Adams_Fae

Adams_Fae

Fae Adams was born on June 13, 1918 in San Jose, California. She graduated from San Jose High School in 1936, and then attended University of California, Berkeley. She first majored in Physical Education before switching to the Pre-Med track. She never finished her degree, completing only 3 years before enlisting in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) out of financial need. She was part of the first enlisted in the newly formed Women's Army Corps after it's change from the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). She completed her basic training at Fort Ogelthorpe in Georgia before being assigned to ballistics research at Aberdeen Proving Groud in Maryland. Adams and her team were heavily involved in the chemistry of rocket launches. She was then commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and trained as a physical therapist at Lawson General Hospital in Atlanta and Emory University. She was transferred to Hawaii with the 9th Station Hospital, moved to Manila in the Philippines, then to Okinawa in late 1945, where she served as the primary physical therapist for acute injuries for 2 years. After the War, she enter the Army Reserves and used her GI Bill Benefits to attend the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia. She graduated in 1951, then re-entered the service as an Active Duty officer, still a First Lieutenant at the time, at Fort Crowder in Missouri. She became the first woman to serve as a doctor in the Regular Army Medical Corps in 1953, and was transferred to the OB-GYN department of Walter Reed Medical Center outside of Washington, DC for her residency. In 1957, Adams was transferred to Tokyo Army Hospital before re-entering the Army Reserves in 1960. She retired in 1973, and continued to work as a private OB-GYN in Albuquerque, NM.