Jeanne M. Holm Major General, U.S. Air Force Retired June 23, 1921 February 15, 2010 Jeanne M. Holm Jeanne M. Holm, the first Air Force woman to be selected for promotion to brigadier general, and the first woman to be selected for promotion to major general in the armed forces, died February 15, 2010, at the Anne Arundel Hospital, Annapolis, MD. A woman of diverse interests, General Holm applied the skills she'd learned in a metalworking class to work as a silversmith after graduating from high school. When World War II started, she wanted to join the Navy along with her brothers but the Navy wasn't taking women. Her 1
opportunity came in 1942 when the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) began recruiting. At age 21, she joined the WAAC as the youngest woman enlistee. She said, "I was five-foot-three, a little girl with a big voice who knew infantry drill as well as the men assigned to train us. I blew their minds, so they made me the student company commander. The experience also helped later when I became an officer and a real company commander." She had learned to drill in a civilian Women's Ambulance Corps unit where they learned first aid, convoy driving, and engine maintenance as well as drill. "I took to the military like a duck to water. I loved the camaraderie, but most of all, I was inspired by being able to serve my country." Her choices after basic training were to cook, type, or drive. She chose to drive and graduated from the Army Motor Transport School. Soon selected for Officer Candidate School at Fort Des Moines, IA, in January 1943 she was commissioned as a "third officer," the WAAC equivalent to second lieutenant. Assigned to the WAC Training Center, Fort Oglethorpe, GA, she first commanded a basic training company and then a training regiment. She said, "We wrote our own manuals, set up our own classes and opened the mess halls. We formed everything from scratch." When the war ended, she was the commander of the 106th WAC Hospital Company, Newton D. Baker General Hospital, WV. Discharged as a captain in 1946, she went to Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR, on the GI Bill for two years. While in college, she received a Defense Department letter advising that women could now serve as regular members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and the Air Force. On the reply card, she checked Air Force because "I always had an interest in aviation." She missed the military so much, and being short of money, she decided to leave college to restart her military career when she was recalled to active duty with the Women's Army Corps in October 1948 during the Berlin crisis. She was sent to Camp Lee, VA, as a company commander. In 1949, she transferred to the Air Force. Entering as a captain, she was soon sent to Erding Air Depot, Germany, and was there during the Berlin 2
Airlift and the first part of the Korean War. She served as the assistant director of plans and operations for the 7200th AF Depot Wing and later as the War Plans Officer for the 85th Air Depot Wing. She was the only woman authorized to enter the vault and that entryway was through a secret, disguised doorway. She had never done this type work before but that didn't deter her. Returning from overseas in 1952, she became the first woman to attend the Air Command and Staff School, Maxwell Air Force Base, AL. Her assessment was "We had a lot to learn. The Air Force was brand-new. We were all neophytes." This was followed by assignment as a plans and programs officer in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel, Headquarters, Air Force. From this point forward, her work was concentrated in the personnel area. While at the Pentagon, she took classes through the University of Maryland and ultimately finished her bachelor of arts degree at Lewis & Clark College in 1956. Next it was overseas again for a four-year assignment as the Chief of Manpower, HQ Allied Air Forces Southern Europe (NATO), Naples, Italy. She lived in a big cave along the Mediterranean seashore. Perhaps swimming in the Mediterranean led to her love of water and having a boat. She returned to Headquarters Air Force in 1961 as a congressional staff officer for the Director of Manpower and Organization. In November 1965, she was appointed Director, Women In the Air Force, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel, making her the only non-nurse colonel in the Air Force. This appointment gave her the opportunity to work to expand opportunities for women. It would not prove easy. As she described it, "It was a large challenge. Women were not allowed to create policy. I had to be creative." Creative she was. During her tenure, which included two extensions as Director, policies affecting women were updated, WAF strength more than doubled, job and assignment opportunities greatly expanded to include getting slots for women in the senior service schools, and uniforms modernized. 3
In 1966, with WAF strength was frozen at 5,000 and manpower requirements to support the Vietnam War escalating, WAF Director Colonel Holm led the effort within the Air Force, the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services and the other services to expand the number of women above the ceiling of 2% of the armed forces. The result was that on November 8, 1967, President Lyndon Johnson signed legislation removing the 2% limitation as well as repealing the law that women could not be admirals and generals and opening promotions to Colonel and Captain. Beginning with a personal visit to Saigon in 1966, for two years, Colonel Holm fought to permit assignment of Air Force women (non-nurses) to Vietnam. It was 1968 before she would finally see policy changes. In December 1970, USAF Lt Sharron Frontiero filed a class action suit against the Secretary of Defense in federal court contending that the denial of equal benefits for women amounted to sex discrimination under the equal protection provision of the Constitution. Colonel Holm worked closely with future Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, then a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, on the case. In a very significant and landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the military could not withhold benefits from women that it granted to men. Justice Ginsburg gives great credit to Holm for her help in gaining this victory for women. In 1973, the 25th anniversary of women in the Air Force, she announced at a reception that from that time forward, the term WAF was not to be used because women should consider themselves integrated in the Air Force. She led in the effort to remove laws and policies that had traditionally discriminated against military women such as ceilings on grades, restrictions on overseas assignments, exclusions from NCO schools, ROTC programs and the service academies, as well as from flying programs and duty aboard ships. She urged expanding women's contribution to the all-volunteer force when that policy was implemented. 4
She was awarded the first of two Air Force Distinguished Medals for her exceptionally meritorious service as the Director of Women in the Air Force. In 1971, she was the first Air Force woman promoted to Brigadier General. Two years later, while serving as Director of the Secretary of the Air Force Personnel Council, she was promoted to major general, the first woman in the armed services to hold that rank. After her retirement from the Air Force in 1975, General Holm remained active. She was appointed Special Assistant for Women to President Gerald Ford, a position she held until the end of his Administration. At that time, she was appointed to a three year term on the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) where she stressed the need to remove artificial barriers to women's careers and their full utilization in the armed forces. During the Carter Administration, she served as a part-time consultant on military women to the Under Secretary of the Air Force. During the Reagan Administration, she was appointed to the Veterans Administration Committee on Women Veterans and served as its chair. She also served on the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. In 1982, she made perhaps her greatest contribution to women's history and women in the military when she published her book, Women in the Military - An Unfinished Revolution. This book, which covers women's service in the military beginning with the American Revolution through Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm (revised edition), is the most definitive work on women's participation in the Armed Forces of the United States. In 1997, she was the editor and co-author of In Defense of a Nation: Servicewomen in World War II. This was the first book published to tell the story of military women's contribution to World War II from the standpoint of each branch of service and the nurse corps. 5
Throughout the years and to the end of her life, General Holm continued to speak out on issues affecting women in the armed forces and to espouse their full participation as citizens in national defense. In 1991, she testified before Congress in behalf of the legislation to repeal the ban on women flying combat aircraft. Along the way, she found time to be an accomplished snow and water skier, student of ancient history, scuba diver, and skipper of her own power cruiser. A strategic thinker and planner, Gen. Holm was always at the forefront of progress and creating opportunities for women. She once said, " I talked to everyone and did whatever it took -- going through the front door, the back door or whatever door to help women rise in the military." General Holm can be credited with being the principal driving force, since the women leaders of World War II, with achieving parity for military women and making them a viable part of the mainstream all-volunteer military. Her work was a key to change across the military services during her time in the Air Force and the foundation for even today s most significant advancements. She helped secure critical breakthroughs essential to the individual career and professional development of military women; and perhaps more importantly, the long-term credibility and acceptance of military women as integral to the US military and the nation's defense - instead of simply tolerated and viewed as tokens or thought of as a ladies auxiliary. She strongly supported the enrollment of women in ROTC and the nation's prestigious service academies, the attendance of women at key training and leadership schools, and the proper utilization and assignment of trained women. Her work to ensure Air Force women served in Vietnam, enhanced the careers of women who were there, set the stage for future deployments of women and was the foundation for the repeal of legislation prohibiting women from serving on combat ships and in combat aircraft. 6
She fought for the overturn of policies that discriminated against women (some 32 in the Air Force, alone). Her efforts contributed to the overturn of such regulations as those that required women be discharged should they become pregnant or have minor children in their household; those that prohibited dependents of military women from enjoying the same benefits and privileges as those of military men, as well as those that required higher enlistment standards for women. Established decades earlier to create a permanent place for women in the military The laws and regulations established decades earlier to create a permanent place for women in the military had been used overtime as a basis for systematic institutionalized segregation and unequal treatment. General Holm, instead, used these same laws as springboards for change, prying open doors that had been closed since World War II and diligently setting about to open an even wider array of technical and professional opportunities for women. General Holm's work and unfailing commitment to women and the nation's defense has had an enormous and, in some respects, an immeasurable impact on American women, women in the US military, as well as military women around the world. To name a few: Her work to open ROTC and the military academies to women has given educational benefits and the opportunity for a professional military career to women from all walks of life. What started on a trial basis by the Air Force in 1969 on some four campuses, increased to some 154 campuses by 1974 and included all the services. Today, restricting ROTC only to men is unthinkable. The same is true with the service academies. Her challenge to the civilian and military leadership to utilize the talents of military women was the foundation for sweeping increases in the numbers of and opportunities for military women. In 1965, less than 31,000 (excluding nurses), barely 1% of the force, were women. Today, over 208,829 active duty women and nearly 262,250 Guard and Reserve women make up some 15% of the total force. In 1965 some 70% of women were 7
clustered in clerical and administrative positions and 23% in medical facilities. Today, more than 95% of all military occupational specialties are open to women. Largely because of General Holm's efforts, US military women today command, fly and maintain aircraft including combat aircraft and the space shuttle, command and man combat ships, command huge organizations around the world and lead thousands of personnel, and fill important senior leadership positions. Her efforts have made the US military and its training, utilization and integration of women the role model for militaries around the world and specifically the NATO countries where she participated in the formative years of the NATO Committee on Women in the NATO Forces. In addition, she was a major contributor to making the US military the premiere equal opportunity employer in the United States. Among her awards were the Ladies' Home Journal Woman of the Year Award for Government and Diplomacy, 1975; International Women's Forum Hall of Fame, 1992; Women In Military Service Memorial Foundation Senator Margaret Chase Smith Leadership Award, 1998; National Women's Hall of Fame Inductee, 1999; Air Force Association Lifetime Achievement Award, 2003; International Women in Aviation Pioneer Hall of Fame Inductee, 2006; and in 2008, Air University named its Officer Accession and Training Schools the Jeanne M. Holm Officer Accession and Citizen Development Center. Military women from all branches can be proud of Major General Jeanne M. Holm who went from being one of the first WAAC privates to being the first woman to wear two stars. More importantly, they can be grateful to have had her as a leader and spokesperson a pioneer who dedicated her life to breaking down barriers for women and for the defense of our country. 8