Ola Mildred Rexroat

Captain Ola Mildred “Millie” Rexroat-McDonald was a remarkable woman whose legacy of service and achievement spanned several decades. She was born on August 29, 1917 in Ogden, Kansas to an American father Ulysses Stewart Rexroat (1869-1941) and a Lakota Native American mother Clara Peck Rexroat (1893-1989). She grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. After completing her education in Oklahoma and South Dakota, she worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and a company building airfields, before discovering her passion for aviation. Ola joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II and was the only Native American serving in the group. Later, she joined the US Air Force and spent most of her career as an air traffic controller, serving through the US Air Force Reserves and the Federal Aviation Administration. Her commitment to her community extended beyond her professional life, and she served as the president of the New Mexico Chapter of the North American Indian Women's Association. Her achievements were recognized with her induction into the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame in 2007 and the award of the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009. After her death on June 28 2017, the Ellsworth Air Force Base airfield operations building was renamed the “Millie Rexroat Building,” during a ceremony, Oct. 2, 2017 in her honor. See more at Ellsworth AFB airfield ops building renamed in honor of WASP.