Mikie Sherrill
US Representative from New Jersey and former naval helicopter pilot
Category Archives: Military
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Loretta Perfectus Walsh
Walsh became the US Naval Reserve’s first female enlistee as a Yeoman (F) on March 17, 1917.
Madeline Swegle
Madeline Swegle became the Navy’s first-known African-American woman to become a tactical air pilot when she earned her ‘wings of gold’ in 2020.
Josephine Tauoa
A native of Fagaitua, American Samoa, and a Master of Science in Management graduate from Excelsior College, Master Chief Josephine Tauoa enlisted in the U.S. Navy in July 1996 as a Machinist Mate.
Tchilalou Riggs
Riggs’s journey from her home in a small, West African nation on the Gulf of Guinea, to now leading Sailors at Commander, Navy Reserve Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia, is an example of hard work, perseverance and making the most of every opportunity.
Rear Admiral Alene Bertha Duerk
Rear Adm. Alene Bertha Duerk was the first woman promoted to admiral in the U.S. Navy in 1972.
Angela Katson
US Navy officer and ultra-marathon runner
Ann Bradford Stokes
After escaping from slavery in 1863, Ann Bradford Stokes was captured and taken aboard the Union hospital ship USS Red Rover. She volunteered as a nurse and became the first African-American woman to serve aboard a U.S. military vessel.
Rear Admiral Bette Bolivar
A 1985 U.S. Naval Academy graduate, Rear Adm. Bette Bolivar retired in 2021 after serving as the Commander, Navy Region Southwest.
Catherine Small Long
Catherine S. Long married into Louisiana’s legendary political family and spent nearly four decades immersed in state and national politics as a politician’s wife. When her influential husband died suddenly in 1985, Democratic Party leaders believed Cathy Long was a logical choice to succeed him, having served as his campaign surrogate and close advisor.