Bg cornum biography

Born in Dayton, Ohio, Cornum started her military career in as an Army medical researcher. She completed medical school at the Uniformed Services University inand was quickly drawn to the combat field and aerospace medicine arenas. Her love of flight grew as she completed airborne, air assault and flight surgeon training. Her medical aviation research enhanced use of helmet mounted displays in advanced attack helicopters and in pilot performance.

She and her husband also built their own experimental aircraft by hand. After repatriation, Cornum became the first medical officer to graduate from Air Command and Staff College But, I wasn't always the "perfect kid. And I remember I'm standing in line to graduate, and I'm the national merit scholar kind, There was never any doubt in my mind.

I guess that was my message for myself, and I think it was a pretty good one. We had risk rules, and we had "no women in combat" kind of things. I think the standard was already set.

Bg cornum biography: Brig. Gen. (Dr.) Kory Cornum

This is what we expect people to do in these situations. I think all I did was demonstrate that women are just as likely to be able to achieve those standards as anyone else. And since we demonstrated that, then they had less justification for continuing to exclude women from those roles. So it was about two years after the Gulf War, that they opened up, for example, combat aircraft to women.

And they've done very well in Kosovo, and they've done very well in Afghanistan, and they've done very well in the Iraq war. Iraqi Freedom. So it's not even news any more that they're doing those missions. So I think if I had any contribution, it was helping to open some of those doors that were otherwise closed; and the POW experience, while unfortunate personally, was important.

Because that had been one of the reasons that people gave. Well, women, if they go to war, might get captured. Well, yes, they might, and we come out just like the guys who get captured. You know, you fix your broken bones, and you go back to work. I had some people who were very important to me.

Bg cornum biography: Rhonda L. Cornum (born October

Certainly my grandparents were an outstanding example, in terms of hard work, dedication, commitment, staying on task. I have great respect for what those guys did. Scholastically I think it must have been tenth grade. He was a chemist, he'd been an industrial chemist, and then came back and taught high school after that. And I was really excited by chemistry, it made sense, it was challenging One of the most fun things I got to do was help write the justification for him, then help deliver him getting the America Chemicals Society Teacher of the Year when I got back Because it was an opportunity to give back something to him.

I feel confident that if it had not been for that one experience, I could have gone down a way different path. I had no military experience, and really no military aspirations or knowledge until I was in graduate school, getting my Ph. Now, how I got into military medicine, I did research at Letterman for four years, and then wanted to do more clinical human research, and decided we better do that with an M.

I've worked at UCRAL, the Aero-medical Research Lab, and have gotten to do a lot of really cool things; but at the same time they encourage you to jump out of airplanes, and rappel out of helicopters Cornum retired on January 31, After her training in biochemistry, Cornum attended the Uniformed Services Universitythe national military medical school.

Bg cornum biography: Rhonda L. Cornum is a

During her studies, she met her future husband, Kory Cornum, who would have a parallel military career in the United States Air Force and also attain the rank of brigadier general. Her interests were focused on the human factors of flight. As a flight surgeon with the th Attack Helicopter Regimentthen-Major Cornum was aboard a Black Hawk helicopter on a search and rescue mission, looking for a downed F pilot, during the Gulf War.

Cornum was captured, made a prisoner of war POWand sexually assaulted by one of her Iraqi captors. In an interview with the New York TimesCornum said the sexual assault "ranks as unpleasant; that's all it ranks I asked myself, 'Is it going to prevent me from getting out of here? Is there a risk of death attached to it? Is it permanently disabling?

Is it permanently disfiguring? Lastly, is it excruciating? Tice of the Air Forcewho had a tooth explode from its socket when he was tortured with jolts of electricity. Initially, she did not mention this abuse, at the request of her chain of command, when first repatriated. She gave additional detail in her book.

Bg cornum biography: Born in Dayton, Ohio

Cornum resumed her military career after she returned to the United States. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version.