In God We Trust
Note: All persons below were Korean War veterans.
"As an African-American woman there is not a single door [in Washington D.C.] that I can walk through; but as a Major in the WAC there is not a door I cannot walk through."
– Lt. Col. Harriet West Waddy
(See the dedicated page here.)
These men and women served in Korea and throughout the world during the Korean war.
Born September 27, 1921, in Sandersville, Georgia, she graduated in October 1942 from the University of Georgia Nursing School. On December 28, 1946, she entered the military and served as a nurse at the Tuskegee Army Air Base. There she was known as the "Sweetheart of Tuskegee AAB". During her military career she was a nurse at Brooks Army Air Base in San Antonio, Texas, and at Percy Jones Hospital, Battle Creek, Michigan. She ended her military career on September 13, 1952, and died of cancer in October of 1975.
Major Crain was born September 8, 1913, in Oklahoma. She entered officer training in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. After discharge in 1943 she joined the United States Air Force and served her country for the next 20 years, retiring as major in 1963. During the Korean War she served as personnel director at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1951; test control officer at an American base in Ruislip, England 1952-55; and then at Lindsey Air Station in Germany. After retiring from the Air Force, she began working for the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. She became regional administrator of its Women's Bureau in Denver, Colorado in 1984. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1988. Oleta Crain died November 07, 2007, in Colorado.
She joined the US Air Force in 1954 and served three years as a morning report clerk at Manhattan Beach Air Force Base in New York. She participated in military shows as a dancer and traveled the world. After discharge she went to college on the G.I. Bill, became a Fulbright Hays Scholar, and taught one year in England. After that she became an educator for the Chicago Public School system for many years.
Born Estella Mae Allen in Wichita, Texas in 1928, before marrying her husband Fred Ehelebe in 1953, Estella lived in Japan. During the Korean War she worked as a hostess for the U.S. Army Special Services. She wrote letters of condolence to families of soldiers who died in the war. She lived with a Japanese family, started learning Japanese and took judo classes.
See Black-American Firsts section.
U.S. Air Force (1918–2013) — Allie Harshaw served with the renowned Tuskegee Airmen and the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only Black Women's Army Corps (WAC) unit to serve overseas during World War II. She graduated from the Tuskegee Institute, a historically Black university, in 1940, and later earned a Ph.D. in Human Behavior from the United States International University at San Diego, California. In 1943, she enlisted in the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) and served as a physical therapy technician with the Tuskegee Airmen, the first Black-American flying unit in the U.S. military. She then served in the "Six Triple Eight." Harshaw transferred to the U.S. Air Force after its creation in 1947 and served through the Korean and Vietnam Wars, retiring in 1973. Harshaw was the first Black female Air Force master sergeant to retire with thirty years of military service. In 2007, she received the Congressional Gold Medal for her service with the Tuskegee Airmen.
On August 1, 1952, Pvt. Sarah Keys was en route from Fort Dix, New Jersey to her family's home in Washington, North Carolina, on a Carolina Coach Company Bus. During a bus change stop, the bus driver ordered Private Keys to give up her seat to a white Marine. Sarah refused, was put in jail for 13 hours, and forced to pay a $25 fine for disorderly conduct. Her parents encouraged her to file a lawsuit against the bus company, which she did. Her attorney was former WAAC and Black-American lawyer Dovey Mae Johnson Roundtree (1914-2018). Attorney Roundtree graduated from Howard University Law School in 1950. Miss Keys won her case, resulting in an Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) ruling prohibiting segregation on interstate buses. The ruling was made public on November 25, 1955, six days before Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a bus. The ICC did not enforce its own ruling until 1961. Sarah Keys married George Evans in 1958 and became a hairdresser in Harlem. On August 1, 2020, a plaza with eight chronological murals and two bronze plaques was dedicated to Sarah Keys Evans in the MLK Park, Roanoke Rapid
She was the second Black-American female to join the United States Marine Corps, two days after Annie Graham became the first Black-American female to join. The two women completed boot camp at Parris Island in Platoon 5A, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion. She served at the Marine Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C.
She graduated from New York's Lincoln School of Nursing in 1941. She then tried to sign up for the Armed Forces but was informed that the military was not accepting Black nurses. Nancy persevered. In 1945, she became one of the Black nurses accepted into the Army Reserve Corps. At that time, there was a shortage of white nurses, and the military was "desperate." In 1947, Nancy Leftenant-Colon put in an application to become one of the first Black nurses in Air Force. Although she became the first Black nurse in the regular army in 1948 and was transferred to the Air Force in 1949, her Flight Nurse application was not accepted until 1952. Dr. Nancy Leftenant-Colon served as a Flight Nurse in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. During these conflicts, she set up hospital wards in Japan and in active war zones. She was credited with saving many lives during those wars. In 1956, Nancy retired from Flight Nursing. Major Nancy Leftenant-Colon retired from the military in 1965. Nancy became a school nurse in New York. She is an initial member of the East Coast Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. having joined at its inception in 1973. Within the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. she served in the capacity of National Treasurer, First Vice-President and as the first female President of the Organization. She has received numerous awards including honorary degrees from the Tuskegee University and Mt. St. Vincent College in Riverdale, New York.
In 1948, Chicagoan Ethel Payne traveled to Japan where she worked for the Army Special Services Club. When the Korean War broke out, she kept a diary about the treatment of Black-American troops in the Far East Command. Her diary was shown to war correspondent Alex Wilson, who then encouraged her to publish her notes in the Chicago Defender, a newspaper for the Black-American community. Ethel Payne became the first Black-American woman included in the White House Press Corps. Known as the "First Lady of the Black Press", she died on May 28, 1991.
See Black-American Firsts section.
At age 12, Arie's childhood was shortened when her mother died, leaving her to care for the numerous siblings in her family. Born March 27, 1927, in Bedford, Ohio, Arie managed to study, graduate from high school, receive a scholarship to Miami University in Ohio and then attend Case Western Reserve in Cleveland. She graduated in 1951 and then joined the Women's Air Force and became a staff administrator. She was promoted to Staff Sergeant and became the first Black-American to become a WAF officer. She was put in charge of training new recruits. She served four years as a WAF and was discharged in 1955. After leaving military service with an honorable discharge, Arie became administrator for Denver General Hospital's Division of Disease. She joined the Northeast Denver Democrats and in 1962 became Deputy Clerk for the Denver Election Commission. She made chief clerk in 1965. In 1968 she was chosen to represent Colorado as a delegate to the Democratic Convention. This caused a stir in the Democratic party and drew national attention, but Arie Taylor stood her ground. In 1972 she became Colorado's first female Black-American representative in the Colorado State House. She was named one of the Top 100 Influential Democratic Women in the United States in 1980. In 1984 she began a new job as business administrator for Coors Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado. In 1991 she was appointed as the first female Black-American clerk and recorder in Colorado, staying in that job until 1995. Arie Parks Taylor died on September 27, 2003.
Born in 1904 in Jefferson City, Missouri, graduated from Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science. During her WAC service, she graduated from The Adjutant General's School of the Army and was placed in charge of 50 civilian typists; it was Waddy's responsibility to see that letters were written to notify families of soldiers who were killed, wounded, or missing in action. She was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1948 and retired from active duty in 1952. A longtime resident of Eugene, Oregon, she worked for the Federal Aviation Administration and volunteered at a Job Corps Center. The 94-year-old Waddy died at the home of friends in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1999. [Source: Military.com]
Corporal Wall helped get supplies to soldiers while stationed at Yokohama Engineering Depot during the Korean War.