The U.S. Army first allowed women to enlist in 1948, but many had service experience before then as cooks, nurses, spies or codebreakers. Not until 2013 were the barriers to combat positions removed. Today, more than 181,000 women serve in the Army, many of them inspired by the stories of those heroes who paved the way for them to fight.
Women are enabled to serve in every branch, combat role and rank as men, yet one barrier still looms in the fight for equality.
In the history of the U.S. Armed Forces not once has a base been named after a woman. Further, installations named after supporters of secession, apartheid and slavery have been allowed to remain in spite of this fact.
As former Army General David Petraeus writes in the Atlantic, the “‘Home of the Infantry’ was named for Henry L. Benning, a Confederate general who was such an enthusiast for slavery that as early as 1849 he argued for the dissolution of the Union and the formation of a Southern slavocracy.”
There are 10 installations named after defeated generals of the former Confederacy, but none after women.
The Secretary of the Army made it clear in 2020 that those bases could soon be renamed. Army spokesperson Col. Sunset Belinsky said the unrest following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, “made us start looking more at ourselves and the things that we do and how that is communicated to the force as well as the American public.”
That inclination went ignored by the Trump administration, but may soon see new initiative.
“It fits [the Army’s] goals and their own regulations to name installations after people who can be an inspiration to their fellow soldiers—heroes and distinctive individuals,” historian Kara Vuic, a professor at Texas Christian University, told the Smithsonian Magazine.
If even the installations currently honoring fallen enemies of the U.S. are renamed, naming them after women will bring the Army into a new era of equality.
“This is a great moment for the Army to really reckon with its own past,” Vuic says. “The military is one of the most diverse institutions in our society. Renaming bases might hold up a better standard that the Army can hold itself accountable to.”
Here are 10 heroes whose names could soon take that honor.
10. Deborah Samson – Served in the Revolutionary War
One of the first famous women veterans in U.S. military history, Deborah Sampson served disguised as a man during the Revolutionary War, the National Veterans Foundation reports. Women were not allowed to serve at the time, but Sampson successfully fooled her superiors for at least three years between 1778 and 1781, going by the name of Robert Shirtliffe.
When Sampson fell ill, the physician treating her soon learned the truth about the deception, but never told anyone in the Army. Not until Sampson received a notice to visit General George Washington was it ever brought up by the Army again. General Washington awarded Sampson a private discharge and money for the journey home.
9. Sarah Emma Edmonds – Served in the Civil War
Women were still prohibited from military service during the Civil War, but that did not keep Sarah Emma Edmonds from doing her duty.
Edmonds moved from Nova Scotia to Detroit, Michigan, when she was young. It was in Detroit where she disguised herself as a man, convincingly enough that the United States Army let. her join. Under the name Frank Thompson, Edmonds served in the Second Volunteers of the United States Army, as a male nurse, and even a Union spy.
8. Mary E. Clarke – First major general in the United States Army
Mary Clarke joined the Women’s Army Corps just before World War II ended and served for 36 years, retiring in 1981.
As the Smithsonian reports, Clarke assisted with the Berlin Airlift of 1948-9, eventually rising up the ranks to become the last WAC director before the organization was incorporated into the Army in 1978.
Clarke later became the first woman to serve as major general, she commanded the U.S. Army Military Police School and Chemical Schools and was the first woman to command a major Army installation, Fort McClellan, named after the general-in-chief of the U.S. Army during the Civil War.
7. Edith Nourse Rogers – The angel of Walter Reed
Edith Nourse Rogers entered World War I shortly after she was married.
“No one could see the wounded and dying as I saw them and not be moved to do all in his or her power to help,” Rogers wrote of her experience as a field hospital inspector and Red Cross volunteer.
Stateside, Rogers dedicated herself to veterans’ causes, and eventually earned her the nickname “the angel of Walter Reed” for her nursing expertise at the hospital.
According to the Smithsonian, the death of Rogers’ husband left a seat open in the U.S. House of Representatives. Rogers took her late husband’s seat and left an 18-term legacy in Congress, working on a variety of laws affecting veterans and servicemembers. Rogers went on to sponsor the creation of veterans’ hospitals and got pensions for women Army nurses. She voted for the Selective Service Act, which established the draft during World War II. She sponsored of the GI Bill of Rights, which helped returning white veterans access education and low-interest loans, and suggested that the federal government establish a Department of Veterans Affairs.
Rogers introduced a bill for the creation of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in May 1941. Having been a witness to the status of women in World War I, Rogers vowed that if American women served in support of the Army, they would do so with all the rights and benefits afforded to Soldiers.
6. Elsie S. Ott – The first woman to receive the U.S. Air Medal
Until WWII, wounded personnel were not evacuated and any military medical care was provided on site. Elsie S. Ott was a contributing factor in the advancement of military medical care, the National Veterans Foundation reports.
Born in New York in 1913, Ott attended and completed New York City’s Lenox Hill Hospital School of Nursing. She signed up for the Army Nurse Corps in 1941, and was a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant.
For her efforts and service, Ott was the first woman to receive the U.S. Air Medal.
5. Cathay Williams – First documented African American woman in the U.S. Army
Cathay Williams was the first documented African American female to serve in the U.S. Army. She reportedly served as a Buffalo Soldier, the name given to the segregated company of black troops in the Civil War.
Williams not only faced challenges because of the unfair treatment of African Americans during the time, but also because of her gender. She became William Cathay and pretended to be a man while fighting for the Union.
4. Lori Piestewa – the first American Indian woman to die serving the U.S. Armed Forces
U.S. Army Private Lori Ann Piestewa died in a Humvee ambush in Iraq in 2003. Since then, her legacy has encouraged the three mesas of Hopi land in northeastern Arizona.
According to History, “the first American Indian woman to die serving the U.S. Armed Forces, in the first war that allowed women to risk their lives on the front lines, Piestewa has became synonymous with patriotic Native American sacrifice. A mountain has been named in her honor. So has an education initiative for Hopi children and an annual motorcycle ride for fallen soldiers that traverses the Mountain West. Then there are the Lori Piestewa National Native American Games, which bring more than 10,000 Native Americans from 50-plus tribes to her home state of Arizona each year for a multi-day sports competition, the biggest such event of its kind—and a fitting tribute to her athleticism and competitive spirit.”
3. Col. Ruby Bradley – Hero of World War II and Korean War
Colonel Ruby Bradley is one of the most decorated women in U.S. military history.
She survived two wars, including near starvation while being held in a prison camp. According to Military.com, Bradley’s military record included 34 medals and citations of bravery, including:
- 2 Legion of Merit medals
- 2 Bronze stars
- 2 Presidential Emblems
- The World War II Victory Medal
- The U.N. Service Medal
- The Florence Nightingale Medal
Bradley joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps as a surgical nurse in 1934. She was taken captive by Japanese forces in 1941 while serving in the Philippines. For 37 months, Bradley and other imprisoned nurses cared for their fellow prisoners, who called the women “angels in fatigues.” While in captivity, Bradley assisted in 230 major operations and the delivery of 13 babies.
“A lot of people died in the last few months,” she told the Washington Post in 1983. “There were several deaths a day, mostly the older ones, who just couldn’t take it.”
The camp was liberated by U.S. troops on Feb. 3, 1945. By then, Bradley had lost nearly a quarter of her body weight.
Later in life, Bradley became the third woman in U.S. history to be promoted to the rank of colonel, and retired after 30 years of service.
2. Charity Adams Earley – First African American woman Army officer
Charity Adams Earley joined up with the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps as soon as she heard it was formed. She completed training and was commissioned on August 29, 1942. Earley worked as a staff training officer, a station control officer, and a company commander, until September 1943, when she was promoted to major, becoming the highest ranking female officer at the training center.
As Womens History reports, Earley was picked tocommand the first unit of WAC African Americans overseas. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion organized and directed undelivered mail to U.S. servicemen. They handled about 65,000 pieces of post per day.
On December 26, 1945, Earley was promoted to lieutenant colonel, the highest possible promotion for any women in the WAC. This put her directly under the colonel and director of the organization, Oveta Culp Hobby. When she retired in March 1946, the National Council of Negro Women Inc. presented Earley with a scroll of honor for distinguished service to the military.
After returning to Ohio State University for her MA in 1946 Earley went to work with the Veterans Administration in Cleveland, Ohio, as a registration officer. There, she reviewed WWII veterans’ requests for educational funding and other benefits offered under the G.I. Bill. She has also served as the dean of student personnel services at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College in Nashville, Tennessee and the dean of students at Georgia State College in Savannah, Georgia.
1. Harriet Tubman – National hero, Army scout and spy
You already know how Harriet Tubman helped free more than 700, including herself, from the bonds of slavery, but Tubman’s tactical skills during the Civil War are worthy of their own story.
Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland in 1822. She was named Araminta Ross, but later married and changed her name, before escaping in 1849. For the following few years, she made hundreds of trips between the United States and Canada, delivering her people to freedom.
When the Civil War began, Tubman was tapped to aid escapees brought to the Union Camp. The stories they shared with Tubman informed her of enemy movements, and helped her learn the best ways to feee even more slaves. She soon found work in an unofficial capacity as a scout and a spy for the U.S. Army.
As the Smithsonian reports, Tubman provided critical intel for Army command, and even went on to lead Combahee Ferry Raid, an armed assault against plantations across South Carolina’s Combahee River, and the first in U.S. history to be led by a woman. With 150 black soldiers from the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, Tubman and her party overran Confederate plantations, and freed 700 people, fighting off slavers and Confederate troops who tried to stop them, Smithsonian reports.
Tubman’s name was widely known after the success of the raid. She would work on similar missions with the Massachusetts 54th Infantry before spending the final years of the war tending to injured soldiers, and the rest of her life helping formerly enslaved people start new lives. Though she was recognized as a hero, Tubman was compensated very little for her service. The U.S. Army gave her $200 for her service, and only began paying her husband’s military service pension in the 1890s. Tubman never received a pension, but when she died in 1913 at about 91, she was buried with full military honors.
It’s time we honor the legacy of these women as best we can. Click below to sign the petition and demand the U.S. Army replace the names of Confederate Generals on U.S. Army bases with the names of these heroic women.