Susan Ahn Cuddy was the first female Asian American officer and the first female gunnery officer in the U.S. Navy.

Below is an excerpt from the video transcript:

SPEAKER 1: During World War II, some 350,000 women served in the United States Armed forces, with over 86,000 or roughly 25% serving in the Navy. While all of these women deserve to be remembered, today, we are highlighting the remarkable story of Susan Ahn Cuddy who was the first Asian-American female officer in the US Navy, and the first female gunnery officer.

Susan Ahn was born in 1915 to Ahn Chung-ho and Hye Ryeon, who had arrived in California in 1902 as some of the first Korean immigrants to the United States. Ahn’s parents were active in the Korean independence movement as Korea was occupied by Japan from 1910 through 1945. With her father, one of the most famous leaders, commonly known as Dosan. Growing up in Los Angeles, Ahn remembered her father telling her and her siblings to be very Good American citizens, and to never, never forget our Korean heritage.

After graduating high school, Ahn went to Los Angeles City College, and then San Diego State College. In 1938, her father Dosan died while in Japanese custody. After Pearl Harbor, it was only logical that Ahn continue her father’s struggle against the Japanese by joining the military. As she put it, it was one way to serve your family’s country and your own.

After the WAVES, or Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service was established in July 1942, Ahn went to join, but she was turned away for being Asian. As she later told an interviewer, we were unusual in those days, and we looked like the enemy. Undeterred, she reapplied and was accepted into the Navy in December 1942 as an enlisted WAVE.

At that time, the Navy had just set up a centralized recruit training center in Cedar Falls, Iowa for enlisted WAVES. Ahn was part of the first group of women to go through the 5 week training course there. Next, she went to Link training in Atlanta, Georgia to learn how to work with those early flight simulators. She graduated the training as a Petty officer third class specialist T or Navy instructor in March 1943. After being assigned to Naval Air Station Miami, Ahn worked as a link operator training pilots.

But while there, she was temporarily reassigned to be an aerial gunnery instructor, helping the air crews aim correctly at the moving targets. During this time, an officer also recommended Ahn for Officer training. So by the late summer of 1943, she headed to the US Naval reserve midshipman school at Smith college in Northampton, Massachusetts for a 90 day officer’s training course.

To watch the video and read the full transcript: https://www.britannica.com/video/Susan-Ahn-Cuddy-officer-US-Navy/-280020

Photo credit: Matthew Hilborn and Laura Orr—U.S. Navy/U.S. Department of Defense