Arminta Harness Oral History
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Dublin Core
Title
Arminta Harness Oral History
Description
Lt. Col. Arminta Harness blazed a trail for women engineers in the Armed Forces during her 24 year career in the U.S. Air Force. Graduating with an aeronautical engineering degree from the University of Southern California in 1955, she became the Air Force's first woman engineer, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Her assignments varied in responsibility from designing intelligence-gathering equipment for the U-2 aircraft to providing management direction for the $2 billion Space and Missile Systems Organization budget.
As a lieutenant assigned to the Aerial Reconnaissance Laboratory at Wright Paterson Air Force Base, she was the first woman on orders as a test engineer during flight testing of experimental equipment, which she designed. In 1963 Harness was assigned to work on the Gemini manned space program at Air Force Space Systems. As a Major, she served as Deputy Chief of Engineering, and later, as Lieutenant Colonel, as Chief of Program Control for the $80 million Gemini Target Vehicle Program the unmanned spacecraft used as a docking target by the Gemini astronauts in space. It was during this assignment that she became the first woman to receive the specialty rating of Staff Development Engineer and the first woman to receive both Senior and Master Missileman Badges.
Harness' military awards include the National Defense Service Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, Joint Services Commendation Medal, and Air force Meritorious Service Medal. During her service, she was also recognized as a Fellow of the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering and received their 1971 Engineering Achievement Merit Award.
Harness joined Westinghouse Hanford Company in 1974 following retirement from military service. In her five years with the company, she was Technical Assistant to the company president and Manager of Laboratory Planning for their nuclear development lab. A Fellow Life Member of SWE, Harness served as its president from 1976 - 1978 and in many other leadership roles on the local and national level. Following her second retirement in 1979, Harness remained active in SWE. She is the designer of the SWE's Resnik Challenger Medal, given upon merit, to an engineer whose contributions have broadened the frontiers of space exploration.
As a lieutenant assigned to the Aerial Reconnaissance Laboratory at Wright Paterson Air Force Base, she was the first woman on orders as a test engineer during flight testing of experimental equipment, which she designed. In 1963 Harness was assigned to work on the Gemini manned space program at Air Force Space Systems. As a Major, she served as Deputy Chief of Engineering, and later, as Lieutenant Colonel, as Chief of Program Control for the $80 million Gemini Target Vehicle Program the unmanned spacecraft used as a docking target by the Gemini astronauts in space. It was during this assignment that she became the first woman to receive the specialty rating of Staff Development Engineer and the first woman to receive both Senior and Master Missileman Badges.
Harness' military awards include the National Defense Service Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, Joint Services Commendation Medal, and Air force Meritorious Service Medal. During her service, she was also recognized as a Fellow of the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering and received their 1971 Engineering Achievement Merit Award.
Harness joined Westinghouse Hanford Company in 1974 following retirement from military service. In her five years with the company, she was Technical Assistant to the company president and Manager of Laboratory Planning for their nuclear development lab. A Fellow Life Member of SWE, Harness served as its president from 1976 - 1978 and in many other leadership roles on the local and national level. Following her second retirement in 1979, Harness remained active in SWE. She is the designer of the SWE's Resnik Challenger Medal, given upon merit, to an engineer whose contributions have broadened the frontiers of space exploration.
Oral History Item
Interviewer
Lauren Kata
Interviewee
Harness, Arminta
Date Recorded
2003-05-01
Coverage
1930’s-present
Citation
“Arminta Harness Oral History,” Michigan Oral History Database, accessed October 23, 2024, http://www.database.michiganoha.org/items/show/301.