did they detail any negative experiences based on their gender, even though at the time Erin entered the Naval Academy women represented only about 13 percent of students.
“While I don’t forget the fact that I am a woman when I put on my uniform, I associate mostly with the fact that I am a naval officer and a sailor,” Erin said.
