soldiers

WWII -- original caption: "Willa Beatrice Brown, a 31-year-old Negro American, serves her country by training pilots for the U.S. Army Air Forces. She is the first Negro woman to receive a commission as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Civil Air Patrol."

“Stonewall" Jackson as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War, 1847.

A member of the "Night Witches" (as nicknamed by the Germans in WWII). Lady Russian Bombers had the oldest, noisiest, planes. The engines would conk out halfway through flights, so they had to climb out on the wings mid flight to restart the props. The planes were so noisy that to stop Germans from hearing them coming and start up their anti aircraft guns, they’d climb up to a certain height, coast down to german positions, drop their bombs, restart their engines in midair.

In a time of both gender and racial discrimination, Bessie Coleman became the first black woman in the world to earn a pilot's license.

Buffalo Soldiers were members of an all-black regiment in the U.S. Army. The 10th Cavalry was formed on September 21, 1866 at Fort Leavenworth and was the regiment that the Indians first called "buffalo soldiers."

Meet the Real-Life G.I. Janes Who Served with Special Ops in Afghanistan http://www.people.com/article/reese-witherspoon-buys-rights-army-girls-special-ops-afghanistan

Black confederate soldier sitting for portrait. American Civil War

Harriet M. Waddy was one of the two highest-ranking black officers in the Women's Army Corps in World War II. Before entering the military, she had been an aide to Mary McLeod Bethune. She said that joining the segregated military ''and accepting a situation which does not represent an ideal of democracy'' was not ''a retreat from our fight'' but ''our contribution to its realization,'' according to the New York Times.

Roza Shanina WWII sniper 1944 -I find women's military uniforms interesting. Despite what these women are doing and the potentially violent tasks they are fulfilling, the uniform still demands some reference to their gender to separate them from their fellow soldiers.

This is the full frame of the famous picture nicknamed “Rescue at Rabaul," photographed by Horace Bristol (1944). It depicts a U.S. Navy PBY Catalina blister gunner who stripped off his clothes and dove into the ocean to rescue a downed airman under fire from the Japanese. As soon as he returned to the plane, the still-naked sailor got back to his position at his gun.