Marcella Ann Ng (born July 24, 1956) was the first African American woman pilot in the United States Armed Forces.[1]
Marcella, born Marcella Ann Hayes, was born in 1956 in Mexico, Missouri. She was raised by her grandparents in Centralia, Missouri.[2] She graduated from Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri in 1974. She received her bachelor's degree in English from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1978. She initially wanted to become a doctor.[3] She joined the army in 1978. She is married to Dennis Ng and the couple has three children.[4]
Marcella joined the ROTC in her second semester of college, and joined the army in 1978 after graduating from college.[5] On November 27, 1979, at the U.S. Army Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, Alabama, she became the first black woman, and the 55th woman, to become a pilot in the United States Armed Forces. She went on to serve 22 years in the army, and retired in 2000 as a lieutenant colonel. In 2022 she was inducted into the University of Wisconsin-Madison Army ROTC Hall of Fame.[6]