[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 22, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S299]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 REMEMBERING DR. NANCY LEFTENANT-COLON

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on January 8, Dr. Nancy Leftenant-Colon, 
one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, and the first Black woman to serve 
in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps after its desegregation, passed away at 
the age of 104 in Amityville, NY.
  Known affectionately by those who loved her as ``Lefty,'' Dr. 
Leftenant-Colon always dreamed of being a nurse. Her family came to New 
York from South Carolina during the Great Migration with virtually 
nothing in their pockets. But they worked hard to make a living that 
provided Nancy and her siblings with opportunity.
  Dr. Leftenant-Colon graduated in 1941 from New York's Lincoln School 
of Nursing in the Bronx, the first school in the country to train Black 
women to become nurses. But when she tried to sign up for the Armed 
Forces, she was told that the military was not accepting Black nurses.
  Nevertheless, Dr. Leftenant-Colon persevered. In January 1945, she 
volunteered and was accepted into the Army Nurse Corps as a Reservist. 
She was given the rank of second lieutenant, and her first assignment 
was to Lowell General Hospital, Fort Devens, MA, where she treated 
wounded soldiers of World War II. In 1946, Dr. Leftenant-Colon was 
assigned to the 332nd Station Medical Group, Lockbourne Army Air Base--
now Rickenbacker Air Force Base--in Ohio. There, she teamed up with 
legendary flight surgeon and Tuskegee Airman Vance H. Marchbanks, Jr., 
where once they delivered and saved the life of a premature baby girl 
nobody thought would survive.
  Dr. Leftenant-Colon made history becoming the first Black woman 
integrated into the regular Army Nurse Corps. She was assigned at 
Lockbourne Army Air Field when President Harry Truman issued Executive 
Order 9981, abolishing segregation in the U.S. military.
  In July 1948, Leftenant-Colon was granted regular status in the Army 
Nurse Corps. Four years later, she became a flight nurse with the U.S. 
Air Force. It was in the Air Force that she married Reserve Captain 
Bayard Colon, who passed away in 1972.
  From 1953-1955, Major Leftenant-Colon was a flight nurse with the 
6481st Medical Air Evacuation Group, Tachikawa, Japan. During this 
time, she set up hospital wards in Japan and in active war zones. She 
was credited with saving many lives during the wars. She had to wait 
five years for her certification as a flight nurse. Major Leftenant-
Colon went on to an assignment as a flight nurse, evacuating French 
Legionnaires from the Dien Bien Pu Province, Vietnam. She was aboard 
the first medical evacuation flight into the defeated French outpost in 
Dien Bien Phu. Her final assignment was to McGuire Air Force Base, NJ, 
where Major Leftenant-Colon retired as chief nurse in 1965.
  Upon her retirement, Major Leftenant-Colon returned home, to her alma 
mater, Amityville High School, as the school nurse. She held that 
position from for 13 years. In 2018, Amityville High School authorities 
announced that a new media center was being constructed to commemorate 
the life and military service of Major Leftenant-Colon.
  Dr. Nancy Leftenant-Colon was a great American, and an outstanding, 
committed U.S. Army nurse who overcame unfair barriers and prejudice to 
help change the course of history.
  Here on the floor of the U.S. Senate, I extend my sincerest 
condolences to the family of Dr. Leftenant-Colon. We grieve for her 
passing. And we share in her family's enormous pride at everything that 
was accomplished by this great New Yorker and great American.

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