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First female 2-star dies

Maj. Gen. Jeanne Holm, the first woman in the Air Force to reach the rank of brigadier general and the first woman to make major general in any service branch, died Feb. 15 at age 88.

Holm was a prominent and tireless advocate for Air Force women.

She played a key role in eliminating restrictions on the number of women in the Air Force, expanding job and duty station assignments for women, and opening ROTC and service academies to women.

While Holm was director of Women in the Air Force from 1965 to 1973, the number of women in the service more than doubled, job and assignment opportunities expanded, and uniforms were modernized.

Holm wrote “Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution,” first published in 1982 and considered a seminal work on the subject.

Holm enlisted in the Army in 1942 and transferred to the Air Force in 1948. In 1952, she became the first woman to attend the Air Command and Staff School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

Holm was promoted to brigadier general July 16, 1971, and received her second star June 1, 1973.

After her retirement in 1975, Holm served in three presidential administrations: as special assistant on women for Gerald Ford, policy consultant for Jimmy Carter and chair of the Veterans Administration committee on women veterans for Ronald Reagan.