Alene Duerk became the first female admiral in the Navy in 1972.[12][13] In 1976 RADM Fran McKee became the first female unrestricted line officer appointed to flag rank. In 1978, Judge John Sirica ruled the law banning Navy women from ships to be unconstitutional in the case Owens v. Brown. That year, Congress approved a change to Title 10 USC Section 6015 to permit the Navy to assign women to fill sea duty billets on support and noncombatant ships.[3][14] During the 1970s, women began to enter the surface warfare and aviation fields, gained access to officer accession programs previously open only to men, and started to screen for command opportunities ashore.[15]