Oral history interview with Sherry Lynn Dodson Womack (Part 1)

Item description

Primarily documents the life of Sherry Lynn Dodson Womack and her service with the United States Army. Womack recalls the influence that participating in the Reserve Officer Training Corps during high school had on her aspirations to make being a combat medic in the United States Army a career, as well as her growing realization that she needed to be in a medical field where she could show others that somebody cared about them. Her memories of being a Physician's Assistant student include assisting with one of the first acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) cases, working alongside a transgender medical assistant, and experiencing sexual harassment and sexism from senior officers and doctors. Womack discusses her experiences as a woman in the military, including the limitations that some women may have when it comes to certain jobs, but how she never let her gender hinder her work and making a difference in peoples' lives. She also discusses her readjustment to civilian life after retirement; including the imperativeness of becoming involved with local communities because, as she believes, she can make just as much of a difference on the outside of the military as she did in it.