Photo By Tech. Sgt. Garrett Cole | Capt. Carolyn C. Rice, commanding officer of U. S. Naval Hospital Yokosuka, speaks to...... read more read more
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YOKOSUKA, Japan (March 07, 2023) - “From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength, and love of the women who built America were as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well.”
-President Jimmy Carter, 1980
During a presidential proclamation in February 1980, President Carter designated March 2-8th, 1980 as national women's week. The proclamation was a part of a growing movement to recognize the achievements
and contributions of women across the nation. As the movement gained popularity, the proclamation was renewed by the president each year, until 1987, when congress passed Public Law 100-9, designating March 1987 the very first Women’s History Month (WHM), while also giving the president of the United States the authority to proclaim WHM each year.
Ever since President Carter’s first iconic proclamation, States all over the U.S. have added women’s history into the curriculum taught in their public education systems. But while the accomplishments of women are vast, the amazing history of women in the U.S. armed services might be less-known.
Ever since the inception of our armed forces over 200 years ago, women have played an integral role in safeguarding our nation and the freedoms we hold dear. Through each major conflict our nation has fought, women have played increasingly more integral and varied roles.
Even during the Revolutionary War, as colonial militias joined George Washington’s Continental Army, many of these soldiers’ wives, sisters, daughters, and mothers traveled alongside the Continental Army, where they boosted morale, mended clothes, tended to wounds, foraged for food, cooked, and cleaned both laundry and cannons. When the U.S. engaged in the Civil War, women began to serve as nurses on a much larger and more formal scale. Approximately 3,000 women served as nurses for the Union Army during that period in history.
During World War I, the United States Navy found a way to allow women to serve in non-commissioned officer and non-combat roles, enlisting around 12,000 women who served as yeomen, telephone and radio operators, and translators.
In 1948, three years after the end of World War II, President Harry S. Truman signed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act into law, officially allowing women to serve as full, permanent members of all branches of the armed forces. Two years later, the Korean War broke out, and over 120,000 women would go on to serve in active duty positions from 1950-1953, serving in non-combat roles such as military police officers or engineers. Military nurses would also continue to play a critical role during this time. Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH) were heavily used during the Korean War, providing fully functioning hospitals in combat zones, where many nurses worked.
During the Vietnam War, female service members worked as air traffic controllers, intelligence officers, and clerks, both at home and in Vietnam. In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson opened promotions for women to general and flag ranks, and in 1972, women were allowed to command units that included men.
In the Gulf War, more than 40,000 women deployed to combat zones, even though they could not serve in direct combat roles or assignments. In 1994, President Bill Clinton rescinded the “Risk Rule,” essentially allowing women to serve in all positions in the military except for direct ground combat roles. This allowed for many more women to still engage in combat as aviators, Sailors, airmen and other roles.
Today and throughout the 21st century, women have had many firsts: the first woman to become a Navy fighter pilot; the first female four-star general in the Army; and the first female rescue swimmer in the Coast Guard. There was even the first Silver Star awarded to a female soldier since World War II. Army Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester was awarded the military medal in recognition of her brave actions during an enemy ambush on her supply convoy in Iraq in 2005. She is also the first woman to ever receive the Silver Star for direct combat action.
These groundbreaking achievements have even paved the way for women to serve in direct combat roles. In 2013, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that the ban on women in combat would be lifted entirely, and that female service members would be allowed to serve in direct ground combat roles. In 2015, this was put into action. This historic change opened hundreds of thousands of jobs to women in the military and essentially ensured that as long as female service members completed the necessary training and requirements, they could now serve in almost any role in the U.S. Armed Forces.
As the history of women in the military clearly shows, female service members are a force to be reckoned with not only now but then. As each March comes to pass, and we look back on the roles women have played in the sciences, as doctors and teachers, and advancing our civil rights, we should not forgot the important role that they too have played as our nation’s defenders.
For more than 75 years, CFAY has provided, maintained, and operated base facilities and services in support of the U.S. 7th Fleet's forward deployed naval forces, tenant commands, and thousands of military and civilian personnel and their families.
| Date Taken: | 03.07.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 04.05.2023 21:22 |
| Story ID: | 442006 |
| Location: | YOKOSUKA, KANAGAWA, JP |
| Web Views: | 141 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, An Observance for Women’s History in the Military, by PO2 Erik Rivera, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
