Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 10, 1993 TAG: 9311110476
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NICOLE L. KINSER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
These very special veterans are the women who served in defense of our nation. From the American Revolution to the present, the women in our military have a proud heritage - one that predates our democracy.
Women married to soldiers helped settle the frontier, traveling and living at various posts, suffering the same privations as their husbands. When
our united nation divided in 1861, so too did its women. They served in the forces of the Confederacy and of the Union, mostly as cooks and nurses. But some served as scouts and spies.
And we remember.
Gradually, the role of women began to change. In 1901, the Army Nurse Corps was established; in 1908, the Navy Nurse Corps. America first recruited women for military service during World War I. The first to enlist were Navy yeomen in March 1917. The first women Marine reservists enlisted in August 1918.
In 1917, Gen. John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, requested bilingual enlisted women to serve on the front lines as telephone operators. But the law allowed women to join the Army only as nurses. So 223 civilian women, known as "Hello Girls," volunteered to serve in England and France under contract with the Army's Signal Corps beginning in March 1918.
Of the others who volunteered for military service, about 10,000 were assigned in Europe. They had no rank, no benefits and no entitlements. At war's end, they returned quietly to civilian life. Forgotten? No. We remember.
The War Department had hoped to recruit 500,000 women during World War II. By the end of the war, 350,000 had served in the military. Only about 280,000 of them, however, remained in service.
Once in the military, women had other obstacles to overcome: They couldn't give orders to men; their ranks were different; their pay was less. Only the Army allowed them to serve overseas, and laws restricted the ranks of the directors and officers. Still, women served in a variety of specialties: transportation, maintenance, intelligence, communications, aviation, administration and training pilots and gunners. All the women were trained as noncombatants, though WACs overseas often served in hazardous zones. At war's end, nearly all women in service returned to civilian life, but as in no previous post-war period, a nucleus was allowed to remain on active duty: By 1947, these women numbered only 14,500 in the Army, Navy and Marine Corps.
In 1950, American women in military service were trained and ready when duty called them to Korea. Within four days after the first U.S. troops landed, Army nurses arrived at Pusan to set up a hospital and care for casualties. About 540 women served in Korea. And we remember.
"Herstory" continued during the Vietnam era. In March 1962, the first WAC officer served in Vietnam. In all, nearly 11,000 women served there, mostly as Army, Navy and Air force nurses. They didn't just hear about war. They saw, felt and lived it. Eight of them died in it. Their names are etched on the wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Thursday will be a special day for women who served America in Vietnam, when our nation dedicates a memorial to their service.
They served despite the hardships, the remote locations, the long hours. Would they do it again? Many did - most recently when their reserve units were called to active duty during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. And with them, we remember.
During the Vietnam era, women's roles continued to evolve. In 1967, Congress removed promotion restrictions, allowing women to become general officers. The 2 percent restriction on the number of regular Army WACs was removed. Then in June 1973, the entire military was significantly changed. No longer conscripted, the military became an all-volunteer force. While this was a new concept for men, it wasn't for women who served - they all had been volunteers from the outset.
The number of women in service began to grow. In 1974, Army women were assigned into branches previously occupied by men (except for infantry, armor and field artillery) but they were not promoted equally with their male counterparts. In 1976 - 200 years after Molly Pitcher, Sarah Fulton and Margaret Corbin had served in the military - 119 women were the first to enter the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, 81 to enter the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and 157 to enter the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
Military women now trained and served throughout the world - not as WACs, WAVEs and WAFs, but as soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen. Those who had doubted their capabilities were pleasantly surprised.
In 1990, this all-volunteer force of men and women faced its first large- scale challenge in the Persian Gulf War. This force was, for the most part, untested. Could they do the job? News magazines, cover after cover, examined the all-volunteer force and placed special scrutiny on the women, then nearly 11 percent of the entire force on active duty.
Not only did women withstand the microscopic scrutiny, they served professionally and withstood the blistering heat of summer and the cold, windy, dust-filled desert winters. They were there to deter war by being ready to wage it. And when Saddam Hussein failed to comply with the United Nations deadline, they, with their units, crossed the line in the sand.
About 3,800 Air Force women served in the desert. When the air campaign began, women Air Force pilots flew and crewed strategic transports, tactical transports, tankers, reconnaissance and aeromedical airlift aircraft.
When the ground war began, 26,000 Army women and 1,000 women Marines were there with their units. They served in the military police, intelligence, communications and civil affairs. They flew helicopters, drove trucks and operated Patriot missiles. One thousand Navy women were part of the campaign, serving on hospital ships, supply ships, repair ships, oilers and ammunition ships. They flew helicopters and reconnaissance aircraft and served in Navy construction battalions.
Nearly 35,000 women served. Fifteen died; four, all enlisted soldiers, were killed in action. Two, an Army truck driver and an Army flight surgeon, were taken prisoner.
But this you know. You saw them on television, in magazines and newspapers. You welcomed them home, and you mourned with those families whose loved ones made the supreme sacrifice died for our country. You were then a grateful nation. You recognized their professional commitment and patriotism. You remembered.
Today, the legacy of these women lives on. Their proud tradition doesn't end here. This spring a historic change in assignment policy occurred when combat aviation specialties and assignments on Navy combat ships were opened to women.
When we think of soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, we won't visualize only young men. We'll remember the young women who also dedicate their time, talents and their lives to protecting our nation. We will remember.
\ Nicole L. Kinser is public-affairs officer for the Radford Army Ammunition Plant.
by CNB