In the mid-1960s, Dr. Eve Kimball was the first female intern in the Army. She started her residency in pediatrics at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., while her husband did his residency there in internal medicine. She was honorably discharged after one year for disability — she was pregnant with their first child — and has worked as a civilian pediatrician in practices that serve military families.
Dr. Kimball’s second daughter, Maj. Catherine Kimball-Eayrs, is now chief of outpatient pediatrics at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. When I met her in March, she was pregnant, in her fatigues, with her own third child.
“I was really glad that she chose the military for her training,” her mother said. “I think she got better training — and is having a better experience now — than she would have in a civilian residency.”