Winter 2026 Issue

Charting a New Course

Retired Rear Adm. Elizabeth Train ’78 models women’s representation in the Navy and environmental conservation

January 28, 2026
By Hannah Sawyer ’27

As a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, Elizabeth Train ’78 led intelligence operations across the globe for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the U.S. Navy. She provided intelligence support to warfighting operations, rescue and recovery efforts, and U.S. decisionmakers, most prominently for the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.

Her impact as a military leader is rooted in both her academic background studying biology at William & Mary and a pivotal pre-college adventure hiking the entire Appalachian Trail. Together, those experiences reinforced her commitment to protecting natural resources and instilled the self-reliance and confidence that guided her leadership throughout her career.

Train’s journey to the Navy was not the path that she had originally intended. After graduating from high school in Norfolk, Virginia, she took a gap year before college. Her father, a high-ranking officer in the Navy, suggested she take her savings and hike the Appalachian Trail. After selling a stamp collection she inherited from her grandfather, she made her way south to Georgia and began her 2,200-mile trek to Maine.

“It was transformational,” Train says. “I thought I was getting away into the wilderness, but what I found was this incredible community of people along the trail, whether it was hikers or those that lived nearby. Witnessing the incredible biodiversity of the Appalachian Mountains was incredibly exciting for me.”

Train spent her first year of college at the University of Colorado Boulder before transferring to William & Mary for her sophomore year. She chose W&M for the faculty-student connections and higher academic rigor. Inspired by her time on the trail, she majored in biology and found mentors in Gus Hall, professor emeritus of biology, and Mitchell Byrd, Chancellor Professor of Biology emeritus.

During her senior year, under Hall’s guidance, she completed an honors thesis. Her floristic botanical survey of the Dragon Run Swamp in Middlesex County, Virginia, helped spare the region from logging. She credits that experience with increasing her commitment to conservation.

After her graduation from W&M, she spent five years in Charlottesville, Virginia, using her biology knowledge while working as a leader for rock climbing, paddling and backpacking trips with Blue Ridge Mountain Sports. She made her way through the ranks of the company but felt that she could be doing more.

“I was surrounded by people who loved the outdoors, and while I was making good money and I loved the people I worked with, I didn’t feel that I was really doing enough for the world,” she says. “That converged with my father’s retirement. I knew that the Navy was just starting to put women into intelligence positions in deploying aviation squadrons, and I saw an opportunity for myself.”

aged photo of woman standing on rock with mountain in background
STANDING TALL: Train took in the vista from McAfee Knob in Southwest Virginia during her Appalachian Trail journey in 1974. Photos: Courtesy of Elizabeth Train ’78

Global Service

Train was accepted to Officer Candidate School and began her six-month intelligence training at Lowry Air Force base in Denver. Her first assignment included an eight-month deployment to Navy Support Facility Diego Garcia, a small U.S./U.K. joint air base in the Indian Ocean. She was one of two women officers in her squadron.

“It was the height of the Cold War, and what was then the Soviet Union had a lot of submarines that posed a threat to us and our allies,” she says. “I felt what I was doing, even as a junior officer, was important. I never looked back.”

She continued to serve in intelligence positions in San Diego, Hawaii, Washington, D.C., and Norfolk, Virginia. It was during her shore duty assignment in San Diego that she became the mother of two sons, who were born in 1989 and 1991. As it was still rare at the time for female officers to have children and remain in service, she said male superior officers questioned her commitment to the Navy and her ability as a parent.

“Raising children as a working parent in any field is difficult,” she says. “We are no good to the service and no good to the family if we are burned out in both and can't carve out the time to recharge ourselves. This is about resilience. Being there for family and friends and succeeding in one's career requires resilience.”

Train was primarily stationed at military bases until the combat exclusion policy that prevented women from serving in combat units was partially lifted in 1994, allowing women to serve in combat aviation units and on combatant ships. After this, from 1995-1997, Train served as an assistant intelligence officer in a sea duty assignment for Commander Carrier Group Four. From 1997 to 2000, Train was stationed across the world, from Hawaii to Norfolk, Virginia, to Washington, D.C.

After the 9/11 attacks, she was assigned to establish and lead operations for the Joint Intelligence Task Force-Counter Terrorism (JITF-CT), then reporting to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In this role, she was tasked with hiring and training 330 civilians to be defense intelligence counterterrorism analysts.

“I was able to create a program where we deployed civilian analysts with operational military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. That was unheard of at the time, and now it’s become very normalized,” she says. “I ran a 24-hour watch with all the agencies at the national level in D.C. It was challenging.”

Following her work in the aftermath of 9/11, she was promoted to become director of intelligence at the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii. Train had spent part of her childhood in Hawaii when her father was stationed there, and it remains her most meaningful post. She added that being posted in Hawaii allowed her to return to her biology roots and truly appreciate the biodiversity of the islands.

“It was sentimental for me,” she says. “I never thought I would go back when I joined the Navy. I ended up doing three separate tours in Hawaii, and I loved every one of them.”

Train was based in Honolulu when the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster. By then, she was a one-star admiral, making her one of the highest-ranking officials in the region. She led the interagency intelligence task force between the American and Japanese governments that administered the response to the disaster. She said the U.S. response to Fukushima was one of the greatest challenges she faced in her career.

“We had to plan to potentially evacuate 100,000 people out of Tokyo. We had to protect our operating forces that were there with the Japanese doing recovery operations, and we had to monitor the nuclear materials in the air and on the land,” she says. “It was very complicated.”

Although the initial response occurred 15 years ago, Train says the emotional effects remain with her today.

“The government of Japan was so grateful to the U.S. for those efforts. I get letters to this day from retired Japanese military officers who still thank me every year,” she says. “Leading the response was very challenging, but I loved that the interagency effort pulled everyone together — military, government and civilians — to do something important.”

combined photos of woman in military uniform on left and black and white photo of woman taking oath from male officer with woman looking on on the right

Reflecting on and Returning to Her Roots

In addressing the Fukushima disaster, among her other responsibilities while stationed in the Pacific, Train was able to draw upon her biology education.

“Most of the crises were natural disasters,” she says. “It wasn’t war fighting. There were volcanoes in the Philippines and Indonesia; tsunamis and torrential rainstorms in Taiwan, China, the Philippines and South Korea; flooding in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.”

Train says the liberal arts curriculum at William & Mary helped her develop writing and critical thinking skills that were crucial in her intelligence and military career.

“I 100% attribute my success as a naval officer, and specifically in intelligence, to William & Mary,” she says. “The older I got, the more I realized just how fortunate I was to have my experience there.”

Train returned to campus in September for W&M Women’s Weekend. Along with other prominent alumnae speakers, she reflected on how her William & Mary experiences impacted her career. 2025 was the 100th anniversary of the Appalachian Trail Foundation, and Train also spoke about how her journey on the trail gave her the confidence to make the key decisions of her life, including transferring to W&M and joining the Navy.

As part of her visit to campus, she observed the new William & Mary Naval ROTC program, established in partnership with Hampton University. She says she is incredibly proud to see her alma mater renew its commitment to the Navy, which celebrated its 250th anniversary in October.

“ROTC wasn’t an option for me. Students now have the opportunity to pay back their education,” she says. “Having that experience in the military, but particularly the Navy, is just absolutely terrific.”

Retired from the Navy, Train has turned to honing her passions for nature and conservation. A certified Virginia Master Naturalist, she is president of the Friends of Huntley Meadows Park, an advocacy group for a 1,500-acre wetlands wildlife sanctuary in Fairfax County. She recently won outstanding volunteer of the year award recognition from the county, volunteering more than 5,000 hours of community service to local parks, preserves and schools. She also recently made a presentation on native plant/habitat advocacy to the Northern Virginia Regional Commission and hopes to continue improving community health by protecting natural resources.

Train wants to be remembered for the lives she helped and the environmental issues she was able to contribute to solving.

“I think that women in the armed forces and diversity in the armed forces are incredibly important. You want your military to reflect the composition of the population it’s serving,” she says. “I want to be known as a trailblazer as a woman in the armed forces. My education at William & Mary was truly instrumental in how I function as a naval officer. Now I want to use my leadership skills post-retirement to serve environmental concerns.”