Only servicewoman on 29th UP Honor Flight honored
Ret. Col. Judith Anne Lisa (left), a decorated veteran of the United States Air Force who served from 1971 to 2000, was added to the Military Women's Memorial registry of servicewomen. Lisa was honored for her service during a ceremony on Wednesday. (Sophie Vogelmann | Daily Press)
U.S. Nurse Corps artifacts on display in the Military Women's Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. (Sophie Vogelmann | Daily Press)
Ret. Col. Judith Anne Lisa smiles at Ann Jousma Miller while arriving at the Military Women's Memorial. (Sophie Vogelmann | Daily Press)
Ret. Col. Judith Anne Lisa is welcomed home at the Delta County Airport after her trip on the 29th Upper Peninsula Honor Flight. (Sophie Vogelmann | Daily Press)
Ret. Col. Judith Anne Lisa (left), a decorated veteran of the United States Air Force who served from 1971 to 2000, was added to the Military Women's Memorial registry of servicewomen. Lisa was honored for her service during a ceremony on Wednesday. (Sophie Vogelmann | Daily Press)
U.S. Nurse Corps artifacts on display in the Military Women's Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. (Sophie Vogelmann | Daily Press)
Ret. Col. Judith Anne Lisa smiles at Ann Jousma Miller while arriving at the Military Women's Memorial. (Sophie Vogelmann | Daily Press)
Ret. Col. Judith Anne Lisa is welcomed home at the Delta County Airport after her trip on the 29th Upper Peninsula Honor Flight. (Sophie Vogelmann | Daily Press)
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- After decades of service, one Upper Peninsula veteran found herself in a place built to remember women like her. As one of 70 veterans traveling on the 29th Upper Peninsula Honor Flight, she was specially honored at the Military Women's Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.
Ret. Col. Judith “Judy” Anne Lisa is a decorated veteran of the United States Air Force who served from 1971 to 2000 as a dedicated member of the Nurse Corps.
A veteran of the Vietnam War, she is most notably recognized for her heroic role as a flight nurse during Operation Babylift in 1975. In Lisa's mission into Saigon, Vietnam, she helped evacuate and rescue hundreds of infants, children and refugees. She was stationed at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines at the time.
"The first flight in, they were using the C5 (aircraft), which was not usually used for people but for cargo, because they wanted to get so many people out of South Vietnam," Lisa said.
Lisa said there was an incidence where a C5 aircraft crashed, causing the service members to use the C130 aircraft from that point on.
"The missions that I flew were on the C130. (I flew) in and out for a whole month until we got everybody out that we could," Lisa added.
After Lisa retired from the Air Force in 2000, she continued working as a nurse before officially retiring in 2020. Lisa has been awarded two Meritorious Service Medals and two Air Force Commendation Medals for her service.
On Wednesday, Lisa was honored by the Military Women's Memorial, where she received a certificate commemorating her service after the memorial registered her name and service details into their national registry.
"We want to honor all three million women who have served our country from the very beginning, from the Revolutionary War," one staff member from the memorial said. "To date, our national registry has only 336,000 names out of three million. That means we are still missing 2.7 million women's stories that are lost or forgotten, that will never be told."
The Military Women's Memorial, a 501C3 nonprofit, is the nation's only major national memorial honoring all women who have defended America, beginning with the American Revolution.
Established in October 1997, it draws approximately 200,000 visitors each year.
The memorial has several collections displaying vintage artifacts, including newspaper clippings, photographs, uniforms and vintage posters or pamphlets detailing women's service during World War II, overseas with the military, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and more.
The memorial encourages servicewomen who are not yet registered to add their names to the memorial's registry. To register the name of a servicewoman from the past or present in the national registry with the Military Women's Memorial, visit womensmemorial.org/.
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Sophie Vogelmann can be reached at 906-786-2021, ext. 148, or svogelmann@dailypress.net.