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Nancy Leftenant-Colon slides
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Barbara Bates Center for the Study of The History of Nursing [Contact Us] Claire Fagin Hall, 418 Curie Boulevard, Floor 2U, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4217
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Barbara Bates Center for the Study of The History of Nursing. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Nancy Carol Leftenant-Colon (1920, September 29- 2025, January 8) was born in Goose Creek, South Carolina and grew up on Long Island, NY. She later graduated from New York's Lincoln School of Nursing in 1941. She tried to sign up for the Armed Forces but was informed that the military was not accepting Black nurses. Leftenant-Colon persevered and in January 1945, she volunteered, and was accepted into the Army Nurse Corps as a reservist. Nurses of Color were not permitted into the regular Army at that time. She was given the rank of Second Lieutenant and her first assignment was to Lowell General Hospital, Fort Devens, Massachusetts where she treated World War II wounded. She and other Black nurses impressed the doctors due to their superior performance and they were promoted to First Lieutenant after only 11 months.
In 1946, Leftenant-Colon was assigned to the 332nd Station Medical Group, Lockbourne Army Air Base (now Rickenbacker Air Force Base), Ohio, where she was part of a medical unit attached to the 332nd Fighter Group, a unit of the U.S. Air Force comprising the first Black pilots, known as the Tuskegee Airmen. She became the first Black woman integrated into the regular Army Nurse Corps after President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981, abolishing segregation in the United States military in 1948. One year later, in 1949, the 332nd Fighter Group was deactivated at Lockbourne Air Force Base, ending the Tuskegee Airmen Experience.
Once the Tuskegee Airmen were disbanded, Leftenant-Colon switched services, joining the newly formed United States Air Force. She moved on to other assignments in support of the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War. From 1953-1955, Leftenant-Colon was a Flight Nurse with the 6481st Medical Air Evacuation Group, Tachikawa, Japan. During this time, she set up hospital wards in Japan and in active war zones. She was credited with saving many lives during the wars. She had to wait five years for her certification as a Flight Nurse and later went on to an assignment, as a Flight Nurse, evacuating French Legionnaires from the Dien Bien Phu Province, Vietnam. She was aboard the first medical evacuation flight into the defeated French outpost in Dien Bien Phu.
Her final assignment was to McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey where Major Leftenant-Colon retired as Chief Nurse in 1965. Upon her retirement, Leftenant-Colon returned to Amityville High School, Amityville, New York as the School Nurse from 1971 – 1984. She married Air Force reserve Captain Bayard K. Colon after retirement (d. 1972).
In 1989, Leftenant-Colon was the first woman elected to the office of National President, Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. (TAI). She also served as National Treasurer and First Vice President of TAI. Leftenant-Colon holds honorary degrees from the Tuskegee University and Mount Saint Vincent College.
Nancy Leftenant-Colon died on 2025, January 8 in Amityville, NY. She was 104.
Sources: https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/volume-171/issue-13/senate-section/article/S299-5 https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2025/01/23/nancy-leftenant-colon-dead/ https://tuskegeeairmen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Leftenant-Colon_Nancy_TA_Bio.pdf https://www.npr.org/2025/01/15/g-s1-42698/nancy-leftenant-colon-military-army-tuskegee-obituary
This collection consists of 19 Kodachrome 35 mm slides that were taken of Nancy Leftenant-Colon while station overseas in the military. These images from 1953-1955 depict Leftenant-Colon while in various military uniforms, in the field, and at informal social gatherings. A description of each slide is provided in this finding aid.
Purchased by Jessica Martucci, curator at the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing
The 19 Kodachrome 35 mm slides have been digitized by Center staff, but are not available online. Please contact the Center for additional information and access.
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Barbara Bates Center for the Study of The History of Nursing
- Finding Aid Author
- Jessica Clark
- Access Restrictions
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This collection is unrestricted.
- Use Restrictions
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Copyright restrictions may apply. Please contact the Center with requests for copying and for authorization to publish, quote or reproduce the material.
Collection Inventory
Five women sitting on unrolled camp sheets on the ground outside. In front of each of them are rolled up sleeping bags, pots, bags, military equipment, and backpacks. The woman second on the left is Nancy Leftenant, an African American woman. On the back: Kimpo, South Korea, K-14.
Four women in navy blue military pant uniforms posing by a sign for "1st Medical Laboratory Field, APO 971". On the back: Air EUAC Seoul, Korea, 1954, [left to right] Nurse Jahn Hupy 1/LT, N. Leftenant Capt [Nancy], Dorethea Smith 1/LT, Jan Graydanus 1/Lt.
Nancy Leftenant, an African American woman, dressed in blue military dress uniform, smiling towards to the camera while looking into the distance at a military outpost. On the back: "Air EUAC" Nurse N. Leftenant Capt [Nancy], Kimpo, South Korea, 1955.
Nancy Leftenant, an African American woman, in military fatigues standing with her backpack on outside a pitched tent in the woods. On the back: Kimpo, South Korea, K-14.
Nancy Leftenant, an African American woman, dressed in blue military uniform standing outside holding a certificate, posed and smiling at the camera.
Nancy Leftenant, an African American woman, dressed in military fatigues sitting on a backpack in the woods. Nearby a white man in military uniform smoking a cigarette sitting on his backpack looks at a map.
Nancy Leftenant, an African American woman, dressed in military fatigues sitting in the overgrown grass sharing Deleon's Thin Mints with a white woman in military fatigues also sitting on the ground. On the back: Kimpo, South Korea, K-14.
Nancy Leftenant, an African American woman, dressed in military fatigues sitting on the ground leaning back against her backpack.
Seven women in military fatigues sitting on the steps outside a brick building. Nancy Leftenant, an African American woman, is on the right.
Nancy Leftenant, an African American woman, dressed in military fatigues sitting on her oversized bag holding a tray of food. On the back: Kimpo, South Korea, K-14.
Nancy Leftenant, an African American woman, dressed in military fatigues standing outside a pitched dome military tent with backpacks on the ground. On the back: 1953.
One man and two women (one white and one African American) sitting at a counter drinking out of tea and coffee mugs. On the back: Informal Sunday afternoon, [left to right] Laddie Thomas 1/LT, Bethel Clark Capt, [N. Leftenant Capt], Tachikawa, Japan, 1955.
One African American woman in a white evening outfit leaning into white man in a brown suit, both smiling at the camera. One white woman in the background seated in conversation on a couch. On the back: [left to right] Cols Sayonara Party, me [Nancy Leftenant], Red, Jane Esser, 1955.
An African American woman standing in the blue military uniform in the woods next to a man in uniform crouching down to take a photograph of a person off camera. Other men in uniform can be seen in the background. On the back: Leftenant [right] and Marks.
Nancy Leftenant, an African American woman in nice casual clothing, smiling for the camera while outside near an incline railway.
A white man in a grey suit side hugging an African American woman in a white evening dress at a party, while posing and smiling for the camera. On the back: Cols Sayonara Party, [left to right] Col [Colonel] and me [Nancy Leftenant], T.O.C. [The Officers' Club], 1955.
Group of two women (one white in black evening dress and one African American in a white evening dress) and two men (one white in a brown suit and one white in white tux), posing for the camera with drinks in their hands. Second in on the right is Nancy Leftenant. On the back: 1 print 2 1/4 x 3 1/4.
Nancy Leftenant, an African American woman wearing a striped dress, standing outside a small building looking off distance. On the back: Tachikawa, Japan, 1954.
Nancy Leftenant, an African American woman in a nice dress smiling for the camera.