its FRIDAY!! that means another archive of the week for Archives Month in Virginia. Today, we highlight the service of Command Sergeant Major Mildred Kelly. CSM Mildred Catherine Kelly was originally a high school teacher after receiving her Bachelors of Science in Chemistry and Mathematics from Knoxville College. She left her career as a teacher and enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1950 because she wanted to do something different. She completed her basic and advanced individual training at Fort Lee, Virginia. Her first assignment was at Fort Knox, Kentucky, as a personnel clerk in the medical records section. She would later serve at St. Louis, Fort Benjamin Harrison, Japan, Fort McClellan, and Fort Hood before arriving in Alexandria to serve as a personnel supervisor for the enlisted personnel directorate at the U.S. Army Military Personnel Center (MILPERCEN). CSM Kelly had the distinction of becoming the first female African-American Sergeant Major in 1972 while serving at the Pentagon and on 23 October 1974, Mildred Kelly became the first African American woman in the WAC appointed as a Command Sergeant Major while at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. She said of her Army career, “It’s been a long hard struggle but I’ve never regretted it… Keep in mind – that anything worth having is not easy to come by.” CSM Kelly retired in 1976 and worked for the American Association of Dental Schools and served on various boards before her passing in January 2003.
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 12:58:56 +0000
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