THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Kathleen Bruyere, Capt., USN (Ret.)

February 5, 1944 – September 3, 2020

“We were told, there is nothing that women could not do. And we were expected to get out there and do it.”

A captain in the United States Navy. She was one of the twelve women named by Time magazine as Time Person of the Year in 1975, representing American women. The first female officer in the Navy to serve as the flag secretary to an admiral commanding an operational staff, 1975. One of six officers who sued the United States Secretary of the Navy and the United States Secretary of Defense over women being restricted from serving on combat aircraft and ships, 1977. This led to the 1948 Women’s Armed Services Integration Act being struck down as unconstitutional. Special assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations for women’s policy and helped prepare a 1987 study on sexism and career opportunities for women in the Navy. The following year became the New York Recruiting District’s first ever female executive officer.

Photo. Kathleen M. Bruyere, flag secretary and aide to RADM Allen E. Hill, Commander, Training Command, Pacific, talks on the telephone in her office at the fleet training center. February 12, 1976.