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Rear Admiral Terence McKnight shakes hands with Rear Admiral Michelle
Howard. a Black female, after her swearing in as Commander of Counter-Piracy Taskforce CTF 151, ESG 2. The swearing
in took place in the Gulf of Aden on April 5, 2009. The ship that rescued the pirated Maersk-Alabama Captain was Rear Admiral
Michelle Howard's ship.
Rear Admiral Howard is the first African American Woman to command a US Navy ship.
She is also the first Admiral selected from the United States Naval Academy class of 1982 and the first woman graduate of
the Naval Academy selected for Admiral.
  General Lloyd J. Austin III, was approved by the Senate on June 30, 2010
to return to Iraq as a 4-Star General and as the top U.S. Commander in Iraq. General Austin is no stranger to "firsts"
and holds the distinction of being the frist Black officer to lead a Corps in combat. From December 2006 to August 2009, he
served as Commander of Fort Bragg, N.C. and the 18th Airborne Corps, a tenure that included his 15-month stint in Iraq
as the No. 2 U.S. Commander under Gen. David H. Petraeus. General Austin is a West Point graduate and a native of Thomasville,
Ga.
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On February 27, 2007 President George W. Bush named Rear Admiral Stephen R. Rochon as Director of the Executive Residence
and Chief Usher. The New Orleans native is in charge of the domestic staff at the White House, and makes sure that everything
runs like clockwork. He is only the eighth person, and the first African American to hold the position. He manages the day-to-day
operations of the White House, with its 132 rooms, $13-million plus budget and 90-plus staff. Admiral Rochon has a B.S. in
Business Administration from Xavier University, and an M.S. in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University.
He has earned the Coast Guard Distinguished Medal and three Legion of Merit medals. He is married and has four children. President
Obama chose to retain Admiral Rochon in his present position.
 Hazel Johnson was the first African American woman to become a general in the U.S. Army. She was appointed the Chief
of the Army Nurse Corps in 1979. Johnson held a doctorate in education administration from Catholic University (1978) and
had honorary degrees from Morgan State University, Villanova University, and the University of Maryland. Johnson
first became interested in nursing while growing up on a farm in Westchester, Pennsylvania. Her career began when we
she received her nursing degree from the Harlem Hospital in New York City in 1950. She then attended Villanova University
where she received her bachelor’s and soon afterwards joined the Army Nurse Corps in 1955. Johnson served
in Japan at a U.S. Army Evacuation Hospital. She served at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 1960 where she was a staff
and operating room nurse. Between 1963 and 1967, she was an operating room instructor and supervisor while on a tour
of three different hospitals. Johnson reached the rank of major in 1967. From 1969 to 1973, she helped
develop new sterilizing methods for the Army’s Field Hospital Systems as a staff member of the Army Medical Research
and Development Command. In 1974, Johnson was promoted to Colonel and appointed the director of the Walter Reed Army
Institute of Nursing, an extension of the University of Maryland’s nursing school. In 1978, Johnson was
sent to South Korea where she was the chief of the department of nursing at the largest U.S. Army hospital in that country.
In May 1979, she returned to Washington D.C. where she was appointed General. A military ceremony was held in her honor
at the Pentagon, where U.S. Army Surgeon General Julius Richmond pinned on her the brigadier general star. Johnson
was also sworn in as the sixteenth Chief of the Army Nurse Corps. Hazel Johnson retired from the U.S. Army in
1984. In her post-Army career she has served as an advisor to a number of surgeons general. In 1997 Johnson was
appointed adjunct professor of nursing at Georgetown University. She has also served in a similar capacity at the University
of Maryland. General Hazel Johnson passed away on August 5, 2011 in Washington, D.C.
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On May 23, 2009, President Barack Obama announced the nomination of Charles Frank "Charlie" Bolden,
Jr. as NASA Administrator. Bolden will take office after confirmation by the United States Senate. He will be the first
African American to head the agency on a permanent basis.
"Charlie" Bolden, Jr., was born on August
19, 1946 in Columbia, South Carolina. He graduated from C.A. Johnson High School, where his father, the late Charles
Frank Bolden was the school's football coach. He is a retired U.S. Marine Corps major general and a former NASA astronaut.
A 1968 graduate of the United States Naval Academy (USNA), he became a Marine Aviator and test pilot. After his service with
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, he became Deputy Commandant of Midshipmen at the USNA. Bolden is the virtual
host of the Shuttle Launch Experience attraction at Kennedy Space Center. Bolden also serves on the board of directors for
the Military Child Education Coalition.
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