Salem VA hospital renames women’s health clinic in honor of female veteran (copy) | Z-no-digital

The hospital’s women’s health clinic has existed for many years, but medical center director Rebecca Stackhouse said they wanted to take the time to formally honor James.

“She has been truly a pioneer in terms of female veterans and kind of a local hero for us and for everything that she’s accomplished,” Stackhouse said. “Being female, being African American, entering the service when she did, attaining the rank that she did is pretty much unheard of especially for women at that time.”

James was born in 1929 in Vinton and attended a Blacks-only, four-room schoolhouse. She was later bused to Salem to attend the former George Washington Carver High School.

After secondary school, she decided to follow her brother into the military. At age 20, she convinced her mother to sign papers allowing her to enlist in the Army.

She headed to Camp Lee, now called Fort Lee, a military base near Petersburg named for the Confederate general, during the latter days of Jim Crow discrimination. White women had four companies while black women had only one, meaning they had to wait 13 weeks before they could go into the service.

In 1953, James started as an administrative specialist at the New York Point of Embarkation. Previously, President Harry Truman had ordered the integration of the military and James was told she was sent to New York to “see what would happen if they put more Blacks in the company.”

James said the other women left their dirty dishes over the weekends. When she arrived on Monday mornings, she thought they expected her to clean them even though that wasn’t part of her job.

“They didn’t send me down there to be a maid,” she said. “I was tired of it. I put them in the trash.”

James left New York after a year and headed to Japan with her husband, a military policeman. When she arrived, she was the only African American in the Judge Advocate General section of the Far East Command.

She started at an E-3 ranked pay grade and by the time she left 30 months later she had been promoted to an E-6. She went on to work in Germany, New Jersey and Maryland and eventually earned the rank of E-8. After more than 22 years, she retired.

“The Army was going to send me for E-9 in Alabama, but the Lord told me not to go,” she said. “Alabama wasn’t big enough for me and George Wallace.”

James took a job at the Salem VA Medical Center for five years before she worked for the Federal Emergency Management Administration.

She’s been a patient at the VA hospital for more than 45 years.

Stackhouse said female veterans are the fastest growing demographic of veterans the hospital treats. Currently they serve more than 3,000 women.

Outside of the women’s health clinic, now named in her honor, James’ military uniform hangs in a glass case.

“Our female veterans aren’t immediately thought of because the military is still predominantly male, but their contributions to the armed services are special,” said Stackhouse.

We wanted to name it after a distinguished female veteran. When women access our clinic, they’ll be reminded that freedom is worth fighting for.”