DIANE FRASER
United States Air Force
I was commissioned into the Air Force as a Second Lieutenant along with my husband on May 17th, 1975. I was one of the first five women to enter the Minute Man III missile career field. I was trained as a Combat Targeting Team Chief at Scott AFB, Illinois. As such, I had the responsibility of transporting the top-secret codes that programmed the target coordinates if the missile were to be launched.
I was stationed, along with my husband, at Minot, AFB, North Dakota. I had been in the field about a year when an IG team discovered that while I could do all my job responsibilities successfully, I was not tall enough to straddle silo opening while lowering my fifty-pound equipment case. During my initial training I was only asked to straddle the opening. In the field my team mate lowered the equipment while I performed maintenance checks of the diesel generator before entering the silo.
I cross trained into the Social Actions field and received training at Defense Race Relations Institute at Patrick AFB, Florida. I then returned to Minot where I was a Human Relations instructor for the Social Actions program.
Unfortunately, during this time, I became very ill with a blood disorder. I was also pregnant, and my daughter was born with this same blood disorder. As new very sick new mother with a very sick infant I felt I couldn’t continue to work. At that time, July of 1978, the Air Force allowed me to resign my commission.
I am proud of my service to my country in the Air Force. My greatest regret is that I couldn’t serve longer.