In 1981, Rear Adm. Alma Mei Oi Lau Grocki became the first woman from Hawaiʻi to graduate from the United States Naval Academy." She was a member of only the 2nd co-ed class.
Grocki is featured in a one-hour PBS special, “Salute to Service,” honoring our nation's veterans, which airs today. She shared that she joined JROTC in high school to boost her grade point average at Punahou School. She said that her father worked at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, but she added that she never had dreams of being in the military.
"I got a look at the shipyard and all these guys walking around, and they were experts in what they did, and they knew how to fix the ships and these submarines. And it was so amazing to me. But still, you know, no real thinking about being in the military," she told HPR.
It wasn't until a classmate told her about the Naval Academy that she became interested in joining. She shared that coming from Hawaiʻi was a huge advantage.
"I was 17, right out of high school, coming from Hawaiʻi, where cultures are blurred here, colors of skin, girls, boys, everything's blurred. I wasn't looking to be prejudiced against, I wasn't looking to be dissed. I wasn't looking for situations where I should be offended," she said. "I attribute that a lot to coming from Hawaiʻi and and sort of our aloha spirit and helping everybody out, and not really looking for bad things."
Eventually, Grocki made it back home to Hawaiʻi as she said she was missing the food and her family. She ended up working with her dad at Pearl Harbor.
"It was a lot of fun getting to work with guys that I'd seen working with my dad before. But it was really interesting, because my dad had spies everywhere. After work, he would call me and say, 'Hey, I heard you had trouble with this one supervisor at your meeting.' And, 'Oh, Dad, you know.' And then we'd laugh about it."
However, as time progressed, her priorities shifted. As she got older, she realized that she wanted a family. She ended up leaving active duty and going into the reserves. But Grocki quickly learned that was the minimum, which wasn't enough.
"I sort of sidelined my career. I put that as a lower priority than the family. And as the kids started getting older and older, of course, they could do more things on their own," she said. "And so I started doing more and more in the Navy."
As a veteran now, she said that she has "failed retirement" as she is still working at the Pearl Harbor shipyard. Grocki shared that even though Veterans Day is once a year, many veterans deal with struggles that aren't noticeable every day.
"We need to find a way to keep the events, the different battles, the wars alive — so that first of all, we don't make those kinds of mistakes again. And second, we can learn from the mistakes we did make, and figure out better ways to do things, better ways to treat our own soldiers, sailors, airmen, Coast Guardsmen, Marines. Find better ways to take care of them, so that they don't have to struggle when they come back," she said.
This story aired on The Conversation on Nov. 10, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Tori DeJournett adapted this story for the web.
