Brenda Terrell Formo of Greensboro, North Carolina, was born May 18th, 1946, in the Alamance Church community of southeastern Guilford County. She graduated from Page High School in 1964. She attended East Carolina University, where she graduated in 1968 with a degree in business administration.

Formo joined the United States Women’s Army Corps (WAC) as an officer in 1969. She received her basic officer training at Fort McClellan, and then was sent to Fort Benjamin-Harrison to the army finance school. Upon graduation from the program, Formo was appointed to the position of instructor of military accounting, and then subsequently was appointed head of military accounting instruction.

Now a captain, Formo’s next assignment was as a recruiter attached to Kansas City, where she was responsible for a territory spanning all of Kansas and half of Missouri. In 1976, her next posting was an area commander to the southeastern regional recruiting command in San Antonio, where she was responsible for area an spread across New Mexico, Louisiana, and Kansas. In 1977 Formo attended the finance officer advanced course in Indianapolis, Indiana, and was then assigned to be the pay and examination officer at Eighth Army Headquarter in Seoul, South Korea. She served in this position until July of 1978. While in Korea, Formo met her future husband and married him in October 1978 at Fort Belvoir in the Military District of Washington. While Fort Belvoir, Formo served as the deputy accounting officer for the Military District of Washington.

In 1982 Formo and her husband were next assigned to United States Army Garrison Heidelberg, Germany, where she served as the banking officer for the United States Army Europe in Germany. Formo’s son was born in 1983, while she was stationed in Germany. After leaving Germany, Formo attended the Armed Forces Staff College and was then assigned to the Defense Nuclear Agency as a finance and accounting officer. Formo’s next duty assignment was to the Office of the Inspector General, where she was promoted to the rank of colonel.

In 1991 she was assigned to army logistics, where she worked as chief of programming and budgeting and sat on a council of colonels for the pentagon. In this assignment, she participated in the first Gulf War. Formo retired from military service in 1993, and later worked for the Federal Aviation Administration and several civilian interests.