THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Carolyn H. Becraft
“I never really had a plan. Doors opened and I walked through them.”
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Personnel Support, Families and Education. Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. A recipient of the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award; the National Military Family Association’s Annual Quality of Life Award; the American Logistics Association Distinguished Service Award; and the Office of the Secretary of Defense Outstanding Achievement Award. Played a large role in repealing discriminatory laws that prevented women in the military from engaging in combat. B.A. from the University of North Dakota and Master’s degree in Science Education from the University of Southern California.
Interviewed by Judy Waxman, Oral Historian, November 2024
More About Carolyn:
- Morgan Zipf-Meister interviews Carolyn Becraft about her role in repealing discriminatory laws that prevented women in the military from engaging in combat. July 2022
- Leadership and social change: Carolyn Becraft at TEDxGrandForks, March 2014
- The Carolyn Becraft Papers, University of North Dakota
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- The President’s Interagency Council on Women, Carolyn Becraft, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Department of the Navy Biography