06/23/2026
Born on this date in 1921, Major General Jeanne Marjorie Holm was the first female one-star general of the United States Air Force and the first female two-star general in any service branch of the United States. Holm was a driving force behind the expansion of women's roles in the Air Force. She enlisted in the Army in July 1942, soon after the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was established by Congress. In October 1948, during the Berlin Blockade, Holm was recalled to active duty with the Army and went to Camp Lee in Virginia, as a company commander within the Women's Army Corps Training Center. The following year she transferred to the Air Force and was sent to Erding Air Depot, Germany. Holm returned from overseas in 1952 and became the first woman to attend the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. She was then assigned to Headquarters U.S. Air Force in Washington, DC, as a personnel plans and programs officer in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel. In November 1965 Holm was appointed director of Women's Air Force (WAF), in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel. For her exceptionally meritorious service in this assignment, she was awarded the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal. Holm was promoted to the grade of brigadier general July 16, 1971, the first woman to be appointed in this grade in the Air Force. She was promoted to the grade of major general effective June 1, 1973, with date of rank July 1, 1970, and was the first woman in the Armed Forces to serve in that grade. She died in 2010. Information and photo source, Wikipedia.
