Daughter preserves and uplifts the service and achievement of military women from the past, present and future
By Lena Anthony
As a state ambassador for the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, Command Chief Warrant Officer Five for the Army Reserve (Retired) Phyllis Wilson was one of the first to hear about the organization’s search for a new president this past year. She also was one of the first to downplay her own qualifications for the role.
“I thought that’s the type of job retired generals applied for and got,” she said.
She wasn’t wrong to assume that. Brigadier General (Retired) Wilma Vaught served as the memorial’s president for 25 years before Major General (Retired) Dee McWilliams took over in the nonprofit’s top position. But a friend encouraged Chief Wilson to apply. “She told me it would always be that way until someone who isn’t a general applies,” recalled the member of Descendants of ’76 Chapter, Washington, D.C.
Still, it took a chance encounter with a fellow veteran in a grocery store parking lot to persuade her to apply.
“I parked in a spot reserved for veterans, and a man confronted me, certain that I hadn’t served,” she said. “We had a pleasant exchange, but I couldn’t shake it. Until the day comes that we can park at a veteran parking space and somebody only says thank you or just says nothing, then there’s still work to do.”
All in the Family
Chief Wilson just wrapped up her first year as president of the Women’s Memorial, which is both a physical monument located at the ceremonial entrance of Arlington Cemetery and a computerized database of military histories, photographs and individual stories of nearly 300,000 women who have courageously defended America throughout history, beginning with the American Revolution.
Chief Wilson’s military career started in 1981, when she was a college student struggling to pay her way through school. She then entered the Army as a military intelligence voice intercept operator. Her first assignment was helping translate dispatches from East Germany during the final years of the Cold War. Later, she served as an intelligence analyst during Operation Desert Storm and Operation Enduring Freedom.
While in the Army Reserve, Chief Wilson climbed the ranks as a warrant officer, or technical expert, in her designated field of intelligence. In 2012, she became the 5th Command Chief Warrant Officer for the entire Army Reserve, overseeing the training, education, career advancement and leadership development for the Reserve’s warrant officers. She retired in 2018—37 years after her first assignment.
Four of her eight children, plus one daughter-in-law, are active-duty servicemembers, and this legacy is a source of pride. Chief Wilson said one of the greatest moments of her career was pinning the Parachutist Badge (commonly known as jump wings) on her son Jeremy Kuryla’s uniform at his graduation ceremony. It’s an honor given only to family members who also are Airborne-qualified.
“Out of this class of 450 students, there were only seven or eight that were able to come up to be pinned by a family member,” she said. “I was the only woman up there, and all morning the other men were asking me why I was there. I’m standing in uniform, I’ve got my jump wings on, wasn’t it obvious?”
On another occasion, she was able to deliver the first salute to her stepson, Matthias Wilson, when he became a lieutenant. “I joked to him, ‘You don’t know how hard this is for me to do,’ but in reality that was one of the proudest moments of my life.”
Above and Beyond
While many reservists pursue civilian careers that overlap with their military positions, Chief Wilson chose to become a nurse. For 16 years, she was a nurse in a variety of settings, from the neonatal ICU all the way through geriatrics. Most recently she was a director of nursing in a long-term care nursing home.
“I have the softest spot in my heart for our elderly population,” she said. “They are walking history books, and if you take the time to talk to them, you will learn things you won’t read anywhere else.”
It’s a sentiment that translates well to her new role at the Women’s Memorial, which recently launched a national registration campaign with a goal to get 100,000 new women’s stories recorded in the register.
“Those stories are magnificent, and our history is not complete without them,” she said. “Our beautiful building at Arlington Cemetery could go away, but that database that tells these stories from the beginning of our country until today is really what the Women’s Memorial stands for.”
