Rosemary Ann was born 2 Apr 1953, daughter of Cecil James Bryant and Constance Estelle Boylann. Her parents were both serving in the military in World War II. Her mother was a Navy nurse, and her father was an Air Force pilot and who had died in a plane crash when she was three. Rosemary made it her goal to be as qualified as possible to fly in the armed services.
Her mother remarried to Harold Gregory Merims and due to the young age at which she lost her father, Rosemary took on her stepfather's last name and the birth certificates were altered to show her stepfather as parent.
She got her private pilot's license at age 17. Then she got her aeronautics degree from Purdue University in 1972 when she was 19. She married first Douglas Hugh Conaster[1] and she married second Thomas "Tommy" Mariner.
Capt. Rosemary Mariner was the first woman to fly a tactical jet, the "first female military aviator to achieve command of an operational air squadron," according to a Navy statement, mentor other women flyers in the military, and help them transition into civilian life. She was also the first woman to serve aboard a military warship.
Rosemary Mariner lived in Norris, Anderson County, Tennessee with her husband, retired Navy Commander Tommy Mariner, and their daughter, Emmalee. She died on January 24, 2019 in Anderson County, Tennessee, aged 65, following a five year battle with ovarian cancer.
Obituary
Captain Rosemary Mariner, United States Navy, Retired, died on January 24, 2019, in the fifth year of her battle with ovarian cancer, with her husband and wingman of 40 years by her side. She was 65. Born in Harlingen, Texas, raised in San Diego, she graduated from Purdue University with a degree in aeronautics at 19. Captain Mariner was one of the first eight women selected to fly military aircraft in 1973. After flight training in 1974, she became the Navy's first female jet pilot flying the A-4C and the A-7E Corsair II. She moved to the Naval Weapons Center in China Lake, then Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 5. For sea duty, in 1982 she reported aboard USS Lexington, where she qualified as a Surface Warfare Officer[2].
In 1990, she became the first woman to command a military aviation squadron, VAQ-34, based at the Pacific Missile Test Center at Pt. Mugu, CA. She attended the National War College in Washington, DC, earning a Masters in National Security Strategy, and served on the Staff of the Joint Chiefs in the Pentagon. Her final military assignment was as the Chairman of the Joint Chief's Chair in Military Strategy at the National War College, before retiring in 1997. Throughout her career, Captain Mariner was both willing to serve as a mentor to others and deeply grateful to the men and women who enabled her to pursue her dreams. She was instrumental in the repeal of restrictions on women serving in combat.
In retirement, Captain Mariner was a resident scholar at the Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Tennessee in the History Department where she taught classes in military history, emphasizing the intersections of war and conscience. She continued to serve as an advisor on national defense policy and women's integration into the military for ABC News, PBS and the Department of the Navy. A voracious reader and an eager academic, she devoted herself to a love of knowledge. In recent years, this included the disease which took her life, which she sought to understand as fully as possible. As expected, she tenaciously fought an implacable foe to the end. She lived in Norris, Tennessee, with her husband, retired Navy Commander Tommy Mariner, and their daughter, Emmalee, who attends Duke University. ......[3]
At her funeral, retired Navy Captain Rosemary Mariner received the first-ever all-female flyover. The special tribute, officially (and datedly) named the "Missing Man Flyover," honors aviators who have died serving their country. It features four jets flying above a funeral service in formation before one of the aircraft peels away and climbs into the sky. [4]
See sources which shows that Bryant was not her LNAB, but instead that Merims was. There may have been another marriage before Conatser, but it has not been found nor referenced in Wikitree.
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Rosemary is 28 degrees from Herbert Adair, 28 degrees from Richard Adams, 23 degrees from Mel Blanc, 31 degrees from Dick Bruna, 26 degrees from Bunny DeBarge, 38 degrees from Peter Dinklage, 26 degrees from Sam Edwards, 22 degrees from Ginnifer Goodwin, 27 degrees from Marty Krofft, 21 degrees from Junius Matthews, 21 degrees from Rachel Mellon and 24 degrees from Harold Warstler on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
B > Bryant | M > Mariner > Rosemary Ann (Bryant) Mariner
Categories: USS Lexington (CV-16), United States Navy | Texas, Notables | Notables