Ann Coyer was born in August 1935 in Lowville, N.Y. Her service in the military started when she joined the United States Naval Reserve (USNR) in June 1961. She completed Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, and was commissioned as an ensign after basic training.
During her service, Coyer was stationed in Florida, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, New York, Virginia and Illinois. However, the most unique of Coyer’s stations was in October 1973 when she was the first military woman to be stationed in Antarctica for Operation Deep Freeze.
Coyer served at McMurdo Station in Antarctica as an administrative officer for the NAVWAR Space Field Activity (NSFA) program. The NSFA works to organize and coordinate naval space and warfare systems. The NSFA staff develop and organize research for national, joint and naval operations.
Antarctica was the harshest, most inhospitable terrains Coyer had encountered. Her issued parka and survival gear weighed a total of 50 pounds and was rated to protect against temperatures averaging 10 to 20 degrees on the warmest days. The wind chill would reach anywhere from -15 degrees to -45 degrees Fahrenheit with speeds up to 40 knots. Coyer described the landscape in a letter as “a cold and forbidding place consisting of five and half million square miles of land buried in ice and snow, reaching elevations of 14,000 feet.”
McMurdo was a small town that had a small community and fresh water pumped in from the sea and distilled to be potable. Navy personnel and residents were limited to one shower a week to conserve water. Coyer was the only military female serving in McMurdo, along with nine civilian female scientists amidst the 700 military and civilian personnel. She managed 35 yeomen, postal clerks and stewards. She stayed on the base until February 1974 when she was restationed in Davisville, R.I.
For her service, Coyer was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, three Navy Meritorious Unit Commendations, the National Defense Service Medal and the Antarctica Service Medal. Coyer was also commemorated with the establishment of “Coyer Point,” which was named in her honor on the southeast side of Antarctica. She retired from the Navy in 1984 as a lieutenant commander.
We honor her service.
