Ann E. Dunwoody
Ann Elizabeth Dunwoody (born January 14, 1953) is a retired general of the United States Army. She is the first woman in U.S. military and uniformed service history to achieve a four-star officer rank, receiving her fourth star on November 14, 2008.
Women in combat
For most of human history, people serving in combat were overwhelmingly male. In a few cases, however, individual women have been recorded as serving in combat roles or in leadership roles as queens (such as Queen Boudica, who led the Britons against Rome; Joan of Arc is the most famous example). In the First World War, Russia, after the February Revolution, used one all-female combat unit. Thousands of women served in combat and rearguard roles in the Spanish Civil War. In the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of British and German women served in combat roles in anti-aircraft units, where they shot down thousands of enemy aircraft. They were widely accepted because they were not at risk of capture. In the Soviet Union, there was large-scale use of women near the front as medical staff and political officers. The Soviets also set up all-female sniper units and combat fighter planes. A few women also played combat roles in resistance movements in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.