Retired Major Clara Christine "Chris" Johnson talks about her life and education in Jackson, Mississippi and Chicago, Illinois and her service in the U.S. Air Force. Johnson says that the Air Force was one of the few employers to provide opportunities for young African-American women after she left school and that she enlisted in 1950 and was sent to San Antonio for training. She talks about her duty as a "float designer" in the Special Services Unit at the San Antonio Air Force Base and says that she later was accepted to Officer Candidate School and graduated in 1954. As an officer, she says that she served in Cheyenne, Wyoming and in Great Britain and then went through officer's flight training in 1963 in Amarillo, Texas and then worked with the Ground Electronic Engineering Installation Agency, where she managed the United States' ground radio and airborne radar communications throughout the country and abroad. Johnson says that she later served in Vietnam and describes her service there and says that she returned to the U.S. in June 1969 and retired from the Air Force in 1970. After her military career, Johnson says that she became a college professor and lobbyist for human rights. Ruth F. Stewart interviews Johnson.
Read
