U.S. Army Air Force pilot badge owned by Lt. Louise Lomax

During World War II, Louise Lomax joined the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) as a 2nd Lieutenant in March 1943 with the help of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses and trained as a psychiatric nurse at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. By September 1943 she was stationed at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama, home of the Tuskegee Airmen. Pilot Badges were issued to Army Air Corps pilots, including the Tuskegee Airmen, after successfully completing pilot training. It is likely that Lt. Lomax owned this Pilot Badge as a personal souvenir of her time serving with the Tuskegee Airmen. While the term "Tuskegee Airmen" is often attributed to the famed African American pilots who trained at Tuskegee, the Tuskegee Airmen also included more than 10,000 Black men and women who supported the pilots, including nurses, civilian flight instructors, mechanics, cooks, supply personnel, and more.Lt. Lomax remained at Tuskegee during the war, where she was eventually promoted to 1st Lieutenant. For her war service she was awarded a World War II Victory Medal and an American Campaign Medal.