Loretta Perfectus Walsh

Loretta Perfectus Walsh became the first American activeduty Navy woman, the first woman to enlist in the U.S. Navy, and the first woman allowed to serve as a woman in any of the United States armed forces, as anything other than as a nurse, when she enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve on March 17, 1917. Walsh subsequently became the first woman U.S. Navy petty officer when she was sworn in as Chief Yeoman on March 21, 1917.

Loretta Perfectus Walsh was born in 1896 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Source: Wikipedia