In 1955, the Chinese People's Liberation Army implemented the military rank system for the first time, and Li Zhen was awarded the rank of major general, becoming the only founding female general in the history of New China.
In the eighties and nineties of the last century, the People's Liberation Army restored the military rank system, and Nie Li, Zhong Yuzheng, Yang Junsheng, and Xu Lili were successively awarded the rank of lieutenant general or major general, but the general star was always a blank in the ranks of the people's air force, and in the new century, the Chinese people's air force finally had a female general, and she was the Liu Miqun we want to talk about.
What kind of life experience did General Liu Miqun have? Let's take a look.
In 1944, Liu Miqun was born in Yan'an, the holy land of the revolution, his father was the commander of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, that is, the later famous founding marshal Liu Bocheng, and his mother was Wang Ronghua, a female soldier of the older generation of the Red Army.
At that time, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression had reached a critical decisive stage, his father was busy with the war every day, Liu Miqun rarely had the opportunity to see him, in the next war of liberation, Liu Miqun also had to follow the troops to fight in the south and the north, it can be said that he experienced the baptism of war, saw the cruelty of war, and under the care of the party, Liu Miqun grew up strongly.
Every time he talks about his childhood experience, Liu Miqun remembers it vividly, saying:
"When I was only 4 years old when I was liberating the southwest with the army, I was sitting on my father's military jeep, and I often saw corpses lying on the hillside on both sides through the car window. At this time, my mother covered my eyes with her hands and did not let me see them, for fear that I would be frightened and have nightmares at night. Sometimes, my dad would cover my eyes, but every now and then his fingers would open to deliberately let me see outside. He said that children who grow up in the war should have this courage. ”
It was these childhood experiences that cultivated Liu Miqun's resolute character and extraordinary courage, and laid the foundation for her to later become a general of the Republic.
In 1963, 19-year-old Liu Miqun was admitted to Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, majoring in missiles and rocket engines.
In 1964, when the socialist education movement was launched in the countryside, Liu Miqun, who was studying at university, needed to go to the countryside to participate in the "social education" activities for eight months.
"My father asked me to go down and experience the thoughts and feelings of the working people, and he also pointed out very seriously that the children of cadres live a good life, and if they are separated from the masses for a long time, they will develop a bourgeois consciousness. He said that it was good to go to the countryside, and not to let people say that we were 'nobles in the red wall'. ”
In Liu Miqun's heart, there has always been a dream of joining the army, but the following political storm made Liu Miqun's wish unfulfilled until 1975, Liu Miqun finally obtained the qualification to join the army and entered a laboratory of the Air Force Command to engage in the technological innovation of ground-to-air missile weapons.
We all know that the work in the laboratory is very boring, and we have to face tens of thousands of mathematical and physical formulas and data every day, but Liu Miqun found joy in it, and with perseverance, he studied more than 8 million words of theoretical textbooks, professional materials, and a complete set of books on weapons systems by himself.
In May 1989, Liu Miqun was promoted to vice minister, and five years later, he was promoted to director of a certain department of the Air Force Command, becoming a female minister of the Air Force, and was awarded the rank of colonel in the Air Force.
For example, in 1996, when the People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducted a military exercise along the southeast coast, Liu Miqun not only came to the front line to take command, but also ate and lived with the soldiers of the troops.
In 1998, Liu Miqun was transferred to the Air Force Command College as vice president and became a senior cadre leader of the People's Liberation Army.
In July 2001, Liu Miqun was promoted to the rank of major general of the Air Force, becoming the first female general of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force.
Now Liu Miqun is an 80-year-old man, although she has left her job, she still pays attention to the construction and development of the motherland's military cause, and gives reasonable suggestions.