1. Charity Adams Earley

As the first African-American woman to become a U.S. Army officer and the commander of the only all-Black, all-female unit sent overseas during WWII (the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion), Charity Adams Earley led her unit to clear millions of undelivered letters and packages that boosted morale for troops abroad, according to the Smithsonian.

2. Romay Davis

Romay Davis served in the same pioneering 6888th Battalion during WWII. She lived to be 104 and was among the last surviving members of that unit, which was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal in 2022, according to the National Park Service.  

​​In 1942, the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (later the Women’s Army Corps) was formed. In 1943, Johnson enlisted, joining her five brothers already in the military. After basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, she served as a mechanic and driver at Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, where she managed several vehicles and transported officers. Volunteering for overseas duty, she joined the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, training at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, before departing for Europe in February 1945.

The 6888th arrived in Birmingham, England, to find warehouses of undelivered mail. Working nonstop in shifts, they cleared the massive backlog, operating under the motto “No Mail, Low Morale.” Their innovative system tracked mail for millions of servicemembers, helping restore soldiers’ morale by reconnecting them with loved ones.

3. Olivia Hooker

A survivor of the Tulsa race massacre and the first African-American woman to join the U.S. Coast Guard (Women’s Reserve) during WWII, Olivia Hooker served as Yeoman Third Class and later became a respected psychologist and educator. 

During World War II, the U.S. military began allowing women to serve, but most branches still excluded Black women. Persistent efforts by Black activists eventually broke down some of these barriers. When the Navy’s WAVES program opened to Black women in 1944, Hooker applied multiple times but was rejected over an unexplained “technicality,” according to the National Park Service. Undeterred, she turned to the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve, known as the SPARS. In a 2013 interview, she recalled that the recruiter was eager to be “the first one to enroll an African American.”

On March 9, 1945, Hooker became the first Black woman to serve on active duty in the SPARS. She and four other Black women completed boot camp at the Coast Guard’s Manhattan Beach training center in Brooklyn. Trained as a yeoman (administrative specialist), Hooker then faced more discrimination; of 11 station commanders contacted for her placement, only one, in Boston, agreed to accept a Black yeoman.

While stationed in Boston, Hooker served at the separation center, where she processed discharge paperwork for service members leaving the military. After her time in the SPARS, she used her GI Bill benefits to continue her education, earning a master’s degree from Teachers College at Columbia University and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Rochester. She went on to specialize in working with children with developmental disabilities.

Hooker taught psychology at Fordham University in New York City from 1963 to 1985, later joining the Fred S. Keller School, a preschool and early intervention program, where she worked until her retirement in 2002 at age 87. She also co-founded an American Psychological Association (APA) division focused on intellectual and developmental disabilities, and in 2011, the APA honored her with a Presidential Citation for her lifelong contributions.

Reflecting on her time in SPARS, Hooker once said, “I would like to see more of us realize that our country needs us, and I’d like to see more girls consider spending some time in the military, if they don’t have a job at all, and they have ambition, and they don’t know what heights they might reach. It’s really nice to have people with different points of view and different kinds of upbringing. The world would really prosper from more of that.”

4. Hazel Johnson‑Brown

Hazel Johnson-Brown made history in 1979 when she became the first Black woman to be promoted to general of the U.S. Army and chief of the Army Nurse Corps. Her career in Army nursing leadership spanned decades.

According to the Army Women’s Foundation, after graduating from Harlem Hospital School of Nursing in New York in 1950, Johnson-Brown spent three years working in the hospital’s emergency ward. She then returned to her home state of Pennsylvania, beginning her journey with the Army and the veteran community. At the Philadelphia Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital, she worked on the cardiovascular ward and became head nurse within three months, all while pursuing her nursing baccalaureate at Villanova University.

Drawn by the opportunities and travel offered by the Army Nurse Corps, Johnson-Brown joined in 1955. She served on the female medical-surgical ward at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and later on an obstetrical unit at the 8169th Hospital in Camp Zama, Japan. Though obstetrics was not her preferred specialty, she completed her assignment with dedication. After her tour ended in 1957, she returned to the VA and continued part-time study at Villanova.

In 1958, Johnson-Brown enrolled in the Army Nurse Corps’ Registered Nurse Student Program, which provided financial support for diploma-holding nurses pursuing a bachelor’s degree. She earned her B.S. in nursing in 1959 and returned to Army service, first at Madigan General Hospital, Washington, then attending the Operating Room Nurse Course at Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco. From 1960 to 1962, she served as an operating room nurse at Walter Reed.

Committed to advancing her education, Johnson earned a master’s degree in nursing education from Columbia University’s Teachers’ College in 1963 under the Army Nurse Corps’ sponsorship. From 1963 to 1966, she taught operating room students at Letterman. In 1966, she accepted a special assignment evaluating the MUST (mobile, unit, self-contained, transportable) hospital, which would become the 45th Surgical Hospital in Vietnam. 

Success would continue to follow Johnson-Brown shortly after. In 1976, Johnson-Brown became director and assistant dean of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing, overseeing the school’s closure while completing her dissertation in 1978. She then served as chief nurse of the 121st Evacuation Hospital in Seoul, Korea, from 1978 to 1979. In 1979, she was nominated as the 16th chief of the Army Nurse Corps and promoted to brigadier general.

“She trailblazed as the first African-American lady and the first chief with an earned doctorate in the Department of Defense to achieve that distinction,” the Army Women’s Foundation noted. 

5. Clotilde Dent Bowen

Dr. Clotilde Dent Bowen was the first African-American woman to graduate from the Ohio State University College of Medicine (1947), the first Black physician to hold a military commission, and served in Vietnam as chief psychiatrist in a U.S. Army hospital. 

According to the Ohio State University website, Dr. Bowen became the first female physician in the U.S. Army in 1956, serving as a pulmonary specialist at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. She later became the first woman to command a military hospital when assigned to the former Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana.

Dr. Bowen completed a second residency in psychiatry at a Veterans Administration hospital in Pennsylvania and went on to become the first African-American woman appointed chief of psychiatry at two VA hospitals and two Army medical centers.

For her work establishing drug treatment centers and reducing racial conflicts during the Vietnam War, Dr. Bowen was awarded the Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit in 1971, followed by the Meritorious Service Medal in 1974. 

Today, the Ohio State College of Medicine honors her legacy with an annual scholarship awarded to select students, residents, and faculty members in her name.

6. Vernice Armour

Known as “FlyGirl,” Armour became the first Black female combat pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps and flew attack helicopters during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Her career shattered yet another ceiling in service. 

After graduating from Officer Candidate School in 1998, Armour earned her wings as a U.S. Marine Corps aviator, according to her website. From 2003 to 2004, she was deployed to Iraq as America’s first Black female combat pilot, followed by a second combat deployment from 2004 to 2005.

After leaving the military, she launched a mentoring and motivational speaking business, earning six figures in its first year during the recession. In 2010, she published Zero to Breakthrough: The 7-Step, Battle-Tested Method for Accomplishing Goals That Matter.

She recently celebrated her 52nd birthday in September.

7. Michelle Janine Howard

Michelle Janine Howard served for over 35 years in the United States Navy. She made history as the first African-American woman to command a U.S. Navy ship (USS Rushmore) and became the first female four-star admiral in Navy history in 2014, according to Audacy.

8. La’Shanda Holmes

La’Shanda Holmes is a lieutenant commander in the United States Coast Guard and became its first Black female helicopter pilot when she earned her Wings in 2010.

9. Irene Trowell‑Harris

Irene Trowell-Harris served in the United States Air National Guard and became the first African American woman to hold the rank of general officer in the National Guard.

According to the Red Tail Flight Academy, Trowell-Harris was commissioned into the Air National Guard in 1963, serving as a clinical nurse, flight nurse, and flight nurse instructor and examiner in New York. In 1985, she was promoted to nurse administrator, and the following year became the first Air National Guard nurse to command a medical clinic. In 1987, she was named nurse advisor to the Air National Guard chief at the U.S. Air Force headquarters in Washington, D.C.

In 1993, Trowell-Harris was promoted to brigadier general, becoming the first African American woman to hold this rank in the National Guard. She was then appointed assistant to the Air National Guard director for medical readiness, doctrine, planning, and nursing services. She advanced to the rank of major general in 1998, serving as assistant to the director for human resources readiness until her retirement from the Air National Guard in 2001.

That same year, she became director of the Office of Health Care Inspections at the Department of Veterans Affairs and was later appointed director of the Center for Women Veterans, retiring in 2013. Trowell-Harris has also taught at the Uniformed Services University, New York Medical College, Misericordia Hospital School of Nursing, and the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

10. Edna W. Cummings

A retired U.S. Army Colonel, Edna Cummings, spent 25 years in the Army and later advocated for recognition of the 6888th and other Black military women. She authored a memoir and served as Army Reserve Ambassador for Maryland. 

Each of these women stood at the intersection of service, breaking barriers, and inspiring others. Take a moment today to honour their contributions, not just during observances, but also in how we share their stories, lift up their legacies, and ensure the next generation sees that their service is part of the narrative, too.