Fae Margaret Adams was born in San Jose, California, on June 13, 1918.
Fae Margaret Adams was born on June 13, 1918, in San Jose, California. Her birth came in the final months of World War I, an era in which women were only beginning to gain formal footholds in professions such as medicine and the military.
Little documented detail survives about her earliest childhood years, but she would go on to become one of the most significant female pioneers in United States military medical history. Her early life in California set the stage for a decades-long career that would span three major American wars — World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War — and culminate in a groundbreaking achievement as the first female physician to receive a regular commission in the U.S. Army.
Her longevity was itself remarkable: Adams lived to the age of 104, witnessing more than a century of dramatic change in women's roles in both medicine and the armed forces, changes she herself helped to bring about through her service and barrier-breaking career.