Veterans Day is nearly upon us, a time to reflect and honor those who have served in the United States Armed Forces.
Since the Revolutionary War, soldiers of Spanish or Latin American heritage have fought in every U.S. conflict. Recent data from the Department of Defense statistics show that Latinos make up 17 percent of active-duty service members with the Marine Corps having the highest percentage (23 percent) of Latino active-duty members.
To celebrate Veterans Day, which falls on Nov. 11 this year, LaVozColorado is honoring Latinas who have proudly served our country in the military and sacrificed so much. Here are some trailblazing Latinas who have played key contributions in the United States Armed Forces.
Carmen Contreas-Bozak
Carmen Contreas-Bozak was born in Puerto Rico and was the first Hispanic American to serve in the Women’s Army Corps. During World War II, the Army hired bilingual Hispanic women to fill assignments in fields like cryptology, communications, and interpretation.
Contreas-Bozak joined the Women’s Army Corps in 1942 and trained in Fort Lee, Virginia. She was eventually assigned to the Army Signal Corps in North Africa and sent and received coded messages between Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters in Algiers and the battlefield in Tunisia.
Contreas-Bozak was honored for her service, receiving the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, two Battle Stars, a World War II Victory Medal, an American Campaign Medal, a WAAC Service Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal during her military career.
Angela Salinas
A child of Mexican immigrants, Angela Salinas enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1974. Her 39-year military career included time spent as a legal services officer, commander, executive officer, and battalion operations officer.
In 1989, Major General Salinas assumed command of Recruiting Station Charleston, becoming the first woman in the Marine Corps to command a recruiting station. During the 1990s, she was responsible for the assignments of over 1,000 senior officers.
When Major General Salinas retired in 2013, she was the highest-ranking woman officer in the Marines.
Linda Garcia Cubero
Linda Garcia Cubero is of Mexican-American-Puerto Rican descent and was a member of the first class of women to graduate from the United States air Force Academy. She is also the first Hispanic woman to graduate from any service academy.
Cubero spent seven years in the Air Force serving as a commander brief and at The Pentagon. She was honored with a Joint Service Commendation Medal for her work with The Pentagon’s intelligence task force assigned to the Falkland Island conflict, a brief military conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982.
Cubero has also been honored with the 1991 Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Pioneer Award and served as a mentor to Hispanic Air Force cadets.
