Today in 1970, President Richard Nixon appointed Buffalo native Anna Mae Hays and Springfield, Va.’s own Elizabeth P. Hoisington as United States Army generals—the first women to hold the rank. Brig. Gen. Hays commanded the Army Nurse Corps and spearheaded several initiatives that became Army policy including not automatically discharging pregnant women and allowing spouses of female service members to claim the same privileges that female spouses of male service members could claim. Brig. Gen. Hoisington commanded the Women’s Army Corps in Japan, Germany, and France after World War II before being posted to the Pentagon and then Saigon during the Vietnam War. Pictured: the U.S. Army’s Brigadier General full-shoulder insignia at the time of Hays and Hoisington’s appointment in 1970, which was replaced in 2015 with a smaller strap over the shoulder.
NCPA
