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SALT LAKE CITY — In 1974, when the Coast Guard changed its policies and allowed women to enlist, Thomasania Montgomery Leydsman made history when the U.S. Coast Guard commissioned her as the first African American women to enroll in Officer Candidate School.
Health problems forced her to graduate with the second class of female Officers. And in 1975, Leydsman became one of two African American women to graduate as commissioned Officers.
Leydsman, now a retired teacher from the Canyons School District, caressed her navy blue uniform.
"We wore the Navy's uniform," she said.
Navy uniforms were worn until 1975 when Hollywood fashion designer Edith Head debuted a uniform designed specifically for women in the U.S. Coast Guard.
"This meant a lot to me," said Leydsman, "because the gold strap says that you're an officer.
Leydsman savors the memory of her days as an Officer in the U.S. Coast guard. She enjoyed the fulfillment of going on rescue missions. One rescue mission that's etched on her heart involved saving a family from the sinking boat they were living on.
"They had lost their navigation," she explained. "We had a horrible storm going."
Leydsman recalled the family of six on that boat with parents, their two kids and grandparents.
"We really were there in the nick of time," she recalled. "They just rushed and hugged us and they thanked us over and over."
Leydsman was stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, soon after Officer Training School. She covered parts of the Atlantic Coast and did more than go on rescue missions.
"They used to joke that the Coast Guard was the last bastion of white male supremacy in the armed services," she laughed.
As one of only 28 women in the entire Coast Guard at the time, Leydsman's mission was also one of changing attitudes within the Guard. She traveled around the country teaching sensitivity training, helping the men in the U.S. Coast Guard to make the transition from an all-male working environment to a more integrated service unit.
"And whoa that was incredible," she said laughing. "They let us know that they didn't think we belonged at all."
Leydsman remembered not only discrimination as an African American, but more so as a woman within the U.S. Coast Guard.
"People who wanted to push back with our ethnicity were so overwhelmed with our gender," she said.
They used to joke that the Coast Guard was the last bastion of white male supremacy in the armed services.
–Thomasania Montgomery Leydsman
Leydsman inherited her fighting spirit and a legacy of service from her father, whose lifelong military career involved serving in the Army as a radar technician.
"When my dad enlisted in World War II, he knew that he was going to come back to an America where it was segregated," she said. "But he enlisted anyway."
Now she's passing that spirit on to her three children and grandchildren. Her son, Nicholas Leydsman, sat down with her to hear her stories of service during turbulent times in the United States and throughout the world.
"Thank you very much for serving our country," he said as he hugged his mother and smiled.
As Leydsman contemplated her past — humbled by the realization that she was a major part of changing military culture — she shares this message:
"It may not be the country that was fair to me growing up, but the ideals of this country are perfect ideals. And I think if you put into the system, eventually you will get something out of it."
This is a belief she wants today's youth to embrace and to also consider a career in the military.
"Semper paratus," she said. "I'll never ever regret my time in the Coast Guard."
