The Pointer Sisters win two Grammys 1985

 

My girls, the Pointer Sisters, won two Grammy Awards at the annual ceremony held February 26, 1985. Their song Automatic won Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices, arrangements by Ruth, June, and Anita.  Jump (For My Love) won Best Pop Performance for a Duo or Group with Vocal.  Their album Breakout should have won more Grammys in my opinion.  

This was a time when music was awesome!

Tina Turner won Record of the Year and Song of the Year for What's Love Got To Do With It.

Cyndi Lauper received the Grammy for Best New Artist.

"Weird Al" Yankovich won Best Comedy Recording for Eat It.

John Williams tied for Best Instrumental Composition for Olympic Fanfare and Theme the official music of the XXIII Olympiad.

The Judds won their first Grammy for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for Mama, He's Crazy.

Donna Summer won Best Inspirational Performance for Forgive Me.

Ray Parker, Jr. won Best Pop Instrumental Performance for the instrumental version of Ghostbusters.

The Pointer Sisters' "Automatic"

Celebrating Black History Month: Madeline Swegle, first African American female US Navy tactical jet pilot

 

Madeline Swegle, from Burke, Virginia, is the first African American woman to become a US Navy tactical jet pilot, July 7, 2020.  She graduated from the US Naval Academy in 2017. She completed her Tactical Air Strike pilot training in Kingsville, TX. 

Lt. Madeline Swegle

Celebrating Black History Month: Margaret Bailey, first African American Nurse Corps colonel

 

Margaret Bailey, born December 25, 1915 in Selma, Alabama, graduated from nursing school in 1938 and worked at Mercy Hospital in st. Petersburg, Florida, the only primary care facility for the black community. A year later, resigned her position and went to work at Seaview Hospital on Staten Island, New York, which specialized in tuberculosis treatment and was also non-segregated.

She joined the US Army Nurse Corps in June 1944 and was assigned to the "all-Negro unit" in the corps. She completed basic training at Fort Huachuca in Arizona and was commissioned second lieutenant. She was assigned to Florence, Arizona to care for German POWs.

After WWII, Bailey served in domestic and international facilities, such as France, Germany, and Japan.  she faced racism, but she advanced through the ranks.  She was promoted to captain in 1950 after completing a six-month psychiatric nursing course at Brooke Army Medical Center.

In July 1964, she was promoted to lieutenant colonel, becoming the first black nurse to achieve the rank. She was transferred to the 130th General Hospital in Chinon, France.  In 1966, she became the first chief nurse of the unit and the first black nurse to lead a non-segregated unit.

Bailey received the Army Commendation Medal in February 1969 and in January 1970, she became the first African American person to achieve the rank of colonel, the highest military rank possible within the United States Army Nurse Corps.

She retired from the Army in 1971 or 1972, and worked as a Consultant to the Surgeon General with a special responsibility to promote increased participation of minorities in the Army Nurse Corps. Throughout her lifetime, she was awarded the World War II Victory Medal, the American Campaign Medal, National Defense Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, and the Legion of Merit, the second hightest non-combat military award.

Bailey passed away in August 2014 in Washington DC, at the age of 98. 

Speech by Col. Margaret Bailey

Celebrating Black History Month: Ruth Lucas, first African American woman to become a colonel in the US Air Force

 

Ruth Lucas, born November 28, 1920 in Stamford, Connecticut, became the first African American woman in the US Air Force to be promoted to colonel.  She graduated from the Tuskegee University in Alabama in 1942.

Shorly after, she enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and was one of the first black women to attend the now Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. She transfered from the Army to the Air Force in 1947.

She was stationed at an Air Force base in Tokyo in the 1950s where she taught English to Japanese students. She received a master's degree in educational psychology from Columbia University in 1957.  

When Lucas was promoted to colonel in 1968, she was a general education and counseling services assistant in the office of the deputy assistant secretary of defense for education at the Pentagon. She retired from the Air Force in 1970. 

She passed away in March 2013 in Washington, DC.

A Tribute to Ruth Lucas

Celebrating Black History Month: Carl Brashear, first African American US Navy Master Diver

 

Carl Brashear, born January 19, 1931 in Tonieville, Kentucky, enlisted in the US Navy in February 1948, four months before President Truman desegregated the US military.  He graduated from the US Navy Diving and Salvage School in 1954, becoming the first black man to attend and graduate from the school, and one of the first African American divers in the US Navy.

During his career, he worked retrieving 16,000 rounds of annumnition that feel off a barge with had broken in half and sunk.  He also worked on salvaging airplanes and recovering multiple dead bodies from the sea. 

He was achieved the rank of Chief Petty Officer in 1959, and worked in Guam for three years doing mostly demolition dives. 

In 1966, he was dispatched to find and recover a nuclear bomb lost off the coast of Palomares, Spain after two US Air Force aircraft collided during an aerial refueling maneuver. During the recovery operations in March 1966, an accident with a lifting cable and pipe crushed Brashears' left leg, but doctors were unable to save it.  His lower left leg was eventually amputated.

Brashear recovered and rehabilitated from the amputation for almost a year.  In March 1967, he was assigned to the Harbor Clearance Unit Two, Diving School and in april 1968, he became the first amputee diver to be recertified as a US Navy diver.  In 1970, he became the first African American master diver.

He retired from the Navy in April 1979 as a Master Chief Petty Officer.  He passed away  from respiratory and heart failure in July 2006 in Portsmouth, Virginia.

Interview with Carl Brashear

"Grand Budapest Hotel" wins 4 Academy Awards 2015

Grand Budapest Hotel won four Academy Awards at the annual ceremony held February 22, 2015. The film had received nine nominations, the same as Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).  Grand Budapest Hotel won Best Music (Original Source), Best Production Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Costume Design.

The film received nominations for Best Picture, Best Directing for Wes Anderson, Best Writing (Original Screenplay), Best Film Editing, and Best Cinematography. 

Grand Budapest Hotel wins Oscar for Production Design

Sting and Steely Dan win Grammys 2001

 

Sting won his 16th Grammy Award and Steely Dan won their very first at the annual ceremony held February 21, 2001. 

Sting won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for his song She Walks the Earth.

Steely Dan won Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for Two Against Nature. The album was awaarded Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.  They also won Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for Cousin Dupree.  

John Williams won Best Instrumental Composition for The Theme from Angela's Ashes.

The Foo Fighters won Best Short Form Music Video for Learn to Fly. They also won Best Rock Album for There is Nothing Left to Lose.