The Godfather of Soul, James Brown, may have sung, “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.”
Annie Menchaca-Bratton was an early female Latina military enlistee. Enlarge
But it was Tina Menchaca of Toledo who told her 19-year-old daughter, Annie, “A woman is just as strong, and can do anything she wants to do.”
At a time when women joining the military was still a rarity, Annie Menchaca took her mother’s advice to heart and joined the Ohio Air National Guard’s 180th Fighter Wing in 1978 — the first Latina to enlist there.
During her 35-year career she’s served in Panama, Kuwait, Japan, and Turkey, just to name a few places.
“Latinas in the military?” says the now 54-year-old Senior Master Sgt. Annie Menchaca-Bratton, who plans to retire in December. “There were hardly any women, period.
“It’s still very much a man’s world, but the opportunity for women now is remarkable. The military is still trying to learn to accommodate us. We’re still the minority.”
That’s changing. From 1973 to 2010, the number of active-duty enlisted women in the military has grown from about 42,000 to 167,000, according to a study by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about issues and trends shaping America and the world. READ MORE
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