Near the end of the Vietnam War, as the U.S. military made policy changes allowing women to enlist and fill roles previously unavailable to them. These women were groundbreakers, pioneers, the van guard for many women who were to follow. Thomasania “Tommie” Montgomery Leydsman is one of those trailblazers.

Leydsman’s father was in the US Army who had a lifelong military career as a radar technician.  Leydsman inherited her fighting spirit and a legacy of service from her father, which gave her the tenacity to create change.

In 1974, when the United States Coast Guard changed its policies and began accepting women to its all-male force, Leydsman made history when she was commissioned as the first African American woman to enroll in Officer Candidate School. However, health problems forced her to graduate with the second class of female officers. In 1975, she became one of two African American women to graduate as commissioned officers. 

She remembered not only the discrimination she experienced as an African American, but more so as a woman within the Coast Guard. “People who wanted to push back with our ethnicity were so overwhelmed with our gender,” she said.

During this time, every woman was assigned an office job, either within the district or at headquarters. But when Leydsman received her orders, she became the first woman to be assigned to an operational unit; not an office. She was stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, where her unit covered domestic waters from the Carolinas to Florida. Another first for her was certifying to be an Officer of the Watch.

One rescue mission Leydsman supervised involved helping a family of six from the sinking boat they were living on. “We had a horrible storm going and they had lost their navigation,” she recalled. “We really were there in the nick of time.” The family was so grateful they expressed these feelings with hugs and many words of thanks.

As one of only 28 women in the entire Coast Guard at that time with noteworthy achievements, the Guard took notice. As one of only two female instructors, Leydsman traveled around the country teaching sensitivity training, helping the men in the U.S. Coast Guard to be a more integrated service unit. She played a major part in changing attitudes and the military culture. 

Leydsman decided to move her family to Utah where the Coast Guard was non-existent. To stay in the military, she would have to travel to the West coast for monthly duties. Not comfortable with leaving her children so often, she resigned from the service. 

“Semper paratus,” she said. “I’ll never ever regret my time in the Coast Guard.”