Nancy Leftenant-Colon (September 29, 1920 – January 8, 2025) became the first African American in the regular United States Army Nurse Corps in March 1948 after it was desegregated.

In January 1945 she was allowed to join the United States Army Nurse Corps as a Second Lieutenant reservist and was initially assigned to Lowell Hospital in Massachusetts.

Leftenant-Colon and a flight surgeon managed the delivery of the 3 pound weight premature baby at the air base and the child survived.

She was aboard the first medical evacuation flight into the French outpost during the battle of Dien Bien Phu.

[3] She reached the rank of major and in 1965 retired from the military and her post as Chief Nurse at McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey.