April 14, 2010

Ida Joe Brooks, one of the state’s earliest woman doctors, attempted to enlist in military service during World War I but was denied enrollment due to her gender. However, she was commissioned with a rank of surgeon in the U.S. Public Health Service and served as a consultant in psychiatry at Camp Pike, a military training camp near North Little Rock (Pulaski County). She is shown here in uniform at Camp Pike during the war.