In the early 1970’s, Sharron Frontiero was a lieutenant serving as a physical therapist, stationed on Maxwell Air Force Base. She had gotten married and applied to receive dependent’s allowance for her civilian husband, however, her request was denied. She filed a formal complaint only to receive the answer that policy denied female servicemembers the spousal benefits – which were regularly offered to male servicemembers.  Federal law at the time indicated that wives of military members automatically became […]

Elizabeth Okoreeh-Baah graduated from the Naval Academy in 2000. She was one of the first women to graduate with a Marine Corps aviation contract.   She went on to fly the CH-46E Sea Knight, completed a year-long combat deployment, and then transitioned to the MV-22 Osprey.  In 2006, she became the first woman to pilot the Osprey. She continued combat operations in the […]

Aviation Survival Tech Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Faulkner (AST1) enlisted in the Coast Guard in January of 1996. She was a crewman for two years, stationed at Motor Lifeboat stations Yaquina Bay and Depoe Bay in Oregon before she decided to follow her dream of becoming a rescue swimmer. Not only did she accomplish her dream, she was also the first […]

Major Higgins Cook is a third-generation military aviator. Her grandfather served during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, and her father was an F-18 fighter pilot in the Navy. After graduating from the US Naval Academy in 2008, she joined the Marines Corps while following her family footsteps.  Cook was one of very few female Marine aviators to fly combat missions in Afghanistan during Operation […]

In September of 2019, Lt. Melanie Martins, a supply officer serving aboard USS Ohio (SSGN 726), became the first Filipina to earn her submarine warfare insignia, worn by all qualified submariners worldwide.  The submarine warfare insignia is a universally recognizable symbol of a submariner’s experience, competency and in the case of officers, ability to assume command in an […]

Marcelite J. Harris was born Marcelite Jordan to Cecil O’Neal Jordan and Marcelite Terrill Jordan, in Houston, Texas on January 16, 1943. She graduated from Spelman College, earning her B.A. in Speech and Drama. She originally wanted to be an actress but when she couldn’t find a job she signed up for the Air Force. […]

Esther Voorhees Hasson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 20, 1867. She graduated from the Connecticut Training School for Nurses, in New Haven, in 1897. In June 1898, during the Spanish–American War, Hasson became a contract nurse with the U.S. Army, subsequently serving on the hospital ship Relief and in the Philippines during the […]

Emily Jazmin Tatum Perez was born on February 19, 1983 in Heidelberg, West Germany, into a U.S. military family. She graduated from Oxon Hill High School in Maryland, where she ranked among the top-10 students in her class. While in high school she helped begin an HIV-AIDS ministry. In July 2001, after graduation from high […]

Tracy L. Garrett entered the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps and in 1978 graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in English. Following graduation, she was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. Her father had been in the Marine Corps. He was a combat veteran of Vietnam and […]

Ericka Fowlkes enlisted in the Maryland National Guard on Oct. 19, 1989. During her 12 years of enlisted service she completed two overseas missions in Germany and in Panama.  In 2001, Fowlkes earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Coppin State University and received a direct commission into the Army Nurse Corps.  Starting in 2004, she was mobilized for two […]