Linnea Sommer-Weddington (b. 1959) served as a cryptologic technician interpretive and cryptological officer in the United States Navy from 1981- 2019. She retired with the rank of rear-admiral. Linnea Sommer-Weddington was born in 1959 in Sierra Madre, California. At the age of five, she and her family relocated to New Jersey. During her senior year at High Point Regional High School in Wantage, New Jersey, Sommer-Weddington had the opportunity to study abroad in Sweden through an exchange program sponsored by the Rotary Club. After graduating from high school in 1977, Sommer-Weddington began attending Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, where, in March 1981, during her senior year, she decided to enlist in the United States Navy under the Delayed Entry Program. Sommer-Weddington graduated from college in May 1981, with a degree in Therapeutic Recreation. Before being sent to basic training, Sommer-Weddington had taken the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and had been selected for Cryptologic Technician, which meant she then had to complete the Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB). After learning she had scored very well, Sommer-Weddington was given a choice of languages to study, out of which she chose to study Russian. In February 1982, Sommer-Weddington was sent to Naval Training Center Orlando, Florida, for eight weeks of basic training, during which she was assigned as a lifeguard at the base swimming pool, due to her recreation degree. She was also appointed Educational Petty Officer, and as such, helped tutor fellow female recruits who were struggling with their classes. Sommer-Weddington was then sent to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, for forty-seven weeks of intensive Russian language training. In April 1983, Sommer-Weddington began four months of follow-up training at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas, where she learned the military aspects of cryptology. In September 1983, Sommer-Weddington received her first set of orders, to Misawa, Japan, where she worked for Naval Security Group Activity Misawa, Direct Support Division, and supported the National Security Agency (NSA). Sommer-Weddington remained in Japan until her initial four-year enlistment contract was complete, and in March 1986, she left active duty to prepare for her upcoming marriage in May 1983 to a U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer. After marrying, Sommer-Weddington's husband received a transfer to the University of Mississippi, where he began work as a Marine Officer Instructor for the U.S. Navy Recruit Officers Training Corps (NROTC). In May 1988, while still in Mississippi, Sommer-Weddington began the process of re-entering the navy, in the reserve. After almost a year, due to having to have her security clearance reinstated, provide an application, and sit down for interviews, Sommer-Weddington was commissioned in Spring 1989, by her husband, as a Cryptologic Officer in the navy reserve. In June 1989, Sommer-Weddington and her husband relocated to North Carolina, where her husband transitioned into Marine Corps Reserve duty, and she began her Navy Reserve duty at the Naval Reserve Center in Greensboro. She was first assigned as Administrative Officer, completing correspondence, evaluations, and award write-ups; was then assigned as Training Officer, ensuring that everyone had their required and necessary trainings; and lastly assigned as Special Security Officer (SSO), keeping inventory and control of all classified information. In 1996, Sommer-Weddington's husband decided to return to active-duty Marine Corps status, and they moved to Washington, D.C., where he was assigned to the U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters at the U.S. Navy Annex. For a few months upon arrival, Sommer-Weddington drilled with a reserve unit in Fort Meade, Maryland. She was then asked to fill a position in the Reserve Affairs Office, out of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Sommer-Weddington transitioned to active-duty status and became the Information Assurance Monitoring Coordinator, where her duties included coordinating the monitoring of telephone lines, creating a transcript of conversations, and de-briefing the command on those conservations. During her time in Washington, D.C., Sommer-Weddington was also tasked to be Officer in Charge of a declassification project in the National Archives building, where she scoured through boxes of decades-old documents to determine what could, and could not, be declassified. In 1999, Sommer-Weddington's husband was transferred to New Orleans, Louisiana, where she became Deputy Chief of Staff, N-9, for Cryptology at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in New Orleans and oversaw, at times, fifteen hundred or more reserve cryptologists from all around the world. After three years, in 2002, Sommer-Weddington's husband was transferred to Twentynine Palms, California, and she became attached to a navy reserve unit out of San Diego. She spent time on active-duty status in California, first, as the Operations Officer, second, as the Executive Officer, and last, as the Commanding Officer. During this time, in March 2008, Sommer-Weddington was diagnosed with breast cancer. With the approval and support of her command, Sommer-Weddington was able to continue drilling with her unit until late-summer 2008, when she had surgery and began chemotherapy. In December 2008, Sommer-Weddington was sent to Navy Information Operations Command in Fort Worth, Texas, unaccompanied, where she continued with her previous duty station responsibilities by supporting the active-duty command in Navy Information Operations Command San Antonio, Texas, before physically transferring to San Antonio to perform the same duties, which included being in charge of command units in St. Louis, Missouri, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. When Sommer-Weddington's assignment in Texas was completed, she received orders to Navy Information Operations Command in Augusta, Georgia, but was informed a few months before arriving, in fall 2011, that she had been selected to mobilize for deployment to Afghanistan. In October 2011, she reported to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for pre-deployment training, and arrived in Kabul, Afghanistan, in May 2012. While in Afghanistan, Sommer-Weddington performed Information Operations seven days a week, which included Operations Security and Information Assurance. She also had the opportunity to interact with military from various countries, including Scandinavia, Denmark, and Australia. At the end of March 2013, Sommer-Weddington returned to the United States and assumed command at Navy Information Operations Command in Augusta, Georgia, as had previously been planned, before being assigned to [Navy Information Forces Reserve Region Southwest] again and returning to San Diego, California. After about seven months, Sommer-Weddington received notification that she had been selected for promotion to Rear Admiral, and left California to become Director of Assured Command and Control at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. She started this position as a reservist, but after nine months, was transferred to active-duty status. In March 2017, Sommer-Weddington began working in a collateral duty position at Strategic Command (STRATCOM) in Omaha, Nebraska, making sure there was always communication between her higher-ups and the Secretary of Defense and President of the United States. In August 2017, she qualified for Collateral Duty Airborne Emergency Action Officer (AEAO), and in March 2018, Sommer-Weddington became the acting-Director of Communications and Information Technology Systems for about ten months, while continuing to be the AEAO. Sommer-Weddington retired from the United States Navy in September 2019, after thirty-eight years of service.
