Biography
Born in Newton, Kansas on November 3, 1918, Elizabeth Hoisington was a 1940 graduate of the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.
During World War II the United States Army expanded opportunities for women beyond nursing by creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC).
Elizabeth Hoisington enlisted in the WAACs in November 1942 and completed her basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. At the time, women were required to serve in units before they could apply to Officer Candidate School (OCS), so Private Hoisington went to a WAAC aircraft early warning unit in Bangor, Maine.
The company commander recognized her talents and made her the First Sergeant soon after her arrival.
"From Private to First Sergeant, that was my greatest promotion in the Army." ~General Hoisington
She later said that she then sought out the most grizzled male First Sergeant she could find and asked him to teach her what she needed to know. She claimed that he did such a good job that when she reached OCS she never had to open a book.
Hoisington was commissioned in May, 1943 as a WAAC Third Officer. When the auxiliary became the Women's Army Corps (WAC) a month later, its officers changed to standard Army ranks, and Hoisington became a Second Lieutenant. She deployed to Europe, serving in France after D-Day. Hoisington continued her career after World War II and advanced through the rank to Colonel as she commanded WAC units in Japan, Germany and France, and served in staff assignments in San Francisco and at the Pentagon.
She was appointed the seventh Director of the Women's Army Corps on August 1, 1965 and served from 1966 to 1971. As Director during the Vietnam War she visited WACs serving in Saigon and Long Binh in September 1967. According to some sources, Hoisington discouraged sending Army women to Vietnam because she believed the controversy would deter progress in expanding the overall role of women in the Army.
Read more about this topic: Elizabeth P. Hoisington
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West [Cicily Isabel Fairfield] (1892–1983)
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)