Maj. Gen. Jeanne M. Holm was born to Scandinavian immigrants in Portland, Oregon, in 1921 and enlisted in what was then known as the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps as a truck driver. Read the rest of her remarkable biography here.

[The "All History is Personal" anecdote: In 1974, when I was a Secondclassman (junior) at the U.S. Air Force Academy, I was writing a paper on the history of women in the military. In the course of that project, I ran into Maj. Gen. Holm. As in "ran into" her. I was in the Academy Library, in a typical hurry, and I scooted quickly through the stacks, not paying attention as I whipped around a corner. And I ran into Maj. Gen. Holm, nearly knocking her down! Why she was there, I do not know. But you cannot imagine the mortification a cadet experiences in that situation . . . . Befitting her status, Gen. Holm was quite gracious and forgiving of the shocked and stammering 20 year old trying to make his apologies.]
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