Rear Admiral Michelle Howard received the assignment of leading the U.S. Navy’s counter-piracy task force just three days before the Maersk Alabama was attacked by Somalia pirates.

Howard is the first of her 1982 U.S. Naval Academy class to reach the rank of admiral. In 1999, Howard became the first African-American woman to command a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Rushmore.

She holds a masters degree in Military Science Arts and Sciences from the Army’s Command and General Staff College.

Howard said the mission of her unit, Combined Task Force 151, will remain deterring and disrupting piracy off the Horn of Africa.