College Student Unknowingly Becomes First Female Enlisted Infantry Soldier in Iowa

Taylor Patterson from the Iowa National Guard is a tough servicewoman making military history. The college student studying Animal Science enlisted in the Army National Guard to serve her country.

"I chose Infantry purely to show people that I could do what they thought I wasn't capable of doing," she stated.

She didn't know that her decision to enlist as an Infantry soldier was a first for a woman in Iowa.

"I was under the impression that I was like third or fourth. I was like, 'okay, cool. It's been done. There's going to be a little help along the way,'" she noted.

"Then I got to my unit, and they were like 'You're the first one in the state of Iowa.' I was shocked. I definitely thought there was others."

During her 22 weeks of Infantry training at Georgia's Fort Benning, Patterson says some of her male counterparts did not accept women in the military.

"There was a lot of the guys who we were training with who didn't think we should be there. They didn't think we were capable."

Patterson isn't the first in her family to choose military service. "My great grandfather served in WWII. My grandfather was in Vietnam, and me enlisting led to my little brother joining the National Guard," she said.

PFC Patterson feels the responsibility of being the first female 11-Bravo in the Iowa National Guard.

"I now have to carry this torch, it feels like. I'm really excited to do so and prove that females are just as able as the males are."

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