WASHINGTON — Edgar County native Wilma Vaught enlisted in 1957 when the military still instructed women about makeup rather than firearms, offered them few career fields, and limited chances for promotion.
Nevertheless, the 1952 University of Illinois graduate had a trailblazing Air Force career. Vaught became the first woman to deploy with an Air Force bomber unit wing and one of the first to become a brigadier general, the first woman in the comptroller field to reach this rank. After retiring in 1985, she played a lead role in founding the Military Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
"She has had several 'firsts' in her 28-year Air Force career," said Jill Henry of Bloomington, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a charter member of the memorial. "Because (Vaught) broke barriers for women for decades during her military career and after retirement, 20 women senators have recently urged President Joe Biden to award her the Presidential Medal of Freedom."
People are also reading…
Vaught, 91, was unavailable for an interview in advance of Veterans Day but has shared her history in past interviews archived with the memorial, including a “Stories of Service: Brigadier General Wilma Vaught" video.
The brigadier general, who grew up in Scottland in Edgar County, said in that interview she enlisted because the military offered her the management opportunities she wanted when these roles were not readily available to women in business.
"When I went through training, we didn’t learn how to fire weapons, women didn’t do that. We went through a course on how to put on lipstick and powder, how to get in and out of a car tastefully. I was always one of very few military women where I was assigned," Vaught said.
Following assignments that included being based 1959-1964 in Spain, Vaught deployed with a B-52 bombardment wing to Guam in 1966-1967 in a support role for flights over North Vietnam. Vaught said in a 2016 interview with the U of I College of Business magazine that this wartime deployment was a proud moment for her.
"In my military career, the highlight was when the wing commander selected me as captain to go to Guam," Vaught said. "A woman had never deployed with a Strategic Air Command bombardment wing before."
Vaught was later deployed in 1968-1969 to Vietnam, where she worked in management analysis for Military Assistance Command in Saigon. Vaught recalled in her “Stories of Service" interview hearing rockets land a block and a half away from her quarters and wondering if she would survive this deployment.
Subsequent postings included Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, when she was promoted to brigadier general in 1980. Vaught recalled in an conversation with interviewer Steve Harden that she had made a point prior to her promotion from colonel of encouraging other women that they could have a military career beyond just making captain or major.
"When I got promoted, that just became a continuation of that type of feeling," Vaught said. "There wasn’t any question in my mind that I stood out and that I had to be careful of what I did, because it would be picked up and criticized if it was the wrong thing, and I had to be an example for the women who were in the military. I have tried very hard to do that."
As a brigadier general, Vaught commanded the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command in North Chicago in 1982-1985. She led the preparation of enlisted recruits for all service branches and gave countless oaths of enlistment.
After Vaught retired in 1985 and settled in Washington, she was later asked to serve on the Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation board. To her bemused surprise, she was soon elected as that group's first president when she missed a meeting.
"That missed meeting changed the trajectory of the next 30 years of her life as she ultimately fund-raised, built and operated the (memorial), or as it is lovingly called, 'The House that Wilma built,'" said Henry, an Illinois Ambassador for the memorial. She said Vaught has remained active as the foundation's president emeritus after stepping down as president in 2016.
A 2015 National Geographic Society interview noted that the foundation has sought for the memorial to not only recognize the women’s service, but their struggle to be included in the military.
“Women in the military had to fight. They had to sue the government, the secretary of defense, and the service secretaries to attain their rights, rights that should have been given to them just the same as any man,” Vaught said in that interview. “We worked very hard as women in the military to get integrated. As we started to receive those rights and honors, they trickled out to the civilian sector.”
Stars and Stripes reported Oct. 22 that U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who both served in the military, and 18 other senators have sent a letter to Biden asking him to award the Medal of Freedom to Vaught.
“Throughout her life, Brig. Gen. Wilma Vaught has led the way, forging new paths and opportunities for other women to succeed with a career in America’s military services."” the senators wrote.