Browse Items (35 total)

Kelly with fellow command sergeants major during her promotion to Women's Army Corps command sergeant major.

Phyllis M. Daley became the first African American Navy Nurse.

Emily (Tatum) Perez, one of two children born into a military family, lived much of her youth in Germany. She returned to the United States in 1998, graduating from high school in Maryland in 2001. Realizing her life-long dream of becoming a soldier,…

Esther Gleaton joined the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1966, because it offered her opportunity to travel beyond her Atlanta, Georgia, hometown and made her eligible to receive the G.I. Bill for college. She needed her parent’s permission, which they…

In addition to uniforms, new recruits were issued everything from nylons to pajamas to eyeglasses. Gladys (Thomas) Anderson, who enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps in June 1944, used red nail polish to make hers look a little less government issue.

Photograph of Gladys (Thomas) Anderson

Harriet Tubman seized her freedom from enslavement in Maryland in 1849. As a child, Tubman suffered physical abuse from her enslavers, including a severe head injury which caused lifelong health issues. Overhearing her enslaver discussing “selling…

Army nurse Hazel W. Johnson became first African American woman brigadier (one-star) general and first African American Chief of the Army Nurse Corps.

Lieutenant (junior grade) La’Shonda Holmes became the first African American woman Coast Guard helicopter pilot.

Born in Jamaica, Jeanine (McIntosh) Menze grew up watching airplanes fly into Kingston International Airport. Ignited early on with a deep love of flying, she earned various flying certifications while in college. After school, Menze applied for…