[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 145 (Thursday, October 8, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10315-S10316]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        REMEMBERING BRIGADIER GENERAL MILDRED INEZ CAROON BAILEY

 Mrs. HAGAN. Mr. President, today I honor a woman of great 
character; a woman who provided unquestionable leadership to our Nation 
and a woman who proudly hailed from North Carolina. Our State motto, 
``Esse Quam Videri,'' ``To be, rather than to seem,'' richly describes 
BG Mildred Inez Caroon Bailey; a trailblazer who thrived on challenges, 
especially when she was told, ``it can't be done.'' As a member of the 
Senate Armed Services Committee, I am proud to recognize General 
Bailey's contributions to the U.S. Army in this Chamber today.
  Brigadier General Bailey was born in 1919 in Fort Barnwell, NC, and 
raised in nearby Kinston. Inez, as she was known to her friends, 
directed the Women's Army Corps, WAC, from 1971 to 1975. Enlisting at a 
time when a woman's role in uniform was unclear, she experienced 
unquestionable changes for women in the military throughout her 33-year 
career. General Bailey was the third female to be promoted to brigadier 
general, a rank she never sought, but would never have thought to turn 
down.
  When she wasn't studying her favorite subject, French, Inez worked in 
her parents' grocery store. Upon graduation, she enrolled in Flora 
McDonald College in Red Springs, NC, and later transferred to the 
Woman's College of the University of North Carolina--now the University 
of North Carolina at Greensboro. She graduated in 1940 with a degree in 
education and one professional goal--to be a French teacher. She 
eventually accepted a job teaching French in Taylorsville, NC.
  When World War II broke out, this North Carolina French teacher 
thought a job in the Army Air Corps might be interesting, but it wasn't 
until a friend dragged her along to Fort Bragg that she really gave the 
military a second thought. The Army needed women to take the place of 
male soldiers who worked nonbattlefield jobs in order to free them for 
service on the front lines. Six months after Pearl Harbor, Inez joined 
the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, WAAC, the predecessor to WAC, at Fort 
Bragg. Although her parents were unhappy about her decision, they 
supported her nonetheless. Although women held primarily 
administrative, clerical and supply-type positions, she was encouraged 
to discover that women were also packing parachutes and were even 
mechanics. Due to her college degree, General Bailey was eligible for 
officer candidate school.
  Her first unit command was at George Field Army Air Base in Illinois. 
There, she became very good at marching. She said, ``I didn't know any 
women who didn't like marching. We thought it was fun and we were proud 
of our marching, we could keep a good beat with the Colonel Bogey 
March!'' They even added words to the march, ``Duty is calling you and 
me. We have a date with destiny. Ready, the WACs are ready. Our hearts 
are steady, the world to set free. Service, we're in it heart and soul. 
Victory is our only goal. We love our country's honor, and we'll defend 
it against any foe.''
  Eventually the Army made use of her background as a French teacher, 
assigning her to teach English to freed French prisoners of war who had 
been held in Morocco. She was thrilled to teach the soldiers because 
they were excited to learn, unlike the high school students she taught 
before joining the Army. At the end of the war, the debate about women 
serving in the military continued. Brigadier General Bailey could have 
left, but by then she was married and making, as she recalled, ``a 
magnificent sum of $166.60 and 2/3 cents a month--much more than a

[[Page S10316]]

teacher's salary.'' She commanded a WAC attachment in the 98th General 
Hospital in Munich, where she was the highest ranking first lieutenant, 
male or female, in the European Command. She made first lieutenant 
within 6 months after she joined the service and had many great 
assignments that she described as ``wonderful assignments--but there 
were no promotions involved, because women weren't promoted.''
  Eventually General Bailey returned to the States where she was 
initially assigned to intelligence work in the Military District of 
Washington before reporting for duty as a recruiter in charge of 
recruiting women in the seven Southeastern States; including North 
Carolina. Recruiting was a turning point for Inez Bailey. She 
discovered she was a ``ham and loved being interviewed on television 
and making speeches.'' She led a team of recruiters who exhibited 
around the country with a program that highlighted the historic 
contributions of women in every branch of the military. The exhibit 
included Belle Boyd, a Confederate spy who was a captain and honorary 
aide de camp to GEN Stonewall Jackson. After recruiting, Brigadier 
General Bailey became the Army's Senate liaison. She said for the first 
few weeks, all she saw were the backs of the Senators' heads from the 
Senate galleries.
  After 29 years of service, she was assigned to Fort McClellan, AL, as 
the deputy commander of the training center. When General Westmoreland 
summoned her to Washington, she asked if the meeting could be postponed 
because she was involved in a theater production she didn't want to 
miss. All the while she thought, ``If General Westmoreland suggests I 
might be the new director of the Women's Army Corps, I'm just going to 
say no thank you. If I'm your first choice, then take the second 
choice.'' She didn't get a chance to argue when he told her she would 
be the new WAC director. She was needed because the Army needed to 
recruit more women. Under her tenure the number of women in the Army 
tripled; from 13,000 to 39,000. And for the first time, women were 
allowed to command men.
  She retired from the Army with the rank of brigadier general. Her 
military decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal and the 
Legion of Merit. General Bailey will be interred at Arlington National 
Cemetery on October 14. Her husband, Marine Sergeant Major Roy C. 
Bailey, died in a traffic accident in 1966.

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