Olivia Snell was never one to doubt her ability to accomplish her goals.
Her brothers coached her when she was learning to race motorcycles while growing up in Lancaster, California.
“There was no crying. If I crashed, I had to get back up. If I couldn’t make it up the hill, they said I had to keep trying,” she said.
After high school, she worked as a deckhand in the Bering Sea; few environments could be as opposite the western Mojave Desert community where she grew up. She later joined the Coast Guard and was stationed at Coast Guard Station Yaquina Bay, which conducts about 590 search and rescue operations a year.
By the time her enlistment ended, she was a boatswain’s mate third class — and a merchant marine officer (master, 100-ton).