"This is my country. The same reason that it is your country, it is mine. I was born here, and I fought for it." (01:01:01.0)

Rose Witherspoon Spence

War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: WAC (Women's Army Corps) Unit: Section D, 3014th Army Air Force Base Unit (AAFBU) Service Location: Douglas Air Force Base, Douglas, Arizona; San Antonio, Texas Rank: Corporal

Rose Witherspoon Spence was the granddaughter of a former slave and the daughter of an African-American minister, but more than that, she was a singular modern woman whose strong ties to history and family would not bind her solely to the role of wife and mother. "Tall and lanky," as she describes herself, she had an athlete's body that set her apart from her brothers and sisters, and she used her physical presence as an entrée into sports, playing basketball in college at Tennessee State University, and later in the Women's Army Corps, where she coached a women's basketball team. After the war, she became involved in the Civil Rights movement, and in the 1990's, she became a field officer in the effort to fund and construct The Women In Military Service For America Memorial, commonly known as The Women's Memorial, in Arlington, Virginia.