02/03/2025
Dr. Irene Trowell-Harris served 38 years in the Air Force and Air National Guard. The retired major general was the first Air National Guard nurse to command a medical clinic. In 2001 she became director of VA’s Center for Women Veterans, a position she held for 12 years. And it all started with a look to the sky in her parents’ cotton field. Trowell-Harris knew what she wanted to do from a young age. She was working the family farm with her 10 brothers and sisters in South Carolina when she got her inspiration.
“I was in the field picking cotton with my family and I saw an airplane flying over,” Trowell-Harris said. “It was then I told myself one day I would fly and work on an airplane.”
After nursing school, Trowell-Harris turned to the military to take to the skies. She began her 38-year military career as a flight nurse in the New York Air National Guard, the only role women were permitted to have in the Guard at the time. It was the perfect combination of her love for airplanes and her commitment to nursing. By 1993, she was the first Black woman in the Air National Guard promoted to brigadier general. Being the first, she commanded men unused to female leadership, let alone a nurse of color.
“It was difficult, but I focused on getting to know the system really well—the written and unwritten rules—and on doing the right thing,’’ she said of her experience.
When she retired from the Air National Guard in 2001, she still wanted to serve. She turned to VA to do it. Starting with VA’s Office of the Inspector General, it wasn’t long before she led the Center for Women Veterans. About the position, she said, “I needed to solve difficult and complex problems, ranging from access to health care and housing to childcare and employment for women Veterans. It wasn’t about working in your own job but finding others to collaborate with, be it congressional members or state departments, I worked across party lines. In my opinion it doesn’t matter who gets the credit, collaboration is a win-win for all and gets the work done.” Now 85, Trowell-Harris’ life is full of achievement, but her most cherished accomplishment is the one she had as a child.
“Even with all the places I’ve been and all the wonderful opportunities I’ve had, the most exciting moment of my life was when I received my wings,” she said. That crazy idea I told my brothers and sisters in the cotton field in 1954 came true.”
Doctor Irene Trowell-Harris tells The American Veteran about the various benefits available to Female Veterans at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
