Photo By Tech. Sgt. Kasey Phipps | Crowds begin to gather in the morning light at the Women in Military Service for...... read more read more
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WASHINGTON -- A host of women pushed past the crowds as they spilled through the doors of the D.C. metro car. As they waited to change metro lines, the diversity in race, age and appearance was striking – brunettes, blondes, redheads, short, tall, thin, athletic, talkative, quiet … Their entrance brought a slight hush wherever they went, not because of the variety or sheer size of the group, which was nearly 40 strong, but because of the one thing that united them – the uniform.
Donned head-to-toe in Army and Air Force service dress, the women traveled as a group to the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, a memorial that is oftentimes overlooked among the regimented white stones of Arlington National Ceremony and the other reverent memorials that sit across the Potomac River.
On an unseasonably warm October weekend, women from all branches of military service, from all eras of conflict and from all walks of life, gathered, Oct. 21, 2017, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original dedication of the memorial. The memorial, which was created by and for women, is the only one in the world to specifically honor the women who served and are serving with the U.S. Armed Forces.
“I think the memorial is important because it gives women from the past an opportunity to share with their families and women in the future an explanation of how we got to this point and where we (women) started in this journey,” said Air Force Staff Sgt. Jaimie Haase, a 137th Special Operations Security Forces Squadron Airman who attended the weekend. “To have a ceremony for the memorial like this is so amazing because it gives the younger generation, like me, an opportunity to hear stories from women who have served before me.”
The unofficial theme of the weekend, “changing the face of courage,” summarized the goal of both the memorial and the celebration – to capture the collective and individual stories of the courage of women in the U.S. Armed Forces.
For Haase, who has been in the U.S. Air Force for six years – four years active duty and the remaining two in the Oklahoma Air National Guard – the experience was inspirational.
“I would say it was very empowering,” she said. “There was such a feeling of awe. I have a better understanding of what women had to work for to get where we are at now, and that makes me feel very grateful.”
Army Col. Cynthia Tinkham, director of personnel for the Oklahoma National Guard, had a similar experience at the original dedication of the memorial 20 years ago.
“I was a young captain and really didn’t have any idea of what it was going to be like,” she recalled. “I knew we were coming here to see the museum, the memorial and the dedication. It ended up being just an awesome experience once we got here.”
Unlike the 70-degree weather this year, the dedication was chilly in 1997, Tinkham remembered. There was a variety of women there, some of whom have died in that 20-year span.
“All of the people, thousands of people, lined up in the street to the gateway … I mean some of them were still wearing the uniforms they wore 50, 60 years ago,” she said. “We had World War I and World War II veterans.”
Though serving before as nurses, cooks, laundresses, spies and even disguised as men, women weren’t officially allowed to join the military until the last two years of World War I. It wasn’t until 1948 that Congress passed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, which granted women permanent status in the military, subject to military authority and regulations and entitled to veteran benefits. However, it capped the number of women in the military to 2 percent and restricted women from combat and the rank of colonel and above.
In 1967, the 2-percent cap and rank restrictions were lifted. Also in 1967, Congress passed a law allowing women to serve in the National Guard, and the first Air Force woman was sworn into the Air National Guard in 1968. Shortly after, in 1971, women were allowed to serve in the Army National Guard and the U.S. Air Force’s Security Forces.
More recently, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter announced that all military roles were open to women, after more than 300,000 women had already served in war zones during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“There will be no exceptions,” Carter said at a news conference, Dec. 3, 2015. “They’ll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars, and lead infantry soldiers into combat. They'll be able to serve as Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps infantry, Air Force parajumpers and everything else that was previously open to only men.”
Since that announcement, two women became the first to graduate Army Ranger school in 2016, and just shy of a month before the WIMSA 20th anniversary, the first woman graduated the U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer course.
“So now, 20 years later, I’m here and a colonel,” Tinkham said returning to the memorial. “I’ve done a lot of things with the Oklahoma National Guard – deployment, different assignments and getting to see the progress of women. Now they’re leaving their own legacy.”
Haase saw the importance of the stories and legacies left behind by the women before her and is proud of her own ongoing story.
“I think women’s stories are important because it gives them a voice to tell where all of this began,” she said. “Women want to serve this country alongside men, and they proved that. I think my story is important now, because in the beginning, women could only be nurses. Now I am a security forces Airman with many other women who are also proud to wear this uniform and want to serve.”
Haase, who is a Florida native, deployed once to various locations in Africa for six months and has lived in Turkey and Germany. Joining the military was something she had wanted to do for a while, and it provided her with something that is more than just a story.
“I have wanted to be in the military since my sophomore year in high school, so to see myself accomplish that goal has meant a lot to me,” she said. “It has helped me provide for my family in ways people struggle with, like healthcare. It has also provided me the ability to see the world and experience different cultures.”
Now, Haase lives near Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, where her active-duty husband is stationed with the Air Force. They have two children, a four-year-old son, Mason, and a two-year-old daughter, Ily.
Haase hopes that, like the stories embodied by the memorial, her legacy of service and courage passes to her children, but especially Ily.
“I hope she sees and learns that there are no boundaries for her,” said Haase. “The whole world is hers, and she can do whatever she puts her mind to. A lot of my family doubted me and still are hesitant on women being in the military. I want her never to listen to anyone’s negativity, to always be her own person and to use doubt as a motivation to prove people wrong, like I think I have.”
Story was originally published on page 24 of the December 2017 issue of the "Air Observer." It may also be found at https://www.dvidshub.net/publication/issues/36849. This version differs from the one originally published in that "D.C" has been corrected to abide by the Associated Press Stylebook.
| Date Taken: | 10.21.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 12.11.2017 11:22 |
| Story ID: | 258216 |
| Location: | WASHINGTON D.C. , DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, US |
| Web Views: | 212 |
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