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Chattanoogan is the first woman in the state to enlist in once male-only Army combat unit
Alayna Becker’s earliest memories with her grandfather were crawling into his lap to hear stories of his days driving tanks in Vietnam and following him to his closet, where he showed her his neatly pressed Army uniform and a sword safely tucked away in its case.
Listening to his stories spiked her curiosity about the past and fueled her desire to enlist as soon as she was old enough to sign the papers with her mom.
As an athletic 17-year-old who never settled for being second or backed down from a dare, it was fitting that when she did enlist she became the first woman in Tennessee to sign up for an elite Army unit that was previously male-only.
After the federal government opened combat positions to women this spring, Becker said she knew she was up to the challenge to prove women could do just as well as men in the same role.
“I don’t like losing. I don’t lose,” she said. “I want to out-prove everyone, to prove I belong there.”