The Late General

I just discovered that a woman who was the third to reach the rank of General in the U.S. Army died this Summer. General Mildred C. Bailey was long retired, and was suffering from Alzheimer's, when she passed away at the age of 90 in Washington D.C. on July 18th. I never spoke to her, but I was fortunate enough to be present as a U.S. Army photographer in the Pentagon in 1971 when she was promoted to Brigadier General. There were a number of other photographers present, but through dumb luck, I somehow managed to get about the best photo when General William Westmoreland leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. That photo got me a commendation. For many years my memory of the event had her as the first woman promoted to General in the Army---and I'm sure I told the story that way to many people---but she was third. I mentioned the photo and the general this summer to Birmingham news reporter Kathy Kemp when she was writing a feature story about me. She used the photo in the story that was published on July 28 (it didn't make it to the online edition). I didn't know it at the time, but the General had died just ten days earlier, perhaps on the same day I was telling my story to Kathy! There was another connection with General Bailey that I found recently: she had served here in Alabama, during WWII, teaching English to the French pilots who were training at Craig Field in Selma, Alabama. Those who died during the training are buried here in Montgomery, and each year the French Consulate in Atlanta comes over to honor them. And she was Deputy Coommander of the training Center at Ft. McClellan near Anniston in 1970.