This first blogging prompt for March is so appropriate, because this is Women's History Month.
I decided to highlight my aunt Colonel Roberta Lobban Gleeson, US Army Nurse Corps.
Roberta was born 16 September 1944 near the Orlando Army Air Field, where her father was posted during the Second World War. Along with her parents and three younger siblings, she spent her youth moving around to different military assignments. These included the US Embassy in Athens, Greece; Craig Air Force Base in Selma, Alabama; Manston Royal Air Force Base in Ramsgate, England; and Pope Air Force Base in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
While in Fayetteville, Roberta began developing her childhood aspiration to become a nurse like her aunt Dorothea (Norton) Lobban. Along with fourteen other area high school girls, she completed an intensive training course at nearby Fort Bragg. When she graduated, there was no doubt she would go on to nursing school at Jersey City State College, her parents' alma mater.
Roberta had a variety of odd jobs to help defray college expenses. She babysat for a gaggle of cousins in Jersey City. And, she worked in an ice cream shop. When she earned her degree in Nursing, she was immediately commissioned an officer in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps.
During her years of service, she completed difficult tours of duty in both Vietnam and Korea. (The above picture was taken of her posing near the Demilitarized Zone during the winter of 1980.) She was also posted at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas; Fort Riley, Kansas; and finally at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. During her twenty years of service, she earned a Master's Degree from Baylor University and was promoted to the rank of Colonel.
Aunt Roberta died 20 May 2011 in her beloved El Paso. The family honored her final request that she be laid to rest with her father at Arlington National Cemetery.
#52Ancestors #HerStory
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