I'm Dave Isay, founder of StoryCore.

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This week, we're going to hear stories about the military.

But we're going to focus on one branch you don't really hear about that often.

The US Coast Guard, which has been around for more than 200 years.

If you don't know, and I didn't, the Coast Guard protects the US shorelines.

But they didn't allow black women to join until 1944.

There was one woman in particular, Dr. Olivia Hooker, who was a black woman and said,

well, you know, if other women can join, I want to join also.

So Dr. Hooker was the first to join.

She actually recorded a story core interview before she died in 2018.

She was 103 years old.

One thing I've learned is that it's a good thing to follow and order.

But there are times when it makes sense not to follow and order.

Dr. Hooker was part of the first class of black women to join.

There were five of them.

Decades later, another group of five women changed history again.

I feel like we mirror that in some capacity and they paved the way for us to be the Fab

5.

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