
Two of the least-known roles played by Puerto Rican women and women of Puerto Rican descent have been that of soldier and that of revolutionary. This is a brief account of some the Puerto Rican women who have participated in military actions as members of either a political revolutionary movement or of the Armed Forces of the United States.

Mariana Bracetti Cuevas (1825–1903) was a patriot and leader of the Puerto Rico independence movement in the 1860s. She is attributed with having knitted the flag that was intended to be used as the national emblem of Puerto Rico in its attempt to overthrow the Spanish government on the island, and to establish the island as a sovereign republic. The attempted overthrow was the Grito de Lares, and Bracetti's creation became known as "The Flag of Lares." The flag's design was later adopted as the official flag of the municipality of Lares, Puerto Rico.
Blanca Canales was an educator and a Puerto Rican Nationalist. Canales joined the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party in 1931 and helped organize the Daughters of Freedom, the women's branch of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.

Marta Carcana is a former Adjutant General of the Puerto Rico National Guard, serving during the administration of Puerto Rican governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla from 2015 to 2017. She is the first woman to hold that billet.

Tech4 Carmen Contreras-Bozak, was the first Hispanic to serve in the U.S. Women's Army Corps (WAC) where she served as an interpreter and in numerous administrative positions.

Lieutenant Colonel Olga E. Custodio is a former United States Air Force officer who became the first female Hispanic U.S. military pilot. She was the first Hispanic woman to complete U.S. Air Force military pilot training. Upon retiring from the military, she became one of the first female Hispanic commercial airline captains.

Michelle Fraley is a retired military officer and was the Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police. Fraley is also the first Puerto Rican woman to graduate from West Point Military Academy and the first woman to hold the aforementioned post of superintendent. She is also the former chief of staff of the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command. Academically, Fraley holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Nova Southeastern University, a Master of Arts (M.A.) in International Relations and Affairs from Troy University, and a Ph.D. in organizational leadership from the University of Phoenix.

Rose Franco is a retired United States Marine Corps Warrant Officer. Originally from Puerto Rico, she is the first Hispanic woman to become a chief warrant officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Captain Linda Garcia Cubero is a former United States Air Force officer, of Mexican-American-Puerto Rican descent who in 1980 was a member of the first class of women to graduate from the United States Air Force Academy. She is the first Hispanic woman to graduate from any service academy.

PFC Carmen García Rosado is an educator, author and activist for the rights of women veterans who was among the first 200 Puerto Rican women to be recruited into the WAC's during World War II. Her book "LAS WACS-Participacion de la Mujer Boricua en la Segunda Guerra Mundial", is the first book to document the experiences of the first 200 Puerto Rican women who participated in said conflict as members of the armed forces of the United States.

Captain Hila Levy-Williams is an intelligence officer in the United States Air Force who was the first Puerto Rican to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship.

Second Lieutenant Carmen Maria Lozano Dumler, RN,, was one of the first Puerto Rican women to become a United States Army officer.

Captain María Inés Ortiz was the first American nurse to die in combat during Operation Iraqi Freedom and the first U.S. Army nurse to die in combat since the Vietnam War. The United States Army named the Forward Operating Base Prosperity clinic after her.

Sylvia Rexach, was a comedy scriptwriter, poet, singer and composer of boleros.

Marie Teresa Ríos, known as Tere Ríos, was an American writer and the author of the 1965 book The Fifteenth Pelican which was the basis for the 1960s Screen Gems television sitcom, The Flying Nun. Ríos was the mother of Humbert Roque Versace, the first U.S. Army prisoner of war in Southeast Asia awarded the Medal of Honor.
SPC Lizbeth Robles was the first Puerto Rican female soldier to die in combat when she perished in the Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Colonel Maritza Sáenz Ryan is a former United States Army officer, and head of the Department of Law at the United States Military Academy. She was the first woman and first Hispanic West Point graduate to serve as an academic department head.
Frances Marie Vega was a United States Army soldier who was killed in the Iraq War. She is the first female soldier of Puerto Rican descent to have died in combat in the Iraq War.
Brigadier General Irene M. Zoppi, a.k.a. Irene M. Zoppi-Rodríguez and "Ramba", is a United States Army Reserve officer serving as the Director, Army Reserve Engagement Cell & Deputy Commanding General - Reserve for U.S. Army South at Fort Sam, San Antonio, Texas; and former Deputy Commanding General – Support under the 200th Military Police Command at Fort Meade, Maryland. She is the first Puerto Rican female to reach the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Armed Forces. Zoppi has a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Maryland and is the recipient of the Maryland's Top 100 Women Award. As a civilian, she works as a Program Director for the National Intelligence University under the National Security Agency.