Gail Offenbacher Lewis (b.1947) was born in Jacksonville, Oregon. Lewis volunteered as a “candy striper” at a nearby hospital and became intrigued by nursing. In 1964, she attended college at the University of Oregon and enrolled in their pre-nursing program. The next year Lewis continued her education at the University of Oregon school of Nursing in Portland. In 1966, while a sophomore in college, Lewis joined the United States Navy on a delayed enlistment program which paid for the remainder of her schooling and provided her with a monthly monetary stipend. Lewis was commissioned as an ensign upon the completion of her civilian education and attended nurse corps officer candidate school at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island. In 1968, Lewis was transferred to Naval Hospital Boston (Chelsea Naval Hospital) for further training. While in Boston, Lewis prepared corpsmen for their deployments to Vietnam. In the August of 1969 Lewis was assigned to Naval Base Guam, where she worked on osteopathic and triage units. As Guam served as a major medical stop for Da Nang Air Base, Vietnam, Lewis was able to care for servicemen within forty-eight hours of injury. Lewis met her future husband while on Guam—a naval fleet officer. In 1971, after eighteen months of service on Guam, Lewis was reassigned to Naval Hospital Bremerton, Washington. After marrying her husband, she moved to Virginia and transitioned into the United States Navy Reserve. She was assigned to the command of a non-medical reserve unit in Newport News, Virginia. After a number of years of service, and several commands, she returned to Medford, Oregon, where she continued her military service in the Oregon naval reserve. Her final duty station was at a fleet hospital near Seattle, Washington. In 1994, after twenty-eight years of service, Lewis was honorably discharged from the navy reserve as a captain.