Leslie F. Keene graduated from Auburn University in 1970 with a degree in Aerospace Engineering and had participated in Auburn’s ROTC program, and in 1971, she entered the Air Force. She served as a flight line maintenance officer in operations and attended the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School in 1974. In 1979, she would […]

La’Shanda R. Holmes is a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Coast Guard and the first African-American female helicopter pilot for the Coast Guard. She grew up in the foster care system and put herself through Spelman College. Between her junior and senior year of high school, Holmes said she stayed in a total five homes. […]

Patricia Ann Tracey was born on November 30, 1950 in The Bronx, New York. She graduated from the Academy of Mount St. Ursula High School in 1966 and from The College of New Rochelle with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics. She completed Women’s Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as an ensign in […]

Shannon M. Kent was born on May 11, 1985 in Oswego, New York, to Colonel Stephen Smith, a high-ranking police officer in the New York State Police and Mary Plover-Smith, an elementary school teacher. Shannon grew up in Pine Plains, New York. Since she was young, Shannon was athletic, taking interest in activities like playing […]

Elizabeth Paschel Hoisington was born in Newton, Kansas on November 3, 1918. She comes from a family of service members. Her grandfather, Colonel Perry Milo Hoisington I, helped to organize the Kansas National Guard. Her father, Gregory Hoisington, was a graduate of West Point and a Colonel in the Army. He was a direct descendant […]

Minnie Spotted-Wolf was born in 1923, near Heart Butte, Montana and a member of the Blackfoot tribe. She use to work on her father’s ranch doing such chores as cutting fence posts, driving a two-ton truck, and breaking horses, which she believed prepared her for the rigorous Marine Corps boot camp. Spotted-Wolf enlisted in the […]

Teresa D. “Jamesy” James was born on January 27, 1914 in Pittsburgh. James was initially afraid of flying, after seeing a plane wreck the year before she started flying and shortly after, her brother, Francis, had also nearly died in a plane crash. Despite her fear, she learned to fly at age 19 so that […]

Lillian Elaine Fishburne was born on March 25, 1949 at Patuxent River, Maryland and raised in Rockville, Maryland. In February 1973, she was commissioned as an ensign upon completion of Women Officers School at Newport, Rhode Island. Before attending Women Officers School, in 1971, Fishburne graduated from Lincoln University with a Bachelor’s in Sociology. In […]

Kelly Larson, born Kelly Mogk, grew up in Seattle, Washington and enlisted in the Coast Guard in August 1984. In 1986 she attended the Aviation Survivalman (ASM) “A” School and became the first female to complete the Navy’s Rescue Swimmer (RS) School on May 23, 1986 to become the first female ASM/RS in the Coast […]

Claudia Jean Kennedy was born on July 14, 1947, in Frankfurt, during the American occupation of southern Germany after World War II. She attended Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College), where she became a member of Kappa Delta Sorority and earned a Bachelor’s in Philosophy in 1969. Her military education includes completion of the Women’s […]