Veteran Solutions

George Kerr III served eight years in the Navy, first as an operations yeoman supporting pilots aboard the USS Nimitz and later in the Office of Administrative Affairs at the Pentagon preparing officers for Congressional hearings. He planned on being a “lifer,” but no longer felt safe under the then-newly implemented “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. He left the service for a life of public health advocacy, beginning at the height of the AIDS/HIV crisis.

Kerr entered the service in 1985, right out of high school. At that time, he “had a lot going on,” partly due to his family constantly moving with his father’s construction work. “I moved around quite a bit, so I don’t call one place home,” Kerr recalled. He also wanted the opportunity to serve.

He was first assigned to an air squadron based in Cecil Field, Florida. During a training and security deployment to the Mediterranean aboard the USS Nimitz, he served as an operations yeoman. In 1989, he was reassigned to work at the Pentagon.

“I worked with officers who were preparing to do visits to Capitol Hill for hearings with the House or the Senate,” he said.

Kerr earned numerous service awards and enjoyed his work, but during “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” he felt increasingly unsafe.

“They were planning on sending me to a Marine amphibious ship as an administrator, but I didn’t feel that would be safe,” Kerr said. “I was afraid of the unknown at that point, including violence.”

Instead of retreating to a private life, Kerr began a career in public health advocacy that continues to this day.

“HIV, I knew very little about it then. The numbers in [Washington,] D.C. were growing very rapidly. I went to work for Family Health International. With my connection, I was able to bring people on the international level to look at what we were doing here in the district and help advise,” he said.

Aaron Terry, a fellow Veteran and activist, said Kerr was a strong voice during the crisis and never gave up, despite the roadblocks and lack of support for victims and survivors at the time.

“George is a natural advocate and leader even when others may not always be able to,” Terry said. “[He perseveres] through the most difficult tragedies and situations that life can present.”

Kerr’s advocacy continues, particularly on behalf of other LGBTQ+ Veterans. Washington D.C. LGBTQ Veteran Coordinator, Fallon Williams, said her position is due in part to Kerr’s push to have it established in the mayor’s office.

“George Kerr did his best to serve his country and also identify as LGBTQIA+,” Williams said. “He continues to serve his community outside of the uniform. Since my start, he has been one of the major ambassadors ensuring we have effective resources available for D.C. LGBTQ+ Veterans.”

We honor his service.

Air Force Veteran Cormac McCarthy, the celebrated and best-selling author of 12 novels and multiple plays and short stories, including “The Road” and “No Country for Old Men.”

McCarthy was born in Rhode Island in 1933, but grew up in Tennessee. The college dropout joined the Air Force in 1953, serving four years total, including two in Alaska. It was there that the bored airman “read a lot of books very quickly,” perhaps spurning his aversion to punctuation and an interest in writing.

When McCarthy completed his enlistment and re-entered school, he wrote and published two award-winning stories. After dropping out (again, and finally), he moved into a shack at the foothills of the Smokey Mountains to focus on writing. “I always knew that I didn’t want to work,” McCarthy said in 2017 interview. “You have to be dedicated, but it was my number-one priority.”

What followed was more than 55 years of success and critical acclaim, as McCarthy eventually became the recipient and winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

McCarthy died at his home in New Mexico on June 13, 2023. He was 89.

We honor his service.

Appealing your health care decisions

If you disagree with a health care decision, you have options

As a Veteran, you deserve the best health care possible. But you may not always agree with decisions we make about your medical care or whether you are eligible for some types of care.

If you disagree with a decision we made, you can appeal it. Here’s how.

First, a word about where benefits come from within VA. The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) handles non-health benefits, including service-connected compensation, education, dependency and indemnity compensation, VA home loans and life insurance. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) also has its own set of health benefits involving your health care and eligibility for certain health services.

To learn more about VBA benefits, please visit its website.

Two kinds of health care decisions, two kinds of appeals
In VA health care, you can appeal two kinds of decisions: medical determinations and health benefits decisions.

A medical determination is a decision made by your care team about your health care, like whether to prescribe a certain medication, treatment or physical therapy. It can also mean a decision to refer you to a community provider for care.

A health benefits decision is about whether or not you are eligible for VA health benefits, such as VA health care, VA nursing home and domiciliary care, reimbursement for non-VA emergency care and certain medical devices.

How to appeal a medical determination
You can appeal a medical determination by filing a clinical appeal, which allows other medical professionals to review your medical needs and decide whether the determination was correct.

To file a clinical appeal, contact the patient advocate at your VA medical facility and ask to initiate a clinical appeal.

Find your local patient advocate here.

How to appeal a health benefits decision
If you disagree with a health benefits decision, you can request one of three types of review:

Higher-level review
Supplemental claim
Appeal to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals
You can select the type of review you think is best for your case.

When and how to request a higher-level review
If you believe our decision was wrong and you don’t have new evidence, a higher-level review may be your best option. You can’t submit any new evidence, but instead a senior reviewer will look at your case again. This reviewer will evaluate the same evidence that was previously considered. You must file a request for higher-level review within one year of the date of your decision.

Young couple reviews health care decisions
You can also request an optional, one-time informal conference with a senior reviewer to discuss your case.

To request a higher-level review, fill out VA Form 20-0996 and follow the submission instructions on your VHA decision notice letter.

Download VA Form 20-0996.

When and how to file a supplemental claim
If you believe our decision was wrong and you have new and relevant evidence that VA hasn’t already considered, a supplemental claim may be your best choice. We can help you gather any new evidence you identify, such as medical records, to support your claim. A reviewer will decide if this new evidence changes the decision. You can generally file a supplemental claim at any time after the decision.

To file a supplemental claim, fill out VA Form 20-0995 and follow the submission instructions on your VHA decision notice letter.

Download VA Form 20-0995.

When and how to appeal to the board
If you want a Veterans law judge at the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (board) to review your case, you may appeal the decision to the board. You must file a board appeal within one year of the date of your decision and you do not need to request higher-level review or file a supplemental claim before appealing to the board.

There are three types of board review. When you fill out the form, you’ll need to request which type you want:

Direct review: If you don’t want to submit additional evidence or have a hearing
Evidence submission: If you want to submit additional evidence without a hearing
Hearing with a Veterans law judge: If you want to have a hearing with a Veterans law judge with the option to submit new evidence
To appeal a decision to the board, fill out VA Form 10182 and send it to the board. The mailing address is in the form.

Download VA Form 10182.

How to appeal a Caregiver Support Program decision
If you disagree with a decision about care or services under the VA Caregiver Support Program (CSP), you have four options. You can file a Clinical Appeal, or you can choose any of the three benefits decision appeals options. For more information, review your CSP decision letter or visit the CSP website.

How to find help with an appeal
If you need help filing a claim or appeal, you may want to work with an accredited attorney, a claims agent or a Veterans Service Officer (VSO). We trust these professionals because they’re trained and certified in the VA claims and appeals processes. They can help you with VA-related needs.

VSOs work on behalf of Veterans and service members, as well as their dependents and survivors. Find out more about professionals who can help you.

For more information
Visit the VHA appeals website for more information.

Harry Liversedge was born in September 1894 in Volcano, California. He enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley, and, while attending school, participated and won third place in the 1920 Olympic shot put competition. He joined the Marines in 1917, and he was commissioned a year later.

Early in his career, Liversedge served across multiple locations, first in France in 1919, when he was also promoted to first lieutenant. Back in the United States, he briefly served in Quantico, Virginia, before again deploying abroad to join the Second Provisional Marine Brigade in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. After a brief return to Virginia and Maryland, Liversedge then served as an aide to the American high commissioner in Haiti.

A proven athlete, Liversedge participated in his second Olympics competition in 1924 while serving at the Naval Academy. He then served in Virginia and California before deploying to China. His athleticism once again aided him when he was tasked with providing boxing training training with the Third Brigade in Tienstin. In Shanghai, he also participated in the International Track and Field Meets, a major track and field competition.

After his service in China, Liversedge returned to Virginia. He then relocated to California for the second time, earning a promotion to the rank of captain and serving as an aide to the commanding general at the Department of the Pacific Headquarters. Liversidge then for the first time served aboard a ship in 1933 when he was assigned to USS California. He continued serving domestically for the next several years, moving between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Quantico, Virginia; Spokane, Washington; and San Diego, California.

From its beginning, Liversedge played a significant role in the Marine Corps during World War II. He started by commanding the Second Battalion, Eighth Marines, in American Samoa in January 1942. He continued commanding his fellow servicemen for the remainder of the war, leading the Third Marine Raider Battalion beginning 1942 and the First Marine Raider Regiment beginning March 1943. In that role, he led his unit against Japanese forces and subsequently earned a Navy Cross. Next, he commanded the 28th Marines and led his unit in the Iwo Jima Campaign, commanding his troops for the entire 36-day campaign, which ended with one of the most iconic images of the war.

At the end of the war, Liversedge served briefly in Japan before finally returning home, where he remained for the rest of his career. He served in California as director of the Twelfth Marine Reserve District, as a district marine officer for the Twelfth Naval District and as assistant commander for the 1st Marine Division in Camp Pendleton. In 1948, he earned a promotion to brigadier general, which was his final rank, and continued serving in high-level positions in Guam and California. In 1950, he assumed his final position as director of the Marine Corps Reserve.

Liversedge died in November 1951 at the age of 57.

We honor his service.

Writer: Khaled Maalouf

Editors: Cate Manning, Delaney Tracy

Researchers: John Bergstrom

Graphic Designer: Leon Saul

Naval Academy graduate Cassandra Williamson served for more than nine years in the military, first as an enlisted Navy cryptologic tech collecting intelligence for a submarine group, and later as a Marine Corps officer. Today, she is the executive director of the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) and continues her service by helping Veterans access care and benefits.

Williamson was born in eastern Kentucky but spent most of her life in Alabama. In 2022, as TAVA’s engagement director, she toured most of the major VA medical centers across the country and met many Veterans and staff.

“The national VA would help me open the door to all the VA facilities where I was going,” she said. “It was really a good time to be out there and see the Veterans.”

She recalled joyfully “getting the wind squeezed” out of her in Texarkana by a transgender woman Veteran.

“Rarely do we get to interact with another trans-Vet, and we feel slightly alone out there,’” she said.

During the trip, Williamson and TAVA President Ann Murdoch were among over 200 LGBTQ leaders invited to the White House for Pride Month. Williamson had traveled a long personal journey to enjoy that honor. She enlisted in the Navy in 1976, as part of a high school delayed entry program. She wanted to prove to her dad and herself that she “was his real male son,” though she had identified more as female since age five. But when she left for active duty in 1977, she knew her name was Cassandra.

“The name is from Cassie Williamson, in honor of my great-great grandmother, from the backwoods of West Virginia,” she explained.

Williamson served as a cryptologic technician from 1977 until 1980, an experience she said she enjoyed. Assigned to the Naval Security Group, she recalled sleeping in the torpedo room on one sub she was collecting intelligence for because she wasn’t a part of the regular complement.

“No room at the inn,” she chuckled.

She was sent to the Naval Academy prep school, where she was a battalion commander, before continuing to the academy. At the end of four years, to still identify with her “male side,” she became a Marine Corps officer and was assigned to a training command.

Williamson left the service in 1986. Since then, she owned various businesses, married, and had four children. She also entered public service. Nine years after her divorce in 2000, she began a medical transition, and she became more involved with her local VA, serving on Pride committees and participating in a pilot “Pride in All Who Served” program created by clinical psychologist Dr. Tiffany Lange.

“She’s wonderfully charismatic and engaging in thinking about how we can create resources for the [transgender] community, and that’s a professional passion of mine as well,” Lange said.

Around 2018, TAVA asked Williamson to join its board of directors. Being outgoing, she “took TAVA on the road,” meeting Veterans across the country. Often, Veterans would offer a place for her to stay, or money to cover gas.

“Veterans loved it. Everywhere I went, they wanted to give me a big bear hug,” she said.

After the road trip, Williamson became TAVA’s executive director. She promptly found an ambassador program on TAVA’s books she wanted to help stand up. The program’s goal is to “connect Vets locally right where they [are]” with resources, including housing, food and employment. Additionally, LGBTQ Veterans who were separated under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, in effect from 1994 until 2011, could receive help upgrading their discharges.

“If this was the only reason the Vet was kicked out, this corrects that mistake,” Williamson said. “It improves the employment status for a lot of Vets and improves their care.”

After TAVA ambassadors are trained and confirmed by the board, they will travel to help Veterans in person. “Just like I did when I was touring the country,” she explained.

Despite her past challenges, Williamson enthusiastically encourages LGBTQ youth to join the military, if they want, especially now that they can do so openly.

“With the way you can come in as LGBT and still get in, it is the best way to get the life skills and the structure you might need to be successful, and it’s well worth it,” Williamson said. “For me, it’s a calling and obligation to serve.”

We honor her service.

Writer: Philip Van Slooten

Editors: Marisa Bunton, Cynthia Xu

Researcher: Christopher Rosenquist

Graphic Designer: Jaylon Buckles

Dee Allen was born in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1997, she completed her undergraduate education at the University of Maryland, where she majored in criminal justice and behavioral science. Allen pursued her degree while simultaneously serving in the U.S. Navy.

Allen joined the Navy in 1986, first serving as a seaman recruit. She then enrolled in the U.S. Navy Cryptologic Technician School in Pensacola, Florida. She then began serving as an administrative assistant at the National Security Agency. She also served in Japan—in Misawa and later Okinawa.

After returning to the U.S., Allen served in several locations. In her first few roles she served as an administrative officer, security manager and legal officer, an administrative leading chief petty officer and an administrative leading petty officer. She returned to Pensacola before boarding the USS Frank Cable, joining the Chief Naval Operations Staff to serve as a deputy executive assistant and serving as a senior enlisted advisor at the Chief of Naval Personnel Staff’s Office of Women’s Policy, where she volunteered to serve in the Combined Joint Task Force in the Horn of Africa.

After serving in these positions, Allen held several leadership roles, serving as senior enlisted leader at USS George H.W. Bush, as a command master chief in Norfolk, Virginia, as an installation command master chief and as a regional command master chief. In her final military role, she served as the command master chief for the 10th Fleet, the U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, giving advice to the commander of a personnel team formed of 14,000 service members and training senior leaders. She served in that role for more than three years before retiring in 2020.

After her 34-year Navy career, Allen transitioned to the private sector, founding her own company, Dee Allen Consulting N Coaching, where she provides leadership training. She is currently pursuing a doctorate at Northcentral University.

We honor her service.

Nominate a Veteran for
Do you want to light up the face of a special Veteran? Have you been wondering how to tell your Veteran they are special to you? VA’s social media feature is an opportunity to highlight your Veteran and his/her service.

Writer: Khaled Maalouf

Editors: Cate Manning, Ashley Shaut

Researchers: Raphael Romea

Graphic Designer: Jaylon Buckles

George Gay, often referred to as the “sole survivor” of Torpedo Squadron 8, was born in March 1917 in Waco, Texas.

After graduating from high school, Gay attended Texas A&M University, studying mechanical engineering. In 1939, he planned on withdrawing from school to join the United States Army Air Corps. His desire to fly developed after he and his grandmother attended the Texas State Fair and rode in a Ford Tri-Motor plane together. However, due to a heart condition, he was rejected from the service.

In February 1941, Gay was accepted to serve in the United States Naval Reserve. That year, he began flight training at the Naval Reserve Aviation Base in Miami, Florida. On Sept. 3, he officially earned his wings. A month later, he was assigned to serve on USS Hornet and Torpedo Squadron 8, located in Norfolk, Virginia.

With USS Hornet assigned to the Pacific Theater, Gay first saw combat during the Battle of Midway. Thirty men, including Gay, were ordered to fly toward the Japanese aircraft carrier; their squadron commander ordered all five groups to attack the Japanese Zero fighters. With no support nearby, the Japanese fleet attacked each American plane, killing Gay’s gunner. Gay’s plane was later shot down by Zeros. The only chance for him to survive was to pull himself out of the cockpit. He managed to survive for over 30 hours in the ocean before a Navy patrol boat rescued him.

For his actions at Midway, Gay was awarded the Purple Heart, the Navy Cross and the Presidential Unit Citation. He returned to his home state of Texas to recover from his injuries. Upon his return, he was featured on the cover of Life magazine and was offered a movie about his story by 20th Century Fox. He turned down the offer and instead returned to serve in the war in 1942. He later served as a torpedo bomber instructor at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida, and was discharged in 1945.

After the war, Gay worked for Trans World Airlines as a commercial pilot. In May 1946, he got married and, together with wife Esther, moved around the country to several different states.

On Oct. 21, 1994, Lt. Cmdr. George Gay died from a heart attack. His ashes were spread along with 29 of his squadron’s aviators who died in combat.

We honor his service.

Writer: Ashley Squillace

Editors: Cate Manning, Jessica Waldon

Researcher: John Bergstrom

Graphic Designer: Saul Leon

Deborah Loewer was born in Springfield, Ohio. She attended and graduated from Shawnee High School in 1972 before enrolling in nearby Wright State University. There, she received a degree in math and computer science in 1976. Later that year, she earned a commission in the Navy after moving to Newport, Rhode Island, to attend the Officer Candidate School, from which she graduated second in her class. She was also the first ever female battalion commander at the school.

For the next three years, Loewer served at the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washington, D.C., as the pay and allowance functional manager. In 1979, she was one of the first women to complete the Surface Warfare Officer Basic course. Again, she excelled, graduating at the top of her class.

That same year, Congress lifted the ban on female sea service. With that change, Loewer then became one of the first women to complete shipboard duty after boarding USS Yosemite. One of only three women on that ship, she served in several positions, including administrative officer, electrical division officer and navigator. She also helped design the ship’s computer systems as part of the Commander of Naval Surface Force Atlantic staff.

Loewer was selected in 1984 to be an Olmsted Scholar. She then continued her education at the Defense Language Institute in California before moving abroad to Germany, first settling in Stuttgart to attend the Goethe Institute, and then moving to Kiel to earn a doctorate at the University of Kiel.

After returning to the U.S., Loewer moved back and forth between sea deployments and service in the nation’s capital. She began by serving on USS Yellowstone in 1987 and then USS Monongahela before moving to Washington in 1991 to serve in the Strategic Concepts Branch of the Navy Staff. She then returned to sea on USS Mount Baker for two years before serving as military assistant to Deputy Secretary of Defense, John White, and later Assistant Secretary of Defense, William Cohen. After captaining USS Camden, she spent the rest of her career primarily in Washington, D.C.

In the capital, Loewer became director at the White House Situation Room and director of Systems and Technical Planning Staff in 2001. In these positions, she played a big role in the White House’s 9/11 response. That same year, she also became the first woman qualified for war to be promoted to rear admiral. In 2003, she served as vice commander of the Military Sealift Command, an agency that included over 120 ships and 8,000 employees, before commanding the Mine Warfare Command beginning in January 2005. She retired two years later after having served for 31 years.

We honor her service.

Writer: Khaled Maalouf

Editors: Cate Manning

Researchers: Raphael Romea

Graphic Designer: Saul Leon

Aaron Eli Fairbairn was born in February 1989 and was raised in Central Park, Washington. From a young age, Fairbairn liked to keep busy. He worked at Papa Murphy’s Pizza and at Whitney’s Auto Group as a parking lot attendant. He was also a paperboy at 13 and was awarded “Paper Carrier of the Year Award” during his time at The Daily World. As a Boy Scout, he learned to love the outdoors, and also enjoyed riding dirt bikes.

In 2007, Fairbairn graduated from Aberdeen High School. Six months later, in January 2008, he enlisted into the Army. He joined the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, at Fort Richardson, Alaska. In the summer 2009, he deployed to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom.

On July, 4, 2009, Fairbairn was injured and killed from a Taliban VBIED at Combat Outpost Zerok in Paktika, Afghanistan. He was scheduled to return home that September.

We honor his service.

Writer: Ashley Squillace

Editors: Tayler Rairigh, Cate Manning

Researcher: Christopher Rosenquist

Graphic Designer: Kaylie Ferguson

On March 30, 2001, Coral Wong Pietsch became the first female Asian American general officer in the Army and the first female general officer of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps’ (JAG) 230-year history.

Born in 1947 in Waterloo, Iowa, to a Chinese immigrant father and a Czech-American mother, Pietsch took a commission in the Army as a JAG officer after graduating from law school in 1974.

During six years on active duty, Pietsch served as a lawyer in the Eighth Army in Korea and at Fort Shafter in Hawaii. As a reservist, she served as deputy attorney general for Hawaii from 1980 to 1986, and became a special assistant and senior civilian counsel to the commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC). She served at Fort DeRussy as a contract law and claims officer for IX Corps and as a staff judge advocate (SJA) for the 9th U.S. Army Reserve Command (ARCOM).

Pietsch was labor counselor for the U.S. Army Support Command Hawaii from 1986 to 1991 before becoming senior legal officer for ARCOM’s 1995 Philippines’ Exercise Balikatan.

Recalled to active duty for six months in 1996, Pietsch served as SJA for USARPAC, holding more command SJA assignments than nearly any other Army officer.

Pietsch began working as JAG’s first female chief judge in May 2000 while serving a four-year Individual Mobilization Augmentee assignment to the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals. As USARPAC’s senior civilian attorney and chief of the civil law division, she supervised attorneys across an Army command covering half the world.

Appointed as a Hawaii Civil Rights Commission commissioner in 2003 and chair in 2006, Pietsch streamlined processes and deployed public education and school civil rights awareness programs.

After retiring from the Army Reserve in 2007, Pietsch volunteered for deployment as part of the 2007 Operation Iraqi Freedom surge. As the Department of Defense civilian deputy rule of law coordinator for the Baghdad Provincial Reconstruction Team, she helped build up the Iraqi legal community’s capability. She was involved in the Iraqi Jurist Union, law schools and various rights organizations, and she helped the Iraqi Bar Association establish the first legal aid clinic in one of Iraq’s largest detention facilities.

Pietsch was one of the White House’s 2014 “Women Veteran Leader Champions of Change,” was inducted into the Army Women’s Foundation Hall of Fame in 2017, and received the National Asian Pacific American Law Student Association’s 2022 Diversity Leadership Award.

Pietsch earned 2016’s Chief Justice John Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award that recognizes “achievements outside military service by an individual who once served as a judge advocate, left active-duty military service, and subsequently made great contributions and achievements outside the military legal system.”

In June 2012, Pietsch was appointed to a 15-year term as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and was formally invested on Oct. 9, 2012, after being sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts.

We honor her service.

Writer: Michelle A. Shade

Editors: Ashley Shaut, Cate Manning

Researcher: John Bergstrom

Graphic Designer: Leon Saul

Navy Veteran Mildred Helen McAfee pioneered women’s military leadership as the first director of the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or WAVES, in the Navy and as the first woman to be commissioned in U.S. Navy Reserve.

McAfee was born in 1900 in Parkville, Missouri, and lived there until her family moved to Chicago. Her father worked as a reverend, and her grandfather founded Park College (now Park University), motivating McAfee to achieve excellence in faith and higher education. She attended Vassar College, where she studied economics, sociology and English, and graduated in 1920. She began a career in teaching before receiving her master’s in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1928. In 1936, she was selected president of Wellesley College, where she advocated for holistic liberal arts education and for social equity in women’s education.

In August 1942, McAfee took a leave of absence from Wellesley to take on a new role as the director of the WAVES program. With many male personnel overseas, McAfee, along with many other women, joined the military to work in domestic positions. She was the first woman to be commissioned as an officer in the Navy Reserve and began her role as director of the Women’s Reserve as a lieutenant commander. She helped develop the rules and structure of the WAVES and the Women’s Reserve, having led over 80,000 women by the end of her military career.

McAfee also advocated for Women’s Reserve personnel to be given equal pay and benefits to male personnel. Her work came to fruition in November 1943 when Public Law 183 was established, formally declaring women’s benefits to be equal to men’s.

In 1943, McAfee was promoted to the rank of captain and continued on as director of the WAVES until the war’s end. She was honorably discharged and resigned from the position, receiving the Distinguished Service Medal, American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal for her service. After leaving the military, she married the Rev. Dr. Douglas Horton, then dean of the Harvard Divinity School.

McAfee retired from her role as president of Wellesley College in 1948, but continued to serve in a variety of board and church positions. She worked as a UNESCO delegate and as a temporary director of the New York Life Insurance Company, and she co-chaired the National Women’s Conference on Civil Rights. Throughout her life, she was awarded more than 31 honorary degrees for her achievements and advocacy work for women’s and civil rights.

In 1994, McAfee died in New Hampshire. She was 94.

We honor her service.

Writer: Sarah McDonald

Editors: Cate Manning, Mary Margaret Brennan

Researcher: John Bergstrom

Graphic Designer: Yasmine Pierce