Wilma Vaught (b. 1930)
Filed under the name Wilma · February 1, 2026
My grandfather came through Ellis Island to work the mills, and I was raised to respect people who serve, whatever the uniform, so reading about Wilma Vaught, a retired Air Force Brigadier General and among the most highly decorated women ever to serve in the American military, got my attention right away. What struck me more than the medals, though, was that she went on to help found a memorial specifically honoring servicewomen, because for a long time their contributions just weren't written down anywhere official — sounds a lot like the fight we had at the mill making sure certain jobs and certain people's work got properly recognized in the record instead of quietly forgotten. I spent decades as a union man making sure nobody's contribution got erased just because it was inconvenient to remember. Building something permanent so an entire generation of women in uniform wouldn't be written out of history strikes me as exactly that same kind of stubborn, necessary work. Donna's father served too, and I thought of him reading this one.