Katherine Elizabeth Raup Wilson Collection

Details

Who's responsible?: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries (Repository)
Where can I find more information?: https://uncg.as.atlas-sys.com/repositories/2/resources/1262
What's in the full collection?: April 2021 oral history transcript and copies of photographs.
Full biography: Katherine Elizabeth Raup Wilson (b. 1947) of Monticello, Utah, served as a missile maintenance officer in the United States Air Force from 1977-1981. Katherine Raup Wilson was born 29 September 1947, in Monticello, Utah. During her childhood her family moved often but lived in Hendersonville, North Carolina by the time Raup was in high school. She graduated from Hendersonville High School in 1965 and then enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). At UNCG she majored in French with a minor in Secondary Education with the goal of becoming a teacher. Raup graduated in 1969, and moved to Colorado Springs where she worked as a typist for an insurance company. Raup married and moved to Germany with her husband, who was in the air force at the time, and taught science classes on base. She moved back to Colorado and then to Panama where her husband was stationed. In Panama she worked as a civil servant on base. She joined the air force in June 1977 at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Wilson did her officer training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and then was stationed at F.E. Warren Air Force in Wyoming. Wilson did missile maintenance there for a few months before being formally trained at the Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois in January 1978. As a Missile Maintenance officer, Wilson learned how to supervise and repair missile systems. Wilson went back to F.E. Warren Air Base, then became a site maintenance officer of an electronics lab, then was sent to the logistic school at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio in 1978. After that Wilson came back to Wyoming and moved to the Strategic Missile Wing where she prepared programs and financial reports in 1979 before going went to missile maintenance as a section chief in 1978. Wilson remained there until she left the air force in 1981. After she left the air force Wilson stayed in Wyoming, first working at a small inventorâ€™s shop before working for the Secretary of State of Wyoming for a year in 1983.
Topics: Women's History
Military
Branch of service: Air Force
Conflict: Post-Vietnam, Panama, Grenada (1975-1989)
Subject headings: United States--History--1945-
United States. Air Force
Contributing Institution: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries

: Oral history interview with Katherine Elizabeth Raup Wilson; Primarily documents Katherine Raup Wilson's life in Greensboro and at UNCG. Wilson touches upon her college experience when UNCG became a co-educational institution in 1963. She also discusses her experience as one of the first white teachers to teach at Lincoln High School in Greensboro, North Carolina, a predominately black school. Wilson goes into detail about air force basic training and being one of the first women working in maintenance in the air force. Wilson also talks about some of the problems she had within the military like discrimination, strict hierarchy rules, and constant reassignments.

In collections

Women Veterans Historical Project

Katherine Elizabeth Raup Wilson Collection

In collections

Navigate

Sort your results

Narrow your results

Item type

Topics

Decade

Veteran conflict/era

Veteran service branch

In collection

Contributed by