Born: 1974, United States
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Wi’ihinapidutawin
The following is republished from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Today’s #VeteranOfTheDay is Air Force Veteran Shenandoah D. Ellis-Ulmer. Shenandoah served for 21 years beginning in 1994 and attained the rank of master sergeant.
Shenandoah was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, in June 1974 as a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota and the Santee Sioux. Shenandoah’s Dakota name is Wi’ihinapidutawin, which translates to Scarlet Sunrise Woman. She grew up in Breckenridge, Minnesota, and enlisted in the Air Force in 1994. Shenandoah deployed to Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates during her 21 years in the Air Force. In total, she worked eight different intelligent assignments.
Shenandoah’s most recent assignment was superintendent of the Program Development and Research Division at the Personnel Recovery Academy of the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency. Her duties included providing mission guidance to Department of Defense contractors and management of personnel recovery operational support and training products.
Shenandoah received a degree in communication applications technology from the Community College of the Air Force, a Bachelor of Science in business and management from Friend’s University in Wichita, Kansas, and a master’s in human resource development from Villanova University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is currently pursuing an associate’s degree in anthropology at Sussex County Community College.
For her service, Shenandoah received the Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal with one oak leaf cluster and the Air Force Achievement Medal with three oak leaf clusters.