As March is Ladies’s Historical past Month, it appears acceptable to recollect the life and accomplishments of Susan Ahn Cuddy, a Korean American who would function the primary feminine Asian-American officer within the US Navy and would additionally develop into the primary feminine Navy gunnery teacher.
After leaving the Navy on the finish of World Conflict II, Cuddy additionally labored as an intelligence analyst and part chief on the Nationwide Safety Company and ran a assume tank through the Chilly Conflict. She labored on top-secret tasks for the Protection Division and supervised greater than 300 students and specialists in Russian affairs.
Susan Ahn was born in 1915 in Los Angeles, the eldest daughter of Dosan Ahn Changho and Helen Lee. Her mother and father have been the primary Korean married couple to immigrate to the US.
Japan had annexed Korea in 1901. Her father was one of many leaders of the Korean independence motion. On his return to Korea in 1926, he was arrested by the Japanese and died whereas incarcerated in 1938.
After the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor, Susan Ahn utilized to hitch the Ladies’s Reserve of the U.S. Naval Reserve – higher often known as the WAVES, which stood for Ladies Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. On the time, the U.S. was placing greater than 127,000 Japanese-Individuals into internment camps. Cuddy discovered later in life that her preliminary rejection by the Navy was due to her race.
She utilized for the second time, and in December 1942, she was accepted as an enlisted member. In 1943, she turned an teacher educating aviators methods to maneuver in an early cockpit simulator and later develop into a gunnery teacher.
An officer who acknowledged her skills really helpful her for officer coaching. After finishing the 90-day officer coaching course, she was commissioned as a WAVES officer.
With expertise as an aerial gunnery teacher, the Navy used her as a take a look at case. In November 1943, she was despatched to gunnery faculty in Pensacola, Florida, to coach on quite a lot of weapons. Upon commencement, she turned the primary feminine Navy gunnery officer. In January 1944, now-officer Susan Ahn was despatched to Atlantic Metropolis Naval Air Station to coach naval aviators on methods to hearth a .50-caliber machine gun.
By the point she turned a lieutenant, Susan Ahn had begun working with elite codebreakers on the Naval Intelligence Workplace, because of her skill to talk Korean. However individuals there have been nonetheless suspicious of her due to her race. She mentioned throughout an interview that considered one of her supervisors initially wouldn’t let her close to categorized paperwork. Finally, nonetheless, she proved her value and the workplace selected her to be its liaison with the Library of Congress.
After the battle ended, Susan Ahn joined what would develop into the Nationwide Safety Company (NSA). In her waning days with Navy intelligence, she met Chief Petty Officer Francis Cuddy, an Irish American code-breaker who additionally labored on issues pertaining to Korea’s independence. The 2 fell in love and married in April 1947. The pair lived in Virginia, however its legal guidelines on the time didn’t enable for interracial marriages, so that they held the marriage in Washington, D.C. Neither household accredited of the union at first.
The couple moved to Los Angeles in 1959 and had two kids; a daughter, Christine, and a son named Phillip. Along with managing a household restaurant, Susan Ahn Cuddy continued to assist the town’s rising Korean American group and labored to protect the historical past of her pioneering mother and father and different Korean immigrants.
She died in her sleep on June 24, 2015, at 100 years outdated.
Susan Ahn Cuddy, first feminine Asian American Officer, Gunnery Officer In United States Navy
