Pioneers

It's not easy being first, breaking ground, blazing a trail, setting the example. It's easier to be a follower, to walk in someone else's footprints.
So, today I'm thankful for pioneers.

Imagine all the pioneers who made this moment possible in 1969.

Imagine being an Afghan woman who is a police officer.
Malalai Kakar was Afghanistan's most revered police woman. She was shot and killed by two men last September while driving to work with her teenage son who was also in the car. He survived. The Taliban announced they were responsible for her killing. She was the first woman police officer to return to work after the Taliban were ousted in 2001. She worked in Kandahar as the head of the department for crimes against women. She was a role model for women. She was 41 and had 6 children.
What a pioneer!

Imagine being the first woman to join the U.S. Navy.
Miss Loretta Perfectus Walsh was the first female Yeoman in the U.S. Navy. Doesn’t she have a great middle name? She was sworn in as a Chief Yeoman in 1917. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a photo of her. But I did find a photo of this pioneer.

Once a month I passed this portrait hanging in the halls of the Pentagon. Charlotte Winters was the last surviving female veteran of WWI. She and her sister Sophie enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1917. She died last year at the age of 109. She was a Yeoman Second Class in the Navy Reserve.

These women and many others made my service in the U.S. Navy possible.

Imagine walking 3,000 miles to start a new life and expand our country. Imagine cooking with buffalo dung. That's what is in the wheelbarrow in this photo. I'm thinking eeee-ew!

For those of you who are wondering, why pioneers?
On this date in 1847, the first Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley in Utah.
Utahns celebrate this day with parades, rodeos, BBQs, fireworks and even a day off, because today is an official state holiday.

happy pioneer day

Take a moment and think about the pioneers who made your life possible.